Central Alberta aid organizations with strong ties to Haiti are in an anxious wait and see mode following the earthquake devastation that has brought the already impoverished nation to its knees.
Among those keeping an emotional vigil are members of Red Deer church groups that have lent their support to projects in Haiti.
CrossRoads Church member Keith Blain was part of a mission to the country last October and planned to return next month.
Blain struggled Wednesday to put into words his thoughts on the unfolding tragedy.
“It’s been an emotional roller coaster,” he said quietly.
“The need is so great and yet there is so little we can do.”
Little information has been available, but Blain was able to find out that members of a church team of six adults and 17 students from Nelson, B.C., were safe.
Church members do not want to say too much at this point because there is so little information coming from the country, where the powerful quake toppled phone and power lines, he said.
They are still waiting to hear for sure that everyone is safe in the compound.
“We don’t know how our best way to proceed is right now. And at some point in time we will (put together) something for relief but we’re not sure how and when.
“Everybody here is kind of in a wait and see position right now because communications is very slim.”
A CrossRoads team was planning to go back to Haiti in February. It is too soon to say whether that will go ahead.
Even if it does, the focus will be changed given the scale of the disaster, Blain predicted.
“Everybody’s role has changed here right now. Even the team that’s going, they won’t be doing what they initially planned on doing.”
Red Deer Liberty Church has a project in the same community as CrossRoads Church.
Church member Darcy Lamoureux said he has been trying in vain to get more information about the orphanage that houses 100 children.
“We’re praying. We haven’t heard anything. Sometimes that’s a good thing. We’re just believing in God that everything is going to go good.
“We built a strong orphanage. I think we could have made it through this.”
The epicentre of the earthquake was about halfway between Port-au-Prince and the orphanage in Grand Goave, about 60 km to the west.
Lamoureux found one report indicating the area had been hit hard with many buildings down. The roads out to Grand Goave are impassable.
“I don’t know whether to fly down there right now, or whether to just hang on, or what to do. So I’m just kind of waiting and seeing.”
Lamoureux was planning to go back to the orphanage again in February to undertake some basic maintenance work.
“We could be going earlier now.”
Lamoureux can only pray that all are unharmed. “The buildings are nothing, we can rebuild them. As long as all the people are safe, the kids and the workers — that’s all I’m concerned about right now.”
Liberty Church administrator Dwayne Hillman visited the orphanage in 2005 and his heart goes out to residents of the nation where many live in shanties and those buildings made of stone and concrete are often not well constructed.
The sorts of emergency services, fire trucks, cranes and other heavy equipment that Canadians could rely on when disaster strikes simply don’t exist, he said.
“My heart really aches because of what they have gone through in their history,” he said, referring to previous hurricane damage. A series of storms in 2008 did more than $1 billion in damage.
“It’s just a real tragedy.”
At Red Deer MP Earl Dreeshen’s office, constituent assistant Scott Deederly had some anxious moments until he could confirm that an Ottawa-based immigration staffer he has worked with on various files was safe. So far, there have not been any calls to the office for information on Canadians in Haiti, he said.
Doug Decksheimer, local board member for the Central Alberta-based Haitian Children’s Aid Society, said the orphanage they support, the Haiti Children’s Home, is “30 to 40 miles” outside of Port-au-Prince near the town of Mirebalais and “the fringe of the earthquake was right about that point.”
In a satellite phonecall that Decksheimer made to the orphanage on Tuesday night, he found out that the 40 children housed in the building are OK, but that some damage was done to the structure. The staff members are fine, too, but some of the locals hired to help out haven’t yet checked in.
“I’m not thinking the worst, (and) communication is not the best right now,” Decksheimer said.
He and others are working to try to find some way to continue to get food and other supplies into the orphanage.
“We’re all just kind of waiting for more information. You just make the best of bad situations. Haitian people are pretty resilient that way.”
He said he expected there to be “a lot of children” on their way to the orphanage “very quickly” because of the disaster.
The society facilitates adoptions of children from Haiti by Central Albertans. Last year about 10 to 15 children from the orphanage were adopted.
As such, he’s been busy fielding calls from concerned adoptive parents in the area worried about their would-be children.
“I just got a call from Leduc from someone asking ‘Is my child OK?’ he said.
Fatima Hasan Ali, public affairs co-ordinator for Canadian Red Cross Alberta, said their phones have been constantly ringing with people wanting to donate and volunteer to help get aid to Haiti.
“Right now, the need (for donations) is urgent. I encourage Edmontonians and people in Red Deer and Alberta to go ahead and continue to support us in the way they do. It’s amazing, I don’t have the words to describe how generous Albertans have been,” Hasan Ali said.
The Red Cross is welcoming donations through its website at www.redcross.ca, through its national toll-free number at 1-800-418-1111, and locally through its downtown Red Deer office at 3030 55th St. Hasan Ali said RBC and Wal-Mart locations are also accepting donations for the Red Cross’s relief effort in Haiti.
The Canadian Red Cross is assessing its trained personnel and figuring out who could be of assistance to send to the country.
pcowley@www.reddeeradvocate.com
mgauk@www.reddeeradvocate.com
