USAID Administrator, Rajiv Shah, Visits CHF International's Earthquake Response in Petit Goave

On February 12, 2010, Dr. Rajiv Shah, the recently appointed Administrator of USAID, headed a delegation of US government officials visiting CHF International's relief work in Petit Goave. The delegation also included Ms. Carleene Dei, the new USAID Mission Director in Haiti; Ambassador Lewis Lucke, US Response Coordinator for Haiti and representatives of FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The objective of the visit was to see CHF's recovery efforts in the hard struck but largely under reported area of Petit Goave.

The delegation toured the downtown area of Petit Goave as well as the community of Petit Guinee—the two hardest hit areas of Petit Goave.

CHF's rubble removal teams were out in full force and the delegation were able to see firsthand the work that they are doing to clean up the city. Work teams were cleaning up the local court house and the public library as well as the plot of the former Le Relais de l'Empereur—a 250 year old building that was once an imperial home and later a hotel.

Dr. Shah met with some of the local residents in Petit Guinee, including Jean Pierre Thielly whose home had literally been sucked into the sea as the earthquake pulled down the land on which his house had been standing.

CHF Communications Manager, Kristie Van De Wetering translates Jean Pierre Thielly's ordeal to Rajiv Shah.

Dr. Shah also met with many of the people undertaking cash for work and rubble removal activities in Petit Guinee and participated to get a sense of the work by hauling a large piece of rubble from the site and throwing it on the collection pile.

USAID Administrator, Rajiv Shah poses with a CHF cash for work team.

Dr. Shah expressed the solidarity of the American people to the people of Haiti and in particular Petit Goave. He expressed that he had come to see what the situation first hand to see how USAID can best respond.

To date CHF has 586 people working in Petit Goave—240 of them are women. Over 1,300 cubic meters of rubble have been removed to date.

Petit Goave was hard hit in the earthquake. The following statistics give an overall sense of the destruction in the area:

• 1,297 dead
• 5,604 injured
• 7,844 homes destroyed
• 31,961 homes damaged
• 59 schools destroyed
• 38 schools damaged
• 98,989 people in shelters
• 4,800 internally displaced persons arrived from outside of the area

Bob Fagen, CHF Regional Director discusses relief operations with Rajiv Shah in Petit Goave.