Sima Tells Us of Haiti Children and How They Touched Her Heart

The children of Haiti comprise 45% of the entire population. They are the 45% that are indeed the most traumatized and the most vulnerable survivors of the earthquake.

Israel Flying Aid Team Members

According to a spokesman for Unicef, Kent Page, “There are health concerns, malnutrition concerns, psychosocial issues and, of course, we are concerned that unaccompanied children will be exploited by unscrupulous people who may wish to traffic them for adoption, for the sex trade, or for domestic servitude.”

With 90 percent of the schools in Port-au-Prince damaged or destroyed, homes demolished, parents missing, the children have no place to go. Playing amongst the rotting rubble or sleeping in makeshift tents, the children are vulnerable.

During the destruction of the national penitentiary and other jails, 4,400 prisoners escaped. They’re roaming and hiding out in the same streets as the children.

I repeat, the children are not safe.

The Israel Flying Aid is in Haiti doing what they can to supply the immediate and long term needs of some of those children. They are joining 20 nuns in providing a fully equipped orphanage.

One of the members of the team, Sima Simon, describes the conditions in Port-au-Prince and how the team is helping. Following are edited excerpts:

Arrival in Haiti

After almost 3 days of traveling we are here! We arrived at the Israeli Hospital in, Port-au-Prince, last night. Our local contacts in Dominican Republic, Limor and Ophir, were waiting for us.

We began our first day in Domican Republic organizing before the last leg of our trip. We wanted to be sure we would arrive in Haiti well equipped for 2 weeks with food, water, transportation, gas, oil, medical supplies, etc.
We arrived at the Israeli base last night, joining them in welcoming  Shabbat on Friday evening. Then it hit me straight and with such accuracy: I’m reminded about the strength of our people and the great little country of ours.

I had my first heart breaking personal moment yesterday after visiting the little kids who had been brought here by their parents. A few of them were laying on their beds sleeping, with no one next to them, while others were being hugged by their moms or dads.

The only face I saw was the face of my little Mariano in his first year of  life. We knew he had a difficult time during this period. They were not taking care off him and he was not well fed, but mostly he was lonely, very lonely.

It was the first time I understood the difference between “mind understanding” and “heart understanding”.

One day – We already changed the world!

Yesterday was tough! It was our first day in Haiti, trying to understand how we can help these people. It took us 3 full tiring days to arrive here only to walk around all day and understand – How the hell we will start? With whom? With what? Whatever we do it will not be enough!

By the end of the day we divided ourselves in two groups:

First group  – our mission was to arrange a movie for the girls’ orphanage. We had all the equipment but the movies we brought from home were not good! So we drove around the streets trying to find some movies in the middle of chaos. Can you imagine how stupid we felt, walking around looking for movies? Needless to say – we did not manage to find any. Our mission failed!

Second group – their mission was to continue with our goal of trying to find a long term project that would answer a critical need. After gathering some intelligence from the streets and making their way through destroyed roads, they managed to reach one of the addresses they had been given. Unlike us, they succeeded!

We met back in the Israeli base. My group was feeling down, but the second group was excited, telling us their story.

Israel Flying Aid arranging supplies

They arrived at an “Orphelina” – an orphanage for girls. It belongs to a church and is managed by a group of nuns. Their modest building survived the earthquake almost unharmed. As the group stepped inside the gate they heard the voices of angels singing. It was the voices of the nuns. They were immediately surrounded by a group of girls, 1-14 years of age. It was dark, but they managed to see that the nuns were making the best of the very little they had. After a short exploration, they knew: “This is why we came here, this is what we were looking for, this is where we can make a difference!”

We all woke up the following morning excited. Linoy, our “one and only” pediatric nurse, joined the hospital staff. Shuli, Dudi and Hamutal – our amazing medical clowns, went to their holy mission of making children laugh in the hospital and out in the streets while our IDF soldiers are building water towers for the locals.

Escorted by an IDF delegation officer, the rest of us made our way to the orphanage .

In a few short hours we accomplished:

• Short assessment of urgent needs
• Put in place a plan and divided into “mission groups”
• Arranged for the IDF to bring the delegation’s engineer for a safety check of the building
• 1st group – lead by Limor – stayed with the nuns and the girls, helping them and playing with them
• 2nd group – lead by Chaim – found a local contractor and put in place a group of workers to clean the land and work on the infrastructure
• 3nd group – lead by us – went to do some food shopping at the local Sunday market

How can I put in words the experience we had?

Haim Beker, 65 year old COO of Orange Telecommunications, Israel, cleared the land and managed to put in place an infrastructure for tomorrow in order to provide running water for the girls and nuns.

Watching David Avner, CEO of Orange Telecommunications, Israel , carry some 50 kilo bags of rice on his back, loading the trucks with food for the girls and working hand in hand with us, was truly a strong moment for me.

After unloading all the food in the orphanage, making sure the nuns had all they need to make the girls and themselves a good meal, we left to make arrangements for the following day.
Third Day in Haiti

I managed to fall on my face while trying to walk quickly between the tents. Not a good idea, I missed one rope and suffered a strong hit in my chin and jaw. Luckily we have lots of doctors around. I am ok, but very tired and in severe pain…

Yesterday we arrived back at the base with a list of things that needed to be done for the “Orphelina” and with one of the smallest girls who looked very sick. A nun joined her and didn’t leave her side until the doctors diagnosed her with a acute pneumonia. She is still in the hospital, doing much better. The doctors told us that if we wouldn’t have brought her she probably would have died.

Did you ever had the chance to do massive shopping with no need for money? I did exactly that and it felt great because I knew what difference it would make in the lives of those girls.

We began our day early, and by 9:30 I had a truck roaming the base and collecting everything on our lists. It went like this:

GOAL

The organization provided us with:
100 mattresses
100 mosquito nets
100 blankets
5 full sets of kitchen dishes
35 jerrycans
500 bars of soap
252 toilet paper rolls

IDF provided us with:

dish soap
kitchen mops
more toilet paper
IDF medical staff provided us with:

medical equipment and medicines
diapers
baby formula and food
100 AVENT bottles

The Colombian Medical delegation provided us with a huge amount of special liquid for hydration

Albert, a local businessman gave us a huge tank of water

Haiti children with balloons and an Israeli flag

We collected all the supplies and drove to the “Orphelina”. Dr’ Amit joined us with two nurses and vaccinated all the girls and nuns. The girls were very brave and each one received a balloon.

After examining the girls, Dr’ Amit told us that most of the girls are suffering only from lack of food – a situation we can fix. One of the girls has a broken leg. and Daniella, eight years old seems to have a heart problem. We are trying to schedule an  ECCO for her tomorrow to check her heart.
The atmosphere was amazing and what was really impressive was the behavior of the nuns. Yesterday they were in shock, but today they were over the moon. It looked like they were beginning to understand that we really are planning to help them for the long run. They functioned amazingly well and did lots of singing and dancing with the kids.

I do not know what I can write  to provide you with the feelings that I have.

50 girls and 20 nuns are having a healthier and happier life thanks to our mission!
This is truly amazing
Love you all
Sima

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