Vital supplies reach Haiti
27 January 2010
By Gwenael Apollon, General Secretary, Haiti YMCA
January 27, 2010
On Sunday 24 January, Andres Fortunato, General Secretary of Dominican Republic YMCA, along with the Chair person of Dominican Republic YMCA and 12 other volunteers, arrived in Haiti with the first truck of supplies gathered through the support of our international partners. With their help we distributed food and other items at the site in Port-au-Prince where our YMCA had stood for eight years prior to the earthquake, and from where we ran all our community programmes for the benefit of the youth of this neighbourhood.
For the team in the Dominican Republic, the journey started the day before as they made the journey from Santa Domingo to the Haiti border. In the early hours of Sunday morning, Andres and his team drove into Haiti with their 20 foot truck full of relief goods, meeting us on the road ready to escort them into the city.
When we arrived at 9:30 am, our YMCA banner was already in place in front of the damaged YMCA centre, the tables had been arranged, and several people were already waiting for the distribution.
As soon as the truck arrived, 62 volunteers from the collective YMCAs started to work as one to unload the truck. Indeed, as staff, friends and youth group members worked together, we were able to forget for this short period of time our personal problems caused by the earthquake.
A long time friend of Haiti YMCA provided six police escorts to secure our guests and the much needed food and health supplies that they had so generously brought to the Haitian people. This was necessary as the crowd grew and at times were quite unruly.
By the time we had finished, 500 families from the YMCA community and people in need had been given boxes of food and first aid items. Boxes were also given to nearby orphanages and sent to our youth centre in Kenscoff, which is currently sheltering people who were left homeless by the earthquake.
Before Andres and his team returned to the Dominican Republic, we shook hands and embraced each other with the feeling of joy that one feels when one knows that the effort was worth it.
It is hoped that a second convoy will be arranged in the near future. We requested tents, sleeping bags, folding cots, mattresses, tarpaulin, sheets, and linen, in addition to food.
YMCA Haiti is very grateful to Y Care International, and everyone involved in this distribution effort. As the country is slowly awakening from this nightmare, our greatest wish at the YMCA is to find a place as soon as possible to resume our activities and start receiving our youth who are now on the streets with little or no support.
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