Mennonite Weekly Review

AKRON, Pa. — Mennonite Central Committee continues to ship relief supplies to Haiti despite obstacles that slow delivery.

Deis Succes, left, and Ryan Schlangen unload cases of MCC’s canned meat for distribution through an MCC partner, the Christian Center for Integrated Development in Port-au-Prince. — Photo by Ben Depp/MCC

The Port-au-Prince port is still only operating at about 10 percent of the capacity it had before the earthquake, said Darrin Yoder, material resources manager.

Alternate ports are available, but delivery is hindered because of distance or because the ports are not equipped with cranes to facilitate easy unloading.

Airlifts are prohibitively expensive, said Daryl Yoder-Bontrager, area director for Latin America and the Caribbean, so they are used sparingly. When MCC did use an airlift to bring 70,000 pounds of canned meat into Port-au-Prince on Jan. 24, the shipment had to be rerouted to Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, reportedly because of airport traffic.

The meat, which is canned by MCC volunteers, was transferred to trucks that were escorted to Haiti by United Nations personnel. Once the trucks reached the U.N. World Food Program warehouse in Port-au-Prince on Jan. 29, more delays were encountered as trucks from many organizations waited, sometimes for days, to unload supplies.

The MCC Haiti staff was able to start collecting the meat Feb. 3. From the shipment, Assemblée de la Grace, a Mennonite church on the outskirts of Port-au-Prince, distributed more than 1,000 cans of meat to church and community members, many of whose houses were destroyed in the earthquake.

Five other MCC partner organizations distributed portions of the shipment. TIMKATEC, or Timoun Kap Teke Chans, one of MCC’s partners, is conducting a feeding program for 500 children, some of whom were homeless prior to the earthquake and others who are newly homeless.

Meanwhile, two more shipments of meat, each about 35,000 pounds, were scheduled to arrive at the port of St. Marc on Feb. 18 or 19. Trucks will transport the shipments three hours south to Port-au-Prince.

Relief kits, heavy comforters and other supplies also are on the way and will continue, according to Yoder. Already sent are two shipments that contain 2,688 relief kits, 4,591 comforters, various medical supplies, 250 tarps and 192 boxes of water bottles, flashlights and deodorant. Their estimated arrival dates are Feb. 20 and Feb. 28.

MCC also expects to supply about 9,000 tarps before the rainy season begins in April.