Lynn's Gardy: If you go to Haiti, you'll cry

By Thor Jourgensen / The Daily Item

LYNN - Six months after an earthquake devastated Haiti, rubble remains piled in the island
nation's streets, people live in tents and childhood places dear to the memory of former resident
Jean Francois Gardy are no longer recognizable.

"If you go there, you'll cry," Gardy, an aide to Mayor Judith Flanagan Kennedy, said this week
following a trip to his homeland.

Gardy traveled to Haiti, a small nation sharing a Caribbean island with the Dominican Republic,
on June 24 to supervise distribution of food, medicine and other essentials donated to the Haitian
relief effort by Lynn residents following the Jan. 12 earthquake.

A lengthy customs review process meant that the items were not distributed to Haitians until this
week when Lynn residents William Joseph and Mary Prophete went to Haiti to help hand out
bags stuffed with food and clothes to residents of Carrefour and distribute medical supplies in
Diquini, another Haitian city.

Gardy traveled around Haiti during his three-day visit.

"I was shocked to see the way people are living. Six months later the situation seems to be
getting worse. The good thing is that I saw a lot of help from different aid organizations," he
said.

His relatives survived the earthquake but many of them still live in tents. Other Haitians sleep on
sidewalks yards away from trash piled in city streets. A once-magnificent plaza in front of one of
the country's principal government buildings has been transformed into a refugee encampment.

"I can't believe it. The places I remember as a little boy I didn't recognize," Gardy said.

Gardy said most Haitians are not working. He sends his family money to help support them.

In addition to the relief effort mobilized during the winter by the city, St. Mary's Church loaded
up a relief container and sent it to Haiti. The donated items included furnishings and sacred items
from the former St. Patrick's Church for use in a renovated Haitian church.

The Jan. 12 quake killed 230,000 to 300,000 people, according to Haitian government estimates.
U.S. officials said sustaining commitments that nations made months ago to helping Haiti is one
of the biggest challenges facing the ongoing relief effort. Gardy agrees.

"It's going to be years and years before Haiti is back on track," he said.

Six months after the earthquake, the recovery has shifted from relief to reconstruction, and Haiti
requires extensive urban planning to rebuild and sustain itself, said Sam Worthington, president
of InterAction, a U.S.-based coalition of international organizations.

U.S. Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, issued a
statement saying too many critical priorities for Haiti's recovery remain unaddressed.

"The window of opportunity is rapidly narrowing for an effective, coordinated international and
Haitian effort that can make a real difference," Kerry said. "We will all be responsible if progress
grinds to a halt."

Although he met with Carrefour's mayor, Gardy said the Haitian government seems only
marginally involved in the country's recovery with foreign aid groups bearing the brunt of the
work.

He said that without an adequate nation-wide electrical supply, many Haitians are isolated from
news about relief efforts and continuing global interest in their plight.