Kakheti Province

Visual observations from our road trip in May 2010 in Eastern Georgia:

Great meetings today with CEO of National Microfinance Bank (NMB), Financial Sector Deepening Trust (FSDT - Tanzania), and CARE - Access Africa...

Haiti Mon Amour

Haiti trip - video synopsis

Haiti Mon Amour from openrev on Vimeo.

Praise for Mercy Corps

The Mercy Corps Port-au-Prince (PaP) team have been working hard since the evening of the earthquake with some members of the Global Response Team arriving the day after (E + 1). A lot has been accomplished in the 3 long weeks since the magnitude 7.0 earthquake devastated Port-au-Prince and surrounding areas.

With support from the Haiti desk team working in Portland and logistics/warehouse in Santo Domingo, the local team have put together an amazing plan for emergency relief, comfort for kids, and economic recovery for the people of Haiti. Mercy Corps executed the rapid relief assessment and planning for appropriate social and economic programming with input from representatives from the Haitian government and coordination with other relief agencies.

I would like to personally thank the following Mercy Corps team members for their professionalism and hospitality during this challenging early response phase:

Bill Holbrook

Diane Johnson

Richard Jacquot

Sean Collins

Hans Van Liedekerke

Abdou Seyni

Su'ad Jarbawi

Brian Atkinson

Gene Kunze

Matthew Schwartzberg

Randy Martin

Angela Owen

Griff Samples

Carron Beaumont

Joy Portella

Carol Ward

Jacques Azemar

Mugur Dumitrache

Doug Lyon

Karen Doyle-Grossman

Phil Oldham

Ministry of Finance / E + 21

Scheduled meetings today with representatives from the Haitian government and executives at both mobile operators.

Voila Foundation

Digicel Haiti Foundation

Digicel Haiti building demolition from openrev on Vimeo.

The Ministry of Finance (ENAF) building was completely destroyed by the earthquake and was also being demolished at the time of our meetings.

The CONATEL and ENAF folks came to Mercy Corps headquarters and were joined by special economic advisors to the President. We were fortunate to have a functioning generator and enough conference rooms to handle multiple concurrent meetings.

Saint-Marc / E + 20

Today we escaped Port-au-Prince traffic snarls which have been exacerbated with all the NGO vehicles. We traveled north of the capital to visit the mayor of the coastal town of Saint-Marc which is struggling to absorb a large displaced population.

Along the way Alice, Diane, and I noticed many of the colorful Loto kiosks seen throughout Haiti, some advertising foreign exchange, and others offering a quick phone "charge-up" for 2 gourde. Voila appeared to be the favorite of the locals and the Trilogy backed mobile operator picked up some new subscribers due to Digicel facility damage and resulting network outage.

We finally learned how the Loto "New York" system worked. We remained in Saint-Marc to visit with one of the larger MFIs in Haiti regarding the Cash-for-Work program. The mayor's office in Saint-Marc provided some assistance with an identification process for those participants that have lost their Haitian national identity cards as a result of the earthquake.

Port-au-Prince / E + 18 days

On Saturday we started noticing some damage to scattered homes on the "short-cut" over rough dirt roads from Pétionville into downtown Port-au-Prince. Once we arrived in Port-au-Prince, the devastation was clearly seen at a much larger scale.

The temporary headquarters of Fonkoze are located very close to this Port-au-Prince church.

Here, Anne Hastings directs a staff of 750 dedicated to rebuilding lives with personalized financial, educational, and health services. Many that have been displaced from their homes have also lost one or more family members. Mercy Corps will be providing adopting families with household assistance grants and cash-for-work programs for people in need of immediate income through a partnership with Fonkoze.