Virginia Beach-based nonprofit collects earthquake relief donations for Haiti: ‘This is just the beginning’
After a 7.2-magnitude earthquake hit southwest Haiti last month, a local charity is working to collect donations for relief efforts.
The disaster impacted 1.2 million people, claiming over 2,200 lives, according to UNICEF.
Calherbe Monel, a native of Haiti living in Chesapeake, began organizing a fundraising initiative hours after the earthquake on Aug. 14. He partnered with local business owner Mike Palmer to collect relief items and send them to Haiti.
So far, his local nonprofit — Christians United for Haiti — raised roughly $5,000 and filled six 55-gallon plastic barrels with medical, hygiene and educational supplies. Monel intends to continue collecting donations until later this month when he will visit Haiti and help distribute donations.
Since 2001, Monel has been traveling back and forth to Haiti to implement programming that helps support youth, orphanages, business start-ups and clinics. When he incorporated the Virginia Beach-based charity in 2007, Monel started working with ministries and schools in southern regions of the Caribbean country.
Buildings housing almost a dozen of his partners in Nippes and Grand’Anse have been destroyed. Some of the schools and churches he visited are dismantled and flattened. People have sent Monel pictures of large cracks in the ground and fractured roadways.
He said some of his partners didn’t realize they had been hurt because of the initial shock. But overall, most people he knows have experienced “emotional damage” after the natural disaster.
People who lost their homes had to build makeshift shelters, making tarps, tents and generators the most important items on the donations list.
“I’ve seen a lot of organizations try to help (and) just decide for people in Haiti. No, I ask them, ‘What do you guys need?’” he said.
The earthquake last month felt like “deja vu” for Monel. He was born in Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince, where an earthquake hit just 15 miles away in 2010. He said the country has not fully recovered and last month’s earthquake was one of the worst things that could’ve happened.
“I hope people will still come together to assist two, three, four, five years from now, because even 2010 survivors are still in need of help,” he said.
Although volunteers with Christians United for Haiti are working to help with the initial impact, Monel said this is only the beginning of a long road to rebuilding all that has been lost.
It could take years to rebuild, but he said his only hope is that people “don’t forget about the people of Haiti” in the future.
Donations can be dropped off at MP Island Cafe locations in Norfolk and Portsmouth. A list of acceptable items and ways to send monetary donations can be found on Christians Untied for Haiti’s Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/ChristiansUHaiti.
Sierra Jenkins, 229-462-8896, sierra.jenkins@virginiamedia.com
