After the quake, steps towards normalcy

Daniela Bercovitch contributed

When the January 12th quake hit Haiti, it changed the course of so many lives, creating a new reality defined especially by emergency and solidarity in the nation. It was not any different for Kay Nou (Our House in Creole) headquarters of the Honor and Respect for Bel-Air, a project dedicated to improving the lives of Haitians in a large area in the periphery of Port-au-Prince, conducted by the Brazilian NGO Viva Rio. Kay Nou was transformed, like so many other places, into a makeshift camp for those in need of shelter.

Immediately after the disaster, Kay Nou was home for over 400 families. Three months after the quake, there was a need to go back to work on the long term projects in the city, and a process was begun to enable a resumption of the course that had been charted before the quake, and after successful negotiations, the families left the area voluntarily.

The camp

After the quake Kay Nou became one of the most organized and best structured camps in Port-au-Prince: a veritable complex offering care to the victims of a disaster that took the lives of over 200 thousand people and injured millions.

According to anthropologist Pedro Silveira, from Rio de Janeiro Federal University’s Museu Nacional, Kay Nou was the best camp in the Haitian capital. “From the moment it was officially considered a camp, it was the best. We offered water, food, medical assistance and work in an organized manner,” said Pedro Silveira..

Aid was initially offered primarily by the Community Protection Brigade, a group made up of men and women trained for emergency situations to protect vulnerable groups and for conflict mediation, a part of their training that would later prove key for negotiations.Tents were at first improvised with bedsheets. Five days later equipment and drinking water arrived, along with food, material for hygiene, medical and psychosocial attention, as well as tents donated by the Norwegian Church Aid (NCA).

“The Brigade worked tirelessly to help us, offering first aid and helping Brazilian firemen rescue those injured or remove the dead from underneath the wreckage, even though the necessary equipment was lacking,” said Freda Louis and Georges Jose, a couple from Portail St. Joseph in Gran Bel-Air, who took shelter in Kay Nous after losing their home in the quake.

Capoeira classes resumed

Pedro Silveira was in Haiti the day of the quake and spent the next months helping tend to quake victims. “Everyone’s work responded to the needs as they arose in a changing situation, we all did a little of everything, since there were no predetermined roles for us.” Since he speaks Creole, Silveira worked with the Community Protection Brigade, and it was his responsibility to set up the camp. “We designed the camp with corridors and lined the tents up. Quake victims helped us set up the tents,” said Silveira.

Kay Nou was able to continue to offer the Capoeira classes of the Gingando pela Paz, project, according to Ubiratan Ângelo, a retired Military Police Colonel from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Ângelo has been a security consultant for Viva Rio in Haiti since 2008, and is responsible for organizing the Community Protection Brigade. “Kids and youths were able to continue taking their capoeira classes adapted to the emergency situation. Kay Nou was one of the few places that made that possible, as well as offering some hope of temporary work and job opportunities, such as commerce inside the camp,” said Ângelo.

Apart from tending to quake victims and families, Kay Nou was also surveyed. The first survey was carried out the fourth week after the earthquake, and the second two months after the camp was consolidated. According to Myrtho Ledesir (photo) Community Protection Brigade chief, there were between 350 and 400 families in Kay Nou. “There was a fixed population of 1,800 people,” said Ledesir, adding that often census takers had to work at dawn, since so many members of the camp would use it as a dormitory.

Kay Nou was a different kind of place and the fact it was one of the best camps in Port-au-Prince attracted people from other places in the city. It became a reference point for Haitians and precisely for that reason, spurred concerns with swiftly resuming the “Honor and Respect for Bel-Air” project, bringing up the issue of how to recover the physical area of Kay Nou necessary for carrying out the project. “The presence of the families became an obstacle, but on the other hand, it was impossible to simply remove them, and would not be fair to them,” said Silveira.

