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| The ARCH team has helped nearly 2,000 animals in the weeks following the devastating earthquake. |
It’s been one month since the earthquake in Haiti and WSPA and the ARCH coalition went in to help. In those days we’ve remained focused on our mission, and together we are helping make a difference for Haiti’s animals. The outpouring of support we received has propelled us.
I arrived in Haiti just six days after the earthquake hit, and even after being involved with 36 disasters for WSPA nothing could prepare me for the destruction that I would see. My memories of the city of Port-au-Prince are basically all that remain.
When I first arrived to assess the impact the earthquake has had on Haiti’s animals I saw little difference from my previous visits to Haiti — until we arrived in the epicentre of the quake. People were begging for food and for help, living in tent cities and tent camps. The human side of this disaster touches me deeply. What allows me to go on, in this and every disaster, is the knowledge that no matter how bad I feel focusing on my mission will help both people and animals.
After our assessment was complete, WSPA left Haiti to focus on the long-term plans. Our ARCH partners remained to respond to the immediate needs of animals on the ground with an eight-person team of trained experts who have been on a rotation in the field.
Over the last few weeks, the ARCH field team has been moving from neighbourhood to neighbourhood doing vaccinations, de-worming and providing treatments. Our other partners from IFAW, SODOPRECA and Best Friends have been part of this rotation, working together day and night. The collaboration between animal welfare groups has been vital to ensuring the immediate needs of Haiti’s animals are met. So far, that dedicated team has come to the aid of nearly 2,000 animals.
Early on, we mentioned a mobile clinic that had been so generously donated by the Antigua and Barbuda Humane Society. You may have wondered what happened to it. The mobile clinic arrived in the Dominican Republic via ship this week. Dr. Sergio Vásquez, WSPA’s Disaster Management Veterinary Officer is in the Dominican Republic managing all of the logistics relating to the mobile clinic and the purchasing of medicine and supplies for our entire mission.
The mobile clinic is in the process of being cleared by customs. We expect it to be cleared in the next few days, and we are making every effort to get the mobile clinic into Haiti by the end of next week. Once it arrives, the primary focus will be to continue to do vaccinations and prevent disease outbreak in Port-au-Prince.
There are two parts to what WSPA and ARCH need to do in Haiti: first to respond to the here and now, and then to make sure that the future is better.
With the collapse of the city came the collapse of the veterinary system. Our mission in Haiti is also to ensure that we rebuild this fragile country’s veterinary services for the long-term. We must help to establish an infrastructure for animals that keeps one important thing at heart: animals matter.
As I write this, Gerardo Huertas, WSPA’s Disaster Operations Director is on the ground in Haiti working with the Government on a plan to provide long-term support for the country’s animals. This plan is so important — if we intend to spend over one million dollars we need to ensure that it’s done right. As you can imagine, when a country is in ruins and government officials have no offices, these things take time.
As we move forward on our mission in Haiti, it is these long-term goals that we keep in mind, and it is what guides our work at WSPA. We will be working alongside the Haitian government, the Haitian vets and the Haitian people so that Haiti’s animals have a better life. We will make sure that long after WSPA has gone, Haiti has the skills and the resources to carry on without us and help its animals.
For everyone that has helped us to achieve so much in just one month, I thank you. There are many more days ahead of us, and your support helps so very much.
