International Relief Teams executive director describes Haiti relief efforts — and what’s needed — with RSF Rotary Club

By Karen Billing

Barry La Forgia and Susan Callahan

As the Rancho Santa Fe Rotary Club continues to collect money to help the victims of the Haiti earthquake, the club recently hosted Barry La Forgia, the executive director of International Relief Teams, to learn more about relief efforts in Haiti.
International Relief was founded in 1988 and with a small staff of five, including RSF Rotarian Susan Callahan, they make sure donors get the biggest impact for their dollars,
During the past year, IRT deployed 143 teams and provided nearly $18 million in medical and construction supplies and services in 18 countries, such as Haiti, Jamaica, Pakistan, Gaza and Zimbabwe. Not all of their work is abroad, 2010 will be their fifth year of deploying bi-monthly construction teams to Mississippi to repair homes destroyed in Hurricane Katrina.
In addition to disaster relief, they also do medical training, health promotion and disease prevention. They maintain a disaster relief reserve fund that enables them to “gear into action before we collect a single dollar for the disaster we’re responding to,” La Forgia said.
In Haiti right now, IRT has teamed up with International Medical Corps, offering medical care to earthquake survivors.
Their work has gotten national exposure as San Diego’s Dr. Colleen Buono took care of a 5-year-old Haitian boy named Monley, who was rescued after spending eight days trapped in the rubble. Anderson Cooper told his story on CNN, as did Halle Berry on the recent Hope for Haiti Now telethon.
International Relief is very mindful about who they are sending to Haiti.
“It’s a very severe environment for volunteers so we pick out the most experienced volunteers who are available,” said La Forgia. “We sent emergency room doctors and nurses who we know will not freak when they see the hardness of the situation.”
He said so many people have come to IRT saying they want to help and go, but it’s important to send volunteers who have a needed skill.
Volunteers staying psychologically strong in the face of tragedy is incredibly important; La Forgia learned just how bad it could get when he was in Bosnia during the war.
“I saw such horrific stuff that when I came home I was a mess,” he said.
His doctor ended up putting him on anti-depressants, but he realized that was the wrong approach.
The right way, he said, is to deal with the feelings as they happen. His next deployment was to Rwanda and as a team the volunteers would get together, share their feelings, cry and vent. He was in much better shape when he came home and he has encouraged his team to do the same in Haiti.
La Forgia said there are three stages of disaster response: the acute stage, the intermediate stage and the recovery stage.
The acute stage is one of search and rescue, which has been a big challenge in Haiti. It has been particularly hard because of the massive amount of destruction.
“In Sri Lanka, with the tsunami, about a mile in (from the ocean) it was normal,” said La Forgia. “But there is nothing left [in Haiti] and you have to bring everything in from the outside.”
La Forgia said because Haiti is such a poor country, there was very little equipment to use to rescue survivors trapped in crumbled buildings. Many had to rescue people by digging by hand.
Once in country, the roads were impassable. It took the IRT team seven hours to reach Port-au-Prince from the Dominican Republic border.
According to the United Nations, international search and rescue teams rescued only 132 people. The Haitian people rescued many by hand, La Forgia said.
La Forgia said it was very hard to get the much-needed equipment and resources into the city because the shipping port was damaged and the airport was closed. The airport has since been taken over by the U.S. military, but there are still bottlenecks on the one-runway facility.
La Forgia said priority was given to military security over relief organizations as they feared uprisings and shootings.
“It hasn’t been as bad as everyone thought it would be,” said La Forgia of the anticipated chaos and violence.
On Jan. 22, the Haitian government declared the search and rescue effort over and La Forgia said they would soon move into the intermediate stage of emergency response.
That stage involves dealing with a displaced population and mass migration to other parts of the island. It’s estimated that 500,000 to one million people will need to get out of the city so they can rebuild.
International Relief will help set up temporary shelters utilizing living condition standards to prevent unsanitary conditions or an outbreak of disease,
“In about a month the rainy season starts and that’s a concern,” La Forgia said.
IRT is sending eight-person tents, shelf-life stable foods and medicine supplies to reinforce Haitian hospitals by the end of the week.
The final stage of disaster response is recovery and rebuilding and restoring livelihoods, one that is sure to be a long process, he said.
“We have a great opportunity, if the world can stay focused on Haiti, to solve the endemic problems there,” said La Forgia.
To make donations to International Relief Teams, visit irteams.org or call (619) 284-7979.