Washington, DC - My heart dropped and I felt weak when I saw the news about Haiti. I have no words to describe the devastation that this most recent earthquake has brought to this country, the poorest in the Western Hemisphere and the size of the state of Maryland. I cannot imagine what the Haitian people are going through, especially those living in and around Port-au-Prince.

I spent today trying to contact our grantee partners—or anyone else who knows them—to find out if they and the children they serve are okay. Unsurprisingly, I had no luck getting through by phone or email to individuals living in Haiti.

We have three current grantee partners in Haiti: Asanble Vwazen Jakè (Jakè Neighborhood Association), or AVJ, located in Port-au-Prince; Pazapa, located in Jacmel; and Light for All, located in Lhomond. Each of these groups has established innovative community schools for extremely low-income children, and Pazapa works specifically with children with disabilities.

The first person I got in touch with this morning was Gerry Delaquis, the founder of Light for All (LiFA), who is currently in Miami. He is planning to set up a relief effort to reach out to the community his school serves to fulfill their needs, and then to surrounding communities. He also said that he was in touch with folks in Haiti immediately after the quake (his sister called 30 minutes after it hit), but he has been unable to reach anyone from LiFA. He also said that after the first quake, which registered 7.3 on the Richter scale, there were no less than 33 more tremors, some of which registered between 5 and 6 on the Richter scale.

One of the people that Gerry was able to contact (not anyone from LiFA, but a person living in Port-au-Prince) told Gerry that thankfully her office building survived the first hit, but everything in her office was thrown onto the ground. Her boss let her entire office off early and when she drove down the street everything was in chaos—people were out, concrete blocks littered the road, and traffic was gridlocked. Gerry’s last communication with Haiti was at 5 PM yesterday.

Gerry also commented that in addition to the most tragic devastation and death, the collapse of the presidential palace was a severe symbolic blow to the country’s national identity. Despite all the problems, people took pride in that national and historic landmark. It now stands in ruins.

In addition to Gerry, I spoke with Reagan Lolo, a former director of AVJ, who is currently studying in Oakland, California. Lolo was raised in the neighborhood of Jaké, located in Port-au-Prince. He has been desperately trying to reach folks, with no success. On the news he saw places near his neighborhood in ruins. However, he did say that because there are no big buildings in Jaké (it is a shantytown), at least nobody could be buried under concrete.

Internet connections are out around the country and power is out as well (where power didn’t go out, the government disconnected it to prevent fire and electrocution hazards).

One thing that was really impressive was that everyone I spoke with was trying to get back to Haiti ASAP. This obviously makes sense if you live in Haiti and your family is there, but it was also the case for people who live in Miami and who still work with Haitians, or ex-pats who are concerned and want to help. Many volunteers are leaving in vast numbers by flying to the Dominican Republic and crossing the border by bus or by motorcycle.

I hope we can mobilize support for our partners and other grassroots groups in Haiti. I know that many large-scale relief efforts will be flooding Haiti in the coming weeks, but I wonder: will the groups working to address Haiti’s ongoing crisis of poverty and hunger—which affects Haiti’s children and youth every day—receive any of that support? In my role as program officer for Latin America and the Caribbean at GFC, that is what I will do my best to make happen through continued support of our grassroots partners in Haiti.

One of the unintended consequences of relief efforts is that the already-fragile local economies, and particularly local food producers, are undermined with massive quantities of imported food aid. Our grantee partners and their collaborators are exploring an initiative to ensure that school children continue to receive food, and that this food is purchased at fair market prices from local farmers.

I am thankful to be in a position where I can, in some small way, support a country and a people who have relentlessly faced blow after blow, and who never give up their struggle to help their communities, improve themselves, and uplift their country. We can learn so much from the strength of the Haitian people and we owe them our support and solidarity, not only in the face of this disaster, but for the long term.