I am back in Santo Domingo now, having completed what I think was a really successful first visit to Haiti. In the three days we spent there, we achieved a number of things: we had meetings with several people who could help us draw up our medium- and long-term plans for the ARCH effort in Haiti, and we made a first hand assessment of the capital and a few areas around as well.
We visited the towns of Leogane and Jacmel, both of which were also seriously affected by the earthquake.
As my colleague Juan Carlos Murillo, WSPA’s Disaster Management Veterinary Officer, has reported “In the short term, most animals seemed to have weathered the impacts of the earthquake with few visible wounds. But it is clear that the greatest challenge ahead of these animals, as for the communities dependent on them, is going to be the lack of food and the diseases that they will suffer as a result of being weakened.”
Although some of us have returned to Santo Domingo, a significant part of the ARCH team continues to be in Haiti, tending to the animals. Since the infrastructure in Haiti is still fragile, we returned here so that we could send back our reports and consult the coalition group to formulate plans. But more importantly, we are also restocking supplies. When we go in to Haiti, we need to carry absolutely everything we will need for us to be self sufficient – food, water, tents to sleep in, everything we are likely to need in the coming weeks, so that we are not a drain on the few resources the Haitians have.
