Cassandra Chapman with Rosalina, a three-year-old of Haitian descent, in the orphanage in the Dominican Republic. Cass is a Nuestros Pequeños Hermanos (www.nph.org) volunteer from New Zealand currently working in the Dominican Republic.

 “There is so much to do, we are living and breathing Haiti at the moment, I haven't slept in days... but it is so important that people do not lose interest once the news coverage dies down,” she told us at Gulf News this week.

“The work will continue for months, years, and beyond. These people already had almost nothing... and anything they did have has been devastated,” she says.

Raised on Waiheke and a former Waiheke High School student, Cass travelled extensively in Latin America after leaving New Zealand for her OE in January 2006 and is now pursuing a career in humanitarian work. She has been living and working in the Dominican Republic for the past nine months.

She says she may cross over to Haiti to deliver supplies some time in the next week or so, but in the meantime all her efforts are concentrated in communications, organisation, and fundraising from the Nuestros Pequeños Hermanos (www.nph.org) orphanage in the neighbouring Dominican Republic.

“Our home in the DR is becoming a hub for receiving and delivering supplies (meds, food, water, diesel, etc) with two or more truckloads crossing the border each couple of days and going straight into the hands of those in need. The need is huge. Our people say there is almost NO food, water, petrol, electricity or shelter available in Haiti. They are completely reliant on what we can send from here in the Dominican Republic.

“We are working around the clock here to bring direct aid in but we need more help.”

This was the Father Wasson Centre, a five-storey building in Petionville. Formerly the organisation’s Haiti children’s hospital, it became its administration building and home to several volunteers, visitors, and staff. One young American volunteer and another volunteer’s brother who was visiting both died in the collapse.

“Any donations earmarked for 'Haiti' on our website (www.nph.org) will be directly deposited into our relief fund here in the Dominican Republic. We are daily buying and sending donations as we are informed of needs.

Apart from the daily urgencies, she says she is looking for more ways to raise awareness and increase donations since giving money for specific supplies they can ship directly to the Haiti hospital is a very effective action people can take to help the situation.

“The hospitals are all running out of supplies, they are actually picking up dead bodies in the street with bulldozers. It is beyond imagination by all accounts. And this was ALREADY one of the poorest countries in the world!

 “When I was visiting Haiti in September I was amazed to see that, in spite of everything – starvation, joblessness, dictatorships, gang violence, natural disasters – the city buzzed with a sort of optimism, the people had not lost hope. I pray that they still have hope, even in these dark dark days.”

It is rumored that the airport in Haiti is in shambles and Cass says St Damien’s Hospital, ten minutes from the Port-au-Prince Airport, report they have not yet seen any deliveries of food or supplies around their area. “People are getting hungrier and hungrier.  They have not received any food even though they see lots of helicopters and planes flying above,” Cass was told.

In the meantime the hospital continues to be swamped with patients that are coming from all over.  “They are desperate to find medical care. Overall we estimate we are seeing 700 patients daily in a hospital built for 120 beds,” the hospital told her earlier this week.

The report said “the operating room is functioning for amputation of arms and legs. We are trying to prioritise surgeries and many people are awaiting amputations.  Most of the injuries we are seeing are fractures to the extremities, external fractures and wounds that are a couple of days old and it is impossible to fix the smashed and soft tissue injuries.”

Although basic utilities including water and electricity are up and running, perimeter walls are falling down, there are security concerns and people are afraid to go inside the buildings. “The front yard is full of patients that we are trying to move into the courtyards and luckily we have no rain. Plastic sheets have been set-up to shade wherever it is possible.

Some of the volunteers and oldest children at NPH orphanage in the Dominican Republic load up the second truckload of supplies. Water, diesel, medical supplies, and food were all among the urgent necessities.

Cass visited the Nuestros Pequeños Hermanos (www.nph.org)

 orphanage, children's hospital, and education and medical outreach programme in and around Port-au-Prince, Haiti last year and she has friends there. “Imagine you are an eight year old child whose leg has been chopped off, your shack has been destroyed and none of your family members survived.  You’re in shock.  Where do you go now?  Who is going to teach you how to use crutches and who is going to support you through your trauma and recovery?” she says.

The NPH home where Cass is based was founded in 2003 and is home and school to more than 200 orphaned and abandoned Dominican and Haitian children who have been taken in from situations of desperate poverty.  The home is located in San Pedro de Macorís, an hour east of Santo Domingo.

The NPH orphanage in the Dominican Republic is approximately 400 kilometres and 8-10 hours of overland travel from Port-au-Prince.

Liz Waters