Camp Hope and Ganthier

Photos - (Top: A handicapped latrine at Camp Hope. Many of the people living at Camp Hope have broken limbs or have undergone amputation. Middle: Child-friendly space at Camp Hope. Bottom: View from the Mountains in Ganthier.)

Yesterday, I went out to visit our Camp Hope in Fond Parisien near the border. The camp has grown to between 700 and 800 people, and we're expecting the arrival of 300 more people next week.

Camp Hope is across the street from some mountains. Yesterday, we went out into some of the remote communities in those mountains to see if there were people who had been affected by the earthquake. We've already visited some communities in this area - Ganthier - but we're the only organization meeting with people in this region.

We found that a lot of these villages have not actually been affected by the earthquake. But they are very poor and have some serious issues with clean water and sanitation. We'll be helping them create sanitation and water systems that will protect them from disease.

I think this brings up an important point about the relief effort in Haiti - a point that one might not necessarily think of. It's important that people who weren't directly affected by the quake still see some benefit from all this.

There should be a general sense of the rising tide lifting all. It's good for communities. And it's good for Haiti.

It's important in our role that we try to spread the blessings and use the resources we have to help as many people as we can.