CJTF-Hait extends helping hand to Haitian people

[thedrifter]

CJTF-Hait extends helping hand to Haitian people
Submitted by: MCB Camp Lejeune
Story Identification #: 2004525175525
Story by Sgt. Ryan S. Scranton



PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI(May 25, 2004) -- Marines, sailors, airmen and soldiers from Combined Joint Task Force-Haiti working alongside Haitian medical professionals provided assistance to more than 400 Haitians during a Medical Civic Action Program May 13.
Personnel from Marine Air Ground Task Force – 8 and Combat Service Support Detachment – 20, here supporting CJTF-Haiti, as well as medical staff members from the Haitian National Police and a local hospital, treated patients on a walk-in basis at a clinic set-up at a police station in the Bel-Air District.
“It feels good helping out people in a country where people can’t help themselves,” said Seaman Wayne A Morstad, a corpsman with 3rd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment.
The clinic set up at the Haitian National Police Dispensary helped rebuild an important bond with the community that had been broken.
“This has been a wonderful thing, it will help our image as a professional police force,” said Harry Brossard, the HNP’s director of medical services.
After years of reported corruption and abuse by the HNP, the force is working to rebuild its reputation with the community.
“This civil and military joint venture will help tremendously in getting the word out to the people that the police force has changed, and we are here to help them.”
Another bridge was also being built, one that connects the Haitian people with Multinational Interim Force - Haiti.
“The things we did today definitely helped to reestablish and strengthen ties between the Haitian people and the forces here,” said Capt. Scott A. Criss, with the Multinational Interim Force. “It’s a bridge of trust we are building today,” he explained.
The medical personnel, working out of the impromptu clinic, were able to treat approximately 40 obstetric and gynecology patients as well as more than 135 children and 230 others in need of care.
“I think today went great,” said Sgt. First Class Scott Bartollo, a Special Forces medic with the 96th Civil Affairs Battalion who helped coordinate the clinic. “We helped a lot of people today, that’s what’s important.”
Bartollo is one of many who find gratification in knowing that they are able to provide assistance to people with very little material wealth, but who are rich in character.
“It feels good to help them out because I know that they are capable of great things,” Bartollo explained. “The Haitian people are a proud and strong people who have endured many years of struggle, but they still have hope.”
Although hope may have been all the Haitian people had to cling to while they endured that time of struggle, times have changed with a helping hand extended to them by the MIFH.
“Today’s clinic has added to another chapter in building a stronger relationship between us and the Haitian people,” Criss said. “Everything that we did today is just part of the mission in bringing about a more stable and prosperous future for Haiti.”

http://www.usmc.mil/marinelink/image1.nsf/Lookup/2004525182427/$file/DSC_0007lowres.jpg

PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI - A Navy Doctor with Combined Joint Task Force-Haiti checks the eyesight of a Local Haitian child during a medical civil actions program May 13. Combined Joint Task Force - Haiti personnel from Marine Air Ground Task Force - 8, Combat Service Support Detachment - 20 and medical staff members from the Haitian National Police and a local hospital set-up a clinic at a police station treating more than 400 patients on a walk-in basis. Photo by: Sgt. Ryan S. Scranton

http://www.usmc.mil/marinelink/mcn2000.nsf/main5/FFB49ED833AA556C85256E9F00786E1A?opendocument


Ellie

[thedrifter]

CJTF-Haiti assists in city cleanup
Submitted by: MCB Camp Lejeune
Story Identification #: 2004525154227
Story by Sgt. Ryan S. Scranton



PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI(May 25, 2004) -- In Cite Soleil, one of the most destitute neighborhoods in this poverty-ridden city, Marines and sailors team-up with a U.S.-based charity to provide much-needed work to the residents of Haiti’s slum by the sea.
Small children play barefoot in the streets as Marines and sailors provide security for local Haitian workers, wearing rubber boots and using pitchforks and shovels, the workers scoop seemingly endless amounts of garbage, sludge and human waste into back-end loaders and dump trucks.
The clean-up project is a joint venture of Marines and sailors from Combat Service Support Detachment - 20, Marine Air Ground Task Force - 8 and Food for the Poor, a Florida-based non-governmental organization. The project has been underway for more than two weeks and has proved beneficial for both the Marines and the Haitians living in the area.
“Since we’ve been out here, we’ve removed eight to ten dump truck loads of trash a day from this area along with strengthening the bond between the forces here and the Haitian people,” said Chief Warrant Officer Michael A. Chin, CSSD-20’s maintenance detachment commander.
Chin and his Marines have been actively monitoring, coordinating and providing security for local workers contracted by Food for the Poor to clean the drainage ditch that runs through the neighborhood’s collage of half-built cinder block shelters and tin huts. Much of the black sludge which normally lies stagnate in the canal, has overflowed into the streets and surrounding area since the start of Haiti's rainy season.
“The canal that was built originally is very small, it was certainly not big enough for the amount of debris that has been deposited here,” Chin said.
Working with backhoes and other heavy equipment, Chin explained that they plan to expand the width and depth of the canal to prevent overflow problems in the future.
“We’ve widened the canal from three feet to ten feet and deepened it from six inches to about five feet,” he said.
Cite Soleil residents have been discarding all types of waste into the canals for years. With no running water or plumbing and no other place to throw their trash, the build-up of debris has finally reached its threshold.
“We’ve been digging down five feet in some areas and pulling up old clothes and garbage that has been there for who knows how long,” Chin explained.
The small alleys created by row after row of shanty shacks and hodgepodge hovels have become a significant obstacle for the Marines and contractors trying to remove the piles of rotting refuse and waste, according to Chin.
“We are working with heavy equipment here and the garbage is down alleys right on people’s doorsteps, as if these homes were built on a landfill,” he explained.
The desperate circumstances under which these people live are the underlying factor to why this project was so important to the Marines, according to Chin.
“Cite Soleil is one of the poorest areas of the city. Out of everyone here, they are the most in need. I think the concept of what we are doing is great, it gives us a chance to really make an impact on these people’s lives.”
Along with simply cleaning up one of the most neglected parts of the city, the project has given the Marines a chance to develop a bond with the Haitian people.
“No matter what we do, there will always be people who look at you with stone eyes. But, I‘ve seen the people here fear us less and start approaching us more,” Chin said. “Most of the people I talk to don’t want us to leave at the end of the day,” he added.
The drainage ditch project is just one of many projects the Marines and other members of Multinational Interim Force - Haiti have undertaken to improve living conditions in Cite Soleil. The task force has conducted operations to clear many city streets throughout Port-Au-Prince and delivered hundreds of thousands of dollars of supplies, such as medical equipment, food and water. All of these efforts have helped the Haitian people and encouraged them to help themselves, according to Chin.
“Since we’ve been doing the street clearing and debris removal, I’ve seen Haitians start to take the initiative to start loading up trash and cleaning their areas on their own,” he explained.
Although Chin and his fellow Marines are focused on the task at hand, many are also concerned about Haiti’s future.
“I just hope that when we leave here, Haiti will not be forgotten. I really hope that efforts to make it a better place for the people here to live continue,” Chin said.

http://www.usmc.mil/marinelink/image1.nsf/Lookup/200452516370/$file/DSC_0155lowres.jpg

PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI - A Local Haitian worker cleans-up refuse and debris in the Cite Soliel district of the city here recently. The clean-up effort is a joint venture by Marines and sailors from Combat Service Support Detachment - 20 and Marine Air Ground Task Force - 8 as well as Food for the Poor, a local non-government organization here. Photo by: Sgt. Ryan S. Scranton

http://www.usmc.mil/marinelink/mcn2000.nsf/main5/1BDFE706769D53D685256E9F006C41AB?opendocument


Ellie

[thedrifter]

CJTF-Haiti scores with Haitian community
Submitted by: MCB Camp Lejeune
Story Identification #: 2004525164751
Story by Sgt. Ryan S. Scranton



PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI (May 15, 2004) -- A friendly but competitive game of hoops between Combined Joint Task Force - Haiti personnel and members of the local community was played here May 16 to bridge the gap between the Multinational Interim Force – Haiti and the Haitian populace.
The basketball game, ending in a 54 to 37 victory for the CJTF, was intended to do a lot more than determine which team was better, or who had the best jump shot.
“This was a way for us to let our hair down and let the community know we are not just a gun-toting force. We are human beings just like they are, and we can have a good time,” said Col. Mario LaPaix, special advisor to CJTF-Haiti’s commander.
The 13-man CJTF team's success in trumping the local Haitian team was not necessarily because of their talent as much as their experience and organization, according to LaPaix.
“The Haitians had a talented team, but basketball is an American sport and a lot of the guys on our team have played organized basketball before. So we had an edge,” LaPaix explained.
The basketball game was not the first time the task force has put together a sports team to go head-to-head with members of the community. Having been defeated in a soccer match a few weeks prior, the CJTF personnel wanted an opportunity to show the local community an American sport.
“Our sports are baseball and basketball,” LaPaix said. “We wanted to introduce them to one of our sports.”
The task force wasn’t exactly stacking the deck when they put together a team to face off with the community’s ballers, according to LaPaix.
“Nothing special was done,” he explained. “We just put the word out that we were going to play the community and those that volunteered got to play. We had some good players and some not-so-good players.”
The game, played on a cement court just a few hundred meters from the CJTF compound's front gate, attracted approximately 2,000 spectators from the local community, who came to show their support and satisfy their curiosity.
“The fact that we had so many people show up says a lot about the community,” LaPaix said. “It shows how much they respect us and that they want to be a part of what we do and how we do it,” he continued.
Although the community’s involvement may not be outwardly apparent to an outsider, the surrounding community role in the security of the MIFH forces is very clear to LaPaix, who is a Haitian-American himself.
“The community as a whole has been extremely responsive to us. They have provided our external security,” LaPaix said, citing a recent problem with thieves stealing the barbed wire from the outskirts of the compound before community members helped the MIFH forces apprehend the criminals.
“It just goes to show that the community is watching out for us, and they take our force protection to heart,” he said.
The game, which was organized to reach out to the local community, has had far reaching effects, according to LaPaix.
“The game definitely accomplished the mission, which was to reach out to the people. They are talking about the game all throughout Haiti, and that is significant because we have a marriage with the community.”

Ellie