The 51 children in a Haitian orphanage founded by an Omaha couple survived the Jan. 12 earthquake without harm. But will they survive the aftermath?
The children, ages 3 to 16, and the 11 staffers at Gift of God Orphanage in Port-Au-Prince have been unable to buy any food or water since the Jan. 12 earthquake, and had seen no sign of humanitarian aid by Monday, said Dan Jensen, board president of the nonprofit organization Faith Missions International. He and his wife, Irene, founded the Gift of God Orphanage and the nonprofit that supports it.
The children and staff have been surviving on small stores of rice, beans and oil they had on hand before the earthquake, and on contaminated water from a small well that they have been purifying with bleach, Jensen said.
The staff has been tightly rationing their meager supplies. They reported to Jensen on Monday that no aid had reached the orphanage and that food was running out.
“They’re getting down to the wire,” he said.
Distribution of food, water and medicine has been complicated by a transportation bottleneck at the main Port-au-Prince airport, transportation difficulties and disorganization among relief efforts, according to reports from Haiti. Faith Missions International is raising money for the orphanage but has not yet been able to deliver help.
“All you can do is pray,” Jen- sen said.
Most of the children were orphaned by Hurricane Jeanne in 2004. They survived a 2008 flood after Tropical Storm Hanna inundated Gift of God’s former location in Gonaïves, a coastal town, leaving them without additional food and water for 10 days.
The Jensens moved the orphanage to Port-au-Prince after the second flood. The previous experience heightens Dan Jen- sen’s concern for the orphans’ current plight. When relief supplies were delivered to the orphanage during the last flood, desperately hungry people converged and stole much of the food, he said.
“It becomes a Catch 22,” Jen- sen said. “You’re desperate to get relief to them, but that puts them into danger from other people who are also in need.”
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444-1057, christopher.burbach@owh.com
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