Letters From Haiti

Filed in National by on January 18, 2010

We all have a desire to help the people of Haiti in any way that we can.  Joanne Christian used an already scheduled trip to The Dominican Republic to volunteer at a 20 bed hospital in Santo Domingo that was helping 2,000 Haitian victims.  At some point, she decided that she should get some names of these people so that their family will know that they got out, although there is a likelihood that some of the people here have died of their injuries, or soon will.

Here are the images of the names that she collected on a paper bag that she had.

What can you do?  Forward these images along to Haitian friends.  Some of the letter formations in Haiti are different than here in the US, so there is some ambiguity.  Joanne was able to have a Haitian-American identify the names and is now trying to get the information to the Haitian embassy (although it is hard to get through right now).

Here are the names as best as I can transcribe them:

MiKerlan Olivier (DOB 7-28-75)
Natholie Olivier (DOB 9-11-77)
Jean Philippe Galdema
Jean Philippe Nela Pierre (mom)
Bilenie Pierre Maman
Chalaunie Viellard
Alexis Peterson (father)
Erline Emile Tonac
Rose Laure Depreville
Martine Theodore Sanon
Fanette Jean Baptiste (mom)
Franchinie Il Frard
Merville Ber Velz
Merveille Wiollgne

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Comments (20)

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  1. pandora says:

    Joanne is simply amazing. I had the honor of speaking with her today, and the stories she has to tell will break your heart. Thank you, Joanne.

  2. Delaware Dem says:

    Joanne is my kind of Republican, but most importantly, my kind of human being. The teabaggers who read and comment here, expressing their venom and hatred and racism at every turn, saying that the Haitians deserved their fate, should look at Joanne, and then look in the mirror, and be horrified at how small they measure up in comparison. And indeed, all of us on the left here at Delaware Liberal, from A.Price to Anonone to Jason330 to myself and my contributor colleagues, can learn by Joanne’s example too.

    Thank you Joanne for hopefully bringing relief and happiness and comfort to the desperate families of those on that list.

  3. Thank you Joanne, for what you did. Can we please keep this post at the top through tomorrow?

  4. liberalgeek says:

    The post has been marked “sticky” which should keep it on top until I change that.

  5. liberalgeek says:

    From Joanne: Patients were showing up with pieces of wood holding their crushed legs. Plenty of IV’s, but no antibiotics. There are no clean sheets. There is no toilet paper. There are 2 patients per bed, with 4 or 5 on the floor around the bed. The 10 bed hospital was serving 2,000 victims.

    Patients (and their families) were sharing a single cup among hundreds of people. Urine-soaked clothes and bandages on everyone.

    She agreed with the idea that the next step is likely amputation to live. People will need their legs (sometimes up to the hip) removed.

  6. Delaware Dem says:

    I have cross posted to Daily Kos, Facebook, and Twitter.

  7. Good idea posting on dkos. I’ll go rec up and pimp the diary.

  8. pandora says:

    I just rec’d it. Nicely done, DD.

  9. liberalgeek says:

    Among the more shocking stories from her was a request by reporters from a US newspaper for her to take their picture looking suitably concerned for the story they were about to report.

  10. Joanne Christian says:

    OMG–Geek, I can’t believe how you got this up! I am not w/ my paperbag right now to relist the spellings LG put up–but THANK YOU for putting it out this way. I think if people can identify a name through a tighter resolution of signature, they will see that what I thought was an “I” is a “G” in Haiti/Creole. 75% of names are children–if mom or dad is noted next to it, they are not injured, it was my scratch to signify this person identified themselves as a child’s parent on the list, but who is alive, ambulatory and communicating–attendant to their child, but separated from everyone else. Thank you, thank you, thank you LG, cass, pandora, UI, and all Dellib and readership for facilitating this effort. You are being counted on from somebody 2500+ miles away, and I assured them you would do it, because I couldn’t!!!
    FTR-Most injuries are broken bones or head injuries that made it out to where I was hunkered down.

  11. Delaware Dem says:

    Joanne, the typed out list of names was done by me using the highest resolution we had of the image. Please correct any mistakes I made.

    We have cross posted this to Twitter, Facebook and Daily Kos.

  12. Delaware Dem says:

    And thanks go to you Joanne, not to us. I can only imagine.

  13. John Young says:

    This amazing effort and no on RTTT, you are an angel! Keep up the GREAT work.

  14. Ancora Imparo says:

    Wow! The human spirit is incredible! Joanne – thank you for your true humanity. I am deeply humbled by your actions and how amazingly people will pull together. Thank you DL for posting names.

  15. pandora says:

    DD, you made the rec list at DKos! Congratulations on posting such an important diary.

  16. Joanne Christian says:

    Del Lib–Here is my review of hard copy signatures. These names are written by the PERSON, not me transcribing. I do not speak one word of French/Creole–so I am now writing in print, the cursive they signed–consider it their sign-in sheet. I do suspect some wrote last name first, and vice versa. I am not culturally literate of this group and how they would “sign in” to be accounted for. Again, a parent/relative signed for the child–hence the same penmanship.

    Mikerlan Olivier 28/07/75
    Nathalie Olivier 11/09/77 Impasse Vaillant #12
    Jean Philippe Galdemia
    Jean Philippe Nela Pierre (mom)
    Bilenie Pierre Maman
    Charlaunie Viellard
    Alexis Peterson (father)
    Erline Emile Tonac (daughter- appears pigment deficient i.e. albinism)
    Rose Laure Dupreville
    Martine Theodore Sanon
    Fanette Jean-Baptiste (mom)
    Franchinri (Franzhenri) Gefrard
    Merveille Bervely
    Merveille Wiulyne

    Thank you for being so patient with this. Parentheses are my notes.

  17. Suzanne says:

    Thank you for doing this – and to JOanne – we are proud of what you’re doing to help!

  18. WDEL will talk to JoAnne live at @ 4:35 this Tuesday afternoon during the “WDEL Delaware Afternoon News”.

    By the way, she has returned from the Dominican Republic.

    Allan Loudell
    WDEL Radio

  19. just kiddin says:

    What is happening in Haiti is travesty. The Guardian, Globe, Daily Mail and Washington Post all had articles up yesterday regarding the US using the small airport for troop arrivals turning back humanitarin aid ships. French complainted at the EU in Brussels yesterday, “Haiti needs humanitarian help, not troops”. The US must clarify whether it plans to use the Haiti Rescue effort as a reason to occupy Haiti and establish yet another military base. Today, the US did a reversal stating they will allow the humanitarian aid in first, troops second. So why wasnt this done in the early days!

    It was admitted that only 40,000 Haitians are receiving water/food, what about the 2M left? Preval had no heavy equipment in Haiti, no food stores, few police and no distribution centers. After the floods in 2004 and later, the farmland was devastated so crops couldnt be planted. Why were there not heavy equipment, tractors and other equipment necessary to get Haiti then? Why was China 8000 miles away able to get humanitarian aid in, while Haiti 90 miles off our coast with bases in Puerto Rico couldnt get their quicker?

    Doctors without Borders, Red Cross, Brazil, and others have all complained and filed those complaints with the state Dept regarding troops taking up airport space rather than humanitarian aid. The ship the Vinson was permitted in, and arrived without any humanitarian aid. Robert Gates said, there is no distribution centers established to get the aid where its desperately needed. Why didnt they air drop food and water in the early days?

    Haitians are demanding Aristede the real president be allowed to return the Preval the american selected president be ousted.

    I applaud JoAnne for going to help, she is a true humanitarian.