Shepherd: What was it like to go back in February after the earthquake had hitPort-au-Prince?
Pomerantz: We went through the [Haitian-Dominican Republic] border without anyproblem. You’re in Haiti maybe 15 minutes across the border and you’re alreadyseeing tents. Everywhere you look in Port-au-Prince there are tents. In everylittle corner of every neighborhood people are not sleeping in their houses.And when I say “tent,” I don’t mean tent. At that point, a month after theearthquake, many of them were just sheets on four posts. More people have tentsnow, but there are still a lot of people who are sleeping under sheetsand whenit rains, everything gets soaking wet.
Shepherd: Duchity, the main village you work in, is far from the quake zone. Howwas it affected?
Pomerantz: By the time I went back, there were about 800 additional people [fromPort-au-Prince, added to Duchity’s 7,000 residents]. Everyone has lost someone,whether it’s brothers or cousins or more distant relatives. There was one youngman who had just moved to Port-au-Prince in the summer when I was there. Hegraduated from high school and he was going to go to university. He was themost dramatic change I had seen. He used to be this really energetic, upbeatguy. He would be rapping and dancing. And now he’s walking around with his headhanging down. I went up to him and asked how he’s doing. And he said, “All ofthese people died, what am I doing still alive?” He said, “I don’t know what tobelieve in anymore. I can’t believe in anything.” It just takes your breathaway. How do you answer that?
Shepherd: How has your mission changed since the earthquake?
Pomerantz: In addition to initially sending down emergency relief money to helpfeed some of this influx of people, we decided that our organization is not anemergency relief organization but an empowerment organization. So what we’vetried to do is to create more work projects. We are now paying people to dowork that we had required them to volunteer for. We do a lot of gardening inassociation with these composting toilets and we say people have to do a day of[volunteer] gardening. Now we’re paying them. It’s less than they pay inPort-au-Prince, but it’s more than they would have otherwise and hopefully itwill motivate them to not go back to Port-au-Prince without having some goodreason.
Shepherd: You’re having a benefit on May 15. How will the money be spent?
Pomerantz: It will definitely go toward more toilets. Since the earthquake,especially, the need in all of the rural areas is so great. […] Ourorganization is small and we have virtually no overhead here. Someday I’d liketo be paid, but for now everything on this end is volunteer. We pay people inHaiti. Right now we have four projects in progress. It’s very exciting.
I’d like toacknowledge the tremendous support the Milwaukee community has already given.It really has been quite remarkable.
We are asmall organization, but we’ve been working since before the earthquake and wehave direct relationships with people in Haiti that will continue long into thefuture. The work that we’re doing is a “hand up,” not a “handout.” We’re tryingto empower people to do projects and to teach them to be able to do things thatare sustainable.
Youthaiti will hold a benefit dinner onSaturday, May 15, in honor of Haitian Flag Day, at the Turner Hall Ballroom.Tickets are $100; for more information or to order tickets, go towww.youthaiti.org.
