REGIONAL nongovernmental organisation Panos Caribbean, with its head office and projects in Haiti, has been hard hit by the recent earthquake in the French-speaking country.

“The entire Panos Caribbean staff is struggling to cope with the effects of the quake,” said Jan Voordouw, executive director of the information agency, which has as its focus issues of the environment, health, gender, and child rights.

Panos opened offices in Haiti 15 years ago and in Jamaica in 2005.

The quake severely damaged the main office building in Port-au-Prince, along with several of their files. And while none of its nine staff members lost their lives, two of their number lost close family members. Financial director Lucien Saint Louis lost his wife Erlande, who died from injuries she sustained when the gymnasium she was exercising in at the time of the quake collapsed. His daughter, 11, who was in the building with her mother, survived but not without injury. She was hit on the head by falling debris. Isidor Cherenfant, the agency’s former webmaster, lost both his parents.

Two staff members have since left Haiti while others are thinking of relocating due to the loss of their homes, as well as the loss of schools which has made it impossible for their children to resume their education.

“All staff is traumatised to a certain degree,” said Voordouw, who recently returned from Haiti. “Many aftershocks were still going on when I left the country. People are tense and afraid of buildings. People do not sleep well and most Panos Haiti staff sleep outside.”

He added that Panos Caribbean, with assistance from other Panos institutes, is providing direct emergency support to staff, but more help is needed.

“We have ensured supplies of food, water and some cash to staff members. If one has cash, one can buy food, even in Port-au-Prince. The banks, which were not badly damaged (mainly those in Petionville), reopened on Saturday, January 24. We should be able to send additional funds to our team when needed from Jamaica or Washington DC,” Voordouw said. “We need at least four tents and other staff may need tents as well, in view of the psychological need to sleep outside. The weather has been dry till now, but this may change of course.”

The agency’s main office located in Port au Prince, is still standing, but severely damaged.

“The office building was severely damaged. The ground floor has partly collapsed and the building has major cracks in many parts. It may collapse any time. The building currently threatens to fall on a neighbour’s house, but the neighbours have evacuated,” Voordouw said.

Fortunately, no staff was in the office at the time the magnitude-7.0 earthquake struck on January 12.

An employee of HelpAge International, a regional NGO which shared office space with Panos, also escaped major injuries. However, a number of other Panos’ development partners suffered significant losses in the earthquake.

“Many organisations have not been as lucky as Panos. The Association for National Solidarity, an organisation of people infected and affected by HIV and AIDS, lost two staff members, both long associated with Panos when we shared offices from 1999 – 2002. Another organisation in the field of HIV and AIDS was also severely affected and some of its staff is still missing. They shared offices with Panos between 2006 and 2009. The Haitian Movement for Rural Development shared offices with Panos Caribbean in Haiti between 2002 and 2005; they are now based on Jacmel and had no deaths,” Voordouw revealed.

Notwithstanding the disaster, Panos’ operations in Haiti are continuing. The organisation is currently looking for a suitable building to permanently or temporarily set up office to support its media production, capacity-building and administrative operations.

One of Panos Caribbean’s main priorities is assisting regional media to report on the situation in Haiti from a development perspective.

“There are many stories to be told by Haitians and journalists need to be there to hear them and tell them to the world. Haiti’s road to recovery will be long and the task of reporting this is far from over. However, regional media need to be properly sensitised and equipped to report on such a large-scale disaster and the wide range of development issues which are associated with it. Panos will be working with its partners to see how best we can assist journalists in the region to do this,” Voordouw said.

— Panos Caribbean