Rotarians remark on Haiti tragedy

Three million people.

That is the number of people the international Red Cross is estimating may need emergency relief in the wake of this week’s tragic earthquake that has devastated the nation of Haiti.

Tens of thousands are feared to be dead, but the number is unknown as search and rescue efforts have yet to begin in full force as planes carrying teams from nations around the world are bringing supplies to the third-world nation.

For Ken Puckett of Neosho, the idea that Haiti’s Capitol city of Port-au-Prince is in a state of disarray is hard for him to imagine.

Puckett was a member of a small group of Rotarians who served on a mission trip to Haiti in January 2004. They were there to help build latrines in Jeremie, a community located on the foot of Haiti almost isolated from the rest of the country. During their mission, they spent some time in Port-au-Prince, and visited the nation’s government buildings — which are now in ruins.

Puckett said the conditions in Haiti during their visit in 2004 “were absolutely terrible,” and wonders how the nation could function now that those conditions have worsened to a degree that is near unimaginable.

“I have never seen poverty like that,” Puckett said. “The structure of the buildings were poor, and with no maintenance. The presidential palace was probably the nicest building we saw the whole time we were there… and now that is in ruins. The rest of Port-au-Prince was in pretty bad shape.
“In the community we worked in, we helped build latrines because they had no bathrooms. They went to the bathroom right on the dirt, and that is how children became sick. I had never seen anything like it. I have seen pictures, in places like Africa, and that is what Haiti was pretty much like. The government was so corrupt and kept anything and anybody from coming into the country and giving them a livelihood.”

During the Neosho Rotary Club’s meeting Wednesday, a collection was taken to purchase boxes of bottled water to be sent to Haiti was part of Rotary International. The members of the club donated $298.25, which will be possibly matched by the club itself and could purchase four boxes of water for the Haitian people.

As he hears of the news of the devastation in Haiti, Jeff Werneke, mayor of Neosho and also a member of the Rotary Club team that went to Haiti in 2004, can only wonder how the people of that country will survive.

But, he said he knows they are fighters. That’s all they have ever known — a fight to survive.

“It is strange, I have been there once for a week, but that trip changed my life and changed the way I looked at things here,” Werneke said. “People don’t realize what other people live in day in, and day out. A lot of people, it is not their fault, they were just born in that situation, and they are just trying to survive.

“When we got to meet real people there, they were good people. They sweep their dirt floor. They wash their clothes everyday in the creek. It really opened my eyes to people who have thoughts and dreams and hopes, and are never really given a chance to fulfill them.”

Werneke said the destruction in Port-au-Prince would also have a major affect on the lives of villagers in places like Jeremie, where the Rotarians did their mission work.

“It was just a village, and they rely so heavily on Port-au-Prince as a port, and that is where everything came in,” he said. “That is where they relied on food. They can’t survive without food and supplies coming in. There is no reliable electricity, water, and no reliable government. The police force is corrupt. No rail system. No structure. There are all these things that we take for granted that they don’t have.

“What they consider a regular road would be worse than any county road you could see here. That is there interstate. There is no real pavement from area to area. They have dirt paths that are one lane. I can’t imagine what those roads look like now.”

Rick Rogers is the publisher of the Daily News.