The agreement

Once the decision to resume normal activities at Kay Nou was taken, a detailed plan was created to make an agreement possible. “The strategy was to explain, clearly and simply, the problems and subsequent damages to Viva Rio projects entailed in keeping the camp at Kay Nou, and how it was needed for the benefit of the communities they served,” explained Ângelo.

All the heads of the families at the camp were called to a meeting and they came up with the terms of an agreement. Each family would be given the tent in which they lived as well as material to help them maintain themselves for three months. “We made a cash-for-work agreement with the United Nations’ Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs- OCHA that promised help in removing debris for those families that returned to their homes,” said Rubem César Fernandes, executive director of Viva Rio.

It was also agreed that one child from each family would have the right to a year’s scholarship from the Tambor Lapè project at a school of the family’s choice. Another point of the agreement stipulated that children up to the age of two and their mothers would be given special medical attention.

The negotiation set a deadline for the families to move out by April 10th. “We thought we would face many problems during the process,” said the colonel. But to everyone’s surprise, on morning of the 4th of April the camp was empty. “In a single day about 1,700 people moved out of the camp, approximately 80% of the quake victims had left,” said Pedro Silveira.

"We had to go out and look for them"

“Our intention was to spend time informing members of the Kay Nou camp, but they left so quickly we were not able to finish our work,” said Myrtho Ledesir.

The prompt and voluntary exit of the members of the camp meant there had not been enough time for the project to register them, and this could mean a problem in complying with the agreement. “Only a few families had left us their contact information, and because of that we had to go out and look for them,” said Silveira.

A team from Kay Nou tried to contact a few of the former members of the camp in April. Some families returned to ask for the rights promised under the agreement. “At first there were 50 families, half an hour later there were 300. At first I was concerned because it felt like it was building up to a demonstration. I took the families to the gym where we organized a meeting, and those present at the meeting decided to resume the negotiations, and enroll” said Silveira.

Members of the camp see it slightly differently. “At first we though that no benefits had been promised. We simply had to respect the fact it was private property and that the projects had to be resumed. But we soon understood that Viva Rio needed the area and we are confident that Viva Rio will keep on helping us,” said Freda Louis.

Viva Rio’s help had been negatively affected by the fact the families had moved away so quickly, and this was a motive for complaint. It became a source of tension. There was significant and understandable pressure from the families for better living and working conditions,” said Pedro Silveira.

Negotiations could be a model for other camps

“We immediately proceeded to distribute food stamps in an organized manner, as well as to distribute the tents and sign the contracts,” said the anthropologist. About half the families returned to their homes and another 35% went to live with relatives while a small percentage went to other camps or are living in the streets.

After leaving Kay Nou, Freda and her family went to the Piste Aviation camp. “Most of the quake victims living in Kay Nou went there too, so we were then faced with problems that had to do with the people already living there, with sharing space and benefits,” said Freda.

“We are very happy with how quickly things changed and we believe we can help other camps with the same strategy. It is important to prioritize long term projects instead of helping create more camps,” said Fernandes. A schedule was created for the families, and in two weeks they had all been complied with.

Once Kay Nou´s grounds were recovered, the task of making structural repairs was begun. “We are tearing down walls and buildings in the headquarters that are unsafe,” said Daniela Bercovitch, assistant coordinator of the Viva Rio project. The goal is to resume all the activities that were in course prior to the quake, with emergency aid given by the Inter American Development Bank, the IDB.

Tambor Lapé meetings with community leaders, the Brazilian battalion and the National Police have already resumed at Kay Nou headquarters. Rain water harvesting, sports and especially capoeira are back in action, as well as the green roofs project that takes plants to the roofs of Port-au-Prince houses.

Daniela adds that the biofuel equipment to produce energy from human feces is also being reconstructed, and the medical team is being reconvened. In the meanwhile the Viva Rio administration is working form a house in Pacot, another Port-au-Prince neighborhood outside greater Bel Air, until life gets back to normal.

Read Further:

The Brazil effect

Understand Haiti:Call on its youth

Translated by LHM