In Haiti

My apologies for the lack of updates on this blog... have been focusing on my new website (check out Osman Consulting). However, thinking of keeping this blog as it complements the slightly more static website.

Anyways, I've left for Haiti following the recent destructive earthquake and thought I'd share some news from there:

Day one: 16 January 2010
What happened so far:

We have arrived safely alhamdullah (thank God), to Santo Domingo (Dominican Republic, next to Haiti). We have made some very relevant connections here; vehicles and drivers have been arranged to take us by road to Port-au-prince by road. We have been told that the road from the border to Port-au-prince is very unsafe due to looters and gangs. Unfortunately this is the only way available now to get to Haiti as quickly as possible (the airport in Haiti has been rendered all but useless and though emergency work is being done, it can't really be used at the moment). We will take all the necessary measures to keep safe. We had a very short team meeting to review plan and priorities.

Current Situation:
So far it seems to me it is very classic scenario: desperate needs for everything, shortage supplies, then very soon there will an oversupply of everything (sent with all the best intentions!). We have to thus be careful though when identifying an area for intervention.

The humanitarian community are still gathering themselves; aid workers are still pouring in every hour from all over the world. The presence of USA-based humanitarian agencies is obvious in this case (geographical proximity and historic relations obviously have to do with this). Priority at the moment is still for search and rescue effort which has been taken care of by governmental teams from USA, UK, UNDAC (United Nations Disaster Assessment & Coordination) and some other European countries (especially by sending military and other people who have special experience in such work). UNDAC have a presence at the Santo Domingo airport, apparently to facilitate humanitarian aid coming to Haiti via DHL and maybe others. The logistics cluster has yet to meet formally. I believe their presence is crucial at this point of time, both in Santo Domingo and Port-au-prince. I will send inquiries to WFP in this regard to learn about plans.

People here, especially the muslim community I have spoken with are gathering relief supplies from shops, supermarkets and houses and send them by road to Haiti on an ad hoc basis. Though this is again of course well-intended I pray it doesn't cause internal strife (e.g. due to jealousy) if not well targeted/ coordinated.

As for logistics: lots of supplies have came in by charter via USA, Panama and Dubai; the cost of such supply routes has become very expensive though, e.g. a charter flight carrying 72MT has gone from $250,000 on 14 January to $500,000 yesterday (15 January). These are good times the for private sector. I believe sending further supplies from Africa, Europe or Asia should be avoided, suggesting instead that most of the supplies should come from neighbouring countries (US and Latin America), both to limit transport costs and for environmental reasons.

Our plans and priorities:
- We are leaving now by road to Port–au- prince
- Establish a safe base for Islamic Relief (most likely UN reception camp at the airport)
- Establish reliable communications, especially with Islamic Relief Worldwide's Humanitarian Department (HD)), IR UK and and IR USA (main IR donors so far)
- Implement a quick impact project (any distribution)
- Send media materials to HD (to also share on within rest of IR family), IR UK, IR USA
- Will try to capture media opportunities for publicity to highlight humanitarian emergency (TV, radio,... etc [update 17 Jan: have e.g. done internview with BBC Arabic])
- Other things we could try to achieve

Note, due to the damage to the communications systems I may not be able to communicate regularly. It is, however, one of the top priorities for the team here.