From Disaster to Solidarity:
Best Practices In Meeting the Needs of Haiti's Earthquake Survivors
by Beverly Bell Other Worlds
The Lambi Fund of Haiti
Like so many organizations around the world which raised money for Haiti's earthquake survivors, the Lambi Fund has been inundated with donations from individuals and progressive foundations. Unlike most of those organizations, though, the Lambi Fund's response is premised on reinforcing the strength and autonomy of Haitian community organizations. Based in both the U.S. and Haiti, the Lambi Fund shows how the international community can give urgent assistance in ways that allow the peasant and women?s group to strengthen their production or commerce, their advocacy, and their organizations themselves.
Lambi's post-earthquake work continues the same philosophy that it has always held, which is to provide financial resources, training, and technical assistance to peasant-led and/or womenled community organizations, thus strengthening the Haitian people's social and economic power. Its current collaborations build off of long-standing relationships of trust and respect. Within days after the earthquake, Lambi staff convened regional assemblies of local peasants to define immediate needs and prioritize rebuilding. In response to what people expressed, Lambi's post-catastrophe work is to meet its partner communities' needs for the immediate, while helping them rebuild and expand sustainable rural development and agricultural production for the mid- to long-term.
The urgent aid focuses on giving cash disbursements to 22 grassroots groups in the Artibonite, where an estimated 150,000 internally displaced people have relocated, as well as 17 groups in the South and four more in the Northwest. The money helps the community groups organize themselves; provide clothes, food, medicine, tents, and other essentials; and fortify the local economy.
Mid-term plans include building 880 new latrines in rural areas to prevent the spread of disease. They also include expanding Lambi's women?s program to address women's special vulnerability since the catastrophe. Plans also include funding efforts to expand local agriculture, reforest, gain access to water, and increase micro-enterprises, such as collective grain mills and bakeries. Finally, Lambi funding will go to supporting the groups' ability to do advocacy to express their own needs for Haiti's rebuilding.
