After being stuck in the Dominican Republic trying to get a way to Haiti, I finally convinced my way on to a Dominican Navy boat and took a 8 hour ride to Jacmel packed with 80 tonnes of aid.
I arrived and was met by Nick and Gwenn Mangine (a couple here from the U.S. running a children's home) and they agreed to help get me on my feet - and they are phenomenal. The perfect people to introduce me to the area, the needs, and where I can be of most service.
We moved over 15 tons of supplies today because we had plenty of food to distribute, but who knows what tomorrow will bring. Still needing some medicines, diapers, formula, and other things - so if you can help, please do - no specifics are listed yet, but they'll be posted throughout the week...
People have asked for details about how they could do it, and how I got here to do some Guerrilla Aid - here are a few tips:
1. Find a local contact before you go. I met Gwenn Mangine (on Facebook) who lives in Jacmel, and I asked her if I could come and volunteer with her group. She said yes, but that there was nowhere to stay and that they were sleeping in her front yard - so I brought a tent and sleeping bag.
2. Arrange travel to the closest point. Flew to Santo Domingo, DR and started asking everyone I met how to get to Haiti, and finally found a girl in my hotel lobby who had information about a Navy Red Cross Boat at Cabo Roja (five hours away) that I may be able to get on.
3. Find a travel buddy. I met a journalist named Patrick Adams in the same hotel lobby trying to get there as well, so we decided to work together.
4. Internal travel. We found two guys with a car who were heading to Pedernales (next to Cabo Roja) who allowed us to tag along.
5. Be patient. We arrived to Cabo Roja, but the boat wasn’t leaving until the next day, so we found a rough little motel in Pedernales to crash for the night with our sleeping bags.
6. Final destination travel. We got on the Navy boat the next day and travelled for eight hours to get to Jacmel and meet Gwenn and Nick Mangine (incredible people).
7. Get to know as many people as you can, and figure out where you may be useful based on your skill set.
8. Find your place. Patrick speaks Spanish and had become friendly (REALLY friendly actually :-)), with a girl on the ship working for the Red Cross, and when we got here found out that the Dominican Red Cross had no liason and interpreter - so all of a sudden he took on that role.
9. Utilize your local contact. I spent a few days collecting and distributing food with Nick and Gwenn (they distributed 30,000 lbs actually) - and they introduced me to a doctor who was slowly becoming in charge of operations here in Jacmel. We started talking and when she realized that I had experience with volunteers and projects - she asked if I’d take it over, while helping her run the airport (although it wasn't part of my skill set).
10. Overcome any fears. I got back on a motorcycle.
11. Start working. So here I am, in our makeshift office at the airport, developing projects and coordinating volunteers with locals, greeting all the arriving flights and processing volunteers and first responders through our “customs,” and assessing which situation can take volunteers.
It's rough here. There are thousands of people in dire need, and we've been working on immediate relief, but this will not be solved anytime soon. I'm currently developing ways anyone can jump on a plane and come volunteer with us, so stay tuned because we need some help.
Come to Haiti and volunteer... and bring me some tents...
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Guerrilla Aid is a style of volunteerism - simply go somewhere and do something,
while teaching others to do the same.
