Suncere Ali Shakur on Grass Roots Aid for Haiti
For quick updates go to Mutual Aid Disaster Relief here. Mass population relocation planned for Haiti. See initial BBC report here. They are moving people now, and told press the intention is to move 400,000 from Port au Prince to relocation centers, tent cities, but the tents are said to hold 10,000 people.. they will not apparently be individual ones, and they are not yet set up. Questions remain about the way this relocation will impact Haitians, but the concerns as explained to press are that 1.) they are trying to prevent an epidemic. 2. security: "Security concerns are also limiting the delivery of aid by road from the Dominican Republic. The BBC's Gary Duffy, who is at the border with Haiti, says only two convoys guarded by UN troops are entering Haiti each day". 3. May will bring the seasonal rains. MORE below..
This week's Talk Nation Radio is a first report from a new group with a history of success in New Orleans as Common Ground. For Haiti they have formed a collective of ad hoc organizations.
We hear about the urgently needed grass roots medical and food aid efforts by some of same people who went into New Orleans in 2005 to help the most poor victims of Hurricane Katrina.
Their first team into Port au Prince is already working to give out aid and provide medical support. A second group is waiting in the wings, and there are more groups preparing to go. They will help the Haitian people through ad hoc people's aid efforts as they network and build solidarity from the USA to Haiti and back. Produced by Dori Smith
TRT: 29:31
Download at Pacifica's Audioport here if you are a member or free at Radio4all.net and Archive.org.
See also big concert organized by Being Able to Move Heaven and Earth for Haiti in North Carolina.
For information on helping Haitian earthquake victims contact:
Suncere Ali Shakur 828-776-0062
Mutual Aid Disaster Relief in Haiti
$21b in restitution, not charity
Mutual Aid Disaster Relief in Haiti and Being Able to Move Heaven and Earth for Haiti are ad-hoc organizations that are currently deploying highly mobile medical teams and shipping containers in order to skirt disaster politics and reach community contacts in places that other aid structures declare unsafe or not secured.
Support Mutual Aid Disaster Relief in Haiti! Donations may be made by PayPal, check, or wire transfer.
Checks can be made out to: Artistic Evolution Inc///Dedicated Haiti Relief Account (Mutual Aid's 501c3 fiscal sponsor). Please write "Mutual Aid Disaster Relief" in the memo so we can invoice donations. Mail checks to Artistic Evolution Inc c/o 3rd Ward - 195 Morgan Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11206
"In overthrowing me, you have cut down in San Domingo only the trunk of the tree of black liberty. It will spring up again by the roots for they are numerous and deep." -Toussaint l’Ouverture
Your donation will be tax deductible, and 100% of money raised will go directly to providing relief for the people of Haiti.
Related links here infoshop.org What's Related
* Mutual Aid Disaster Relief more on URL link above "infoshop".
BBC STORY January 22, 2010, Haiti to relocate 400,000 homeless outside capital
Aid delivery is being ever more tightly controlled by the US Military. The US hospital ship Comfort, has been able to treat some 200 patients, however, groups like Doctors without Borders have been providing care to far more than that. The BBC report of 1/22/10 states: "Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) has said five of its planes carrying a total of 77 tonnes of medical and relief supplies have been turned away in the past week. Only one has been able to land".
Concern is growing as Haiti's government begins to announce plans for survivors of the earthquake. In the 1/22 story, the photo is of the Haitian President with the UN Secretary General, and the message being sent is that the government and UN will be taking over once the U.S. Military gets things "under control". We hear about the way this "control" was not was was needed, at least not initially, as Haitians needed humanitarian assistance that would keep them alive first, rescue, medicine, food and water. Doctors without Borders has criticized the U.S. Military operation.
