MAR 29, 2024 JLM 63°F 04:02 AM 09:02 PM EST
The Israeli changing lives in quake-torn Haiti

For Israeli aid worker, Ben Katzir, every day helping Haitians in the wake of yet another devastating earthquake is like a month, because there is so much to do.

It wasn’t a convenient time for Ben Katzir to drop everything and fly to Haiti. When a devastating earthquake hit the tropical Caribbean country, Katzir was just one month into his Ph.D. studies in sustainable development at Tel Aviv University.

Nevertheless, three days later he was on a JetBlue plane, traveling 6,500 miles from Israel to serve as IsraAID’s emergency coordinator in Haiti.

When disasters strike anywhere in the world, IsraAID and other Israeli entities often are among the first to respond. It was no different this time when the earthquake left some 684,000 Haitians urgently in need of relief items and psychosocial support.

IsraAID and SmartAID were there within days.

Katzir, 38, was strongly drawn to be part of the effort. He’d been on IsraAID’s team in Haiti after the major January 2010 earthquake. The relationships he forged then and during a subsequent stint made it impossible for him to stay away now.

“We aren’t here just to take pictures,” Katzir stresses. “While we are doing assessments, we are already doing good by distributing shelters, water treatment kits, hygiene kits, and solar lights.”

Katzir brought a large water filter made by Israel’s NUFiltration and are distributing smaller filtration systems from American company Sawyer to remote communities affected by the earthquake.

 “The needs here were already huge, and the earthquake made everything worse,” Katzir says. To make matters worse, there have been many aftershocks and then a tropical storm bringing high winds and downpours.

 “I lost count of how many days we’re here,” says Katzir, “because every day is like a month. There is so much to do. I need to go back to Israel soon, but others will continue this work.

And then there’s the Covid pandemic.

“Nobody talks about it because there are bigger and more urgent problems at the moment,” says Katzir, noting that aside from NGO officials and healthcare personnel, most people don’t wear facemasks.

According to August 11 figures from the US Embassy in Haiti, the country of 11.26 million citizens has 20,477 active Covid-19 cases and 575 recorded Covid deaths.

Until July 14, Haiti was the only country in the Americas without a single dose of a Covid-19 vaccine. And even now, there’s only enough for 3-5% of the population.

“Now we hear in some areas affected by the earthquake people are having flulike symptoms and we hope it is not Covid,” says Katzir.

Photo: Israel21C.org

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