'Where did all the earthquake money go?': Northern Virginia nonprofit leader recommends grassroots giving

Amid ongoing gang violence in Haiti, Debbie Harvey of the Haitian Inclusive Alliance urges Americans to provide humanitarian support at the grassroots level.

A woman squeezes through a human chain of volunteers as she is given the green light to pass for a plate of free food, at a shelter for families displaced by gang violence in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Thursday, March 14, 2024 (AP Photo/Odelyn Joseph) (AP/Odelyn Joseph) A woman squeezes through a human chain of volunteers as she is given the green light to pass for a plate of free food, at a shelter for families displaced by gang violence in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Thursday, March 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Odelyn Joseph) AP/Odelyn Joseph)

Amid ongoing gang violence in Haiti, a local volunteer group is urging Americans to provide humanitarian support at the grassroots level.

Debbie Harvey is the founder and executive director of the Inclusive Haitian Alliance, a nonprofit group founded in 2008. She was in Haiti last month to inspect her organization's facilities, which include an orphanage, various schools and a church.

Harvey said she usually visits Haiti every month to check in this way. But this time, she returned home to Northern Virginia before a new round of gang attacks on the nation's capital, Port-au-Prince.

The gangs “exploded in size” after the assassination of President Jovenel Moise in July 2021, according to Harvey.

But this month, she said, tensions reached new levels: Prime Minister Ariel Henry traveled to Kenya and when he tried to return to Haiti, “the gangs and the Haitian people were so fed up with him and the deterioration of the country that they shot him.” Airports.”

As violence rages, Harvey encourages Americans to make donations — but to think about how they do it.

“Don't give to adults,” she said first.

“Look for grassroots organizations where the founders and CEOs…are on the ground. They know what's going on. They're not just sending money and hoping it's taken care of,” she said.

Groups across the United States raised billions of dollars in aid following the 2010 Haiti earthquake, but Haiti has seen only a small portion of that money, according to Harvey.

Most of that money remained in the hands of American companies that said they would transfer it to Haiti. “It never happened,” she said. “Everyone is wondering: Where did all the earthquake money go?”

Regarding the items Americans should give, Harvey said cash donations are key. In fact, she said sending things like clothing and other material goods can be harmful to local communities.

“I was carrying huge 50-pound bags of shoes and shirts and backpacks and all that stuff,” Harvey said.

“When we do that, we put local mothers who are trying to sell these things at the market out of work because we give them away for free, so their children don't eat and their children can't get them to go to school,” she added. “There is no free school in Haiti, public school costs money.” .

Harvey also wants Americans to know the spirit of the Haitian people.

“The Haitian people are the most beautiful, hard-working, resourceful, resilient and God-fearing people I have ever met in my life – and I have been to a lot of places,” she said. “Sometimes our media doesn't portray them that way, and people need to understand and appreciate that they are just trying to survive day to day.”

WTOP's Cheyenne Corrin contributed to this report.

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