Field Report: KIRF’s Earthquake Relief in Christchurch, NZ

On February 22^nd this year a 6.2 magnitude earthquake hit Christchurch, New Zealand.  The earthquake destroyed or rendered un-inhabitable most of the downtown commercial district in Christchurch and the neighboring harbor city of Lyttelton (where it toppled the once famous Volcano Café). 

 

Destroyed businesses in Christchurch, New Zealand.
Photo: Kai Kirwin

KIRF, through its director Mark Kirwin and volunteers Kai Kirwin and Totaea Rendell (KIRF’s South Pacific Representative), assisted Christchurch’s earthquake relief efforts from April 1 to April 9, 2011.

Our first day of assessment showed us the immense devastation the earthquake had caused to the city.  Block after block of the commercial and community center of Christchurch was destroyed.  This area was the heart of Christchurch supporting much of its business and tourist attractions.  Business owners and residents had still not been allowed back into their shops and homes since the earthquake to retrieve good and personal items due to the danger of further building collapse.  In fact, we felt three aftershocks during our relief work efforts!

We saw house after house and business after business with major structural damage and a red “UNSAFE” Earthquake Inspection sign. The red signs indicated that the buildings were not only un-inhabitable but residents and business owners were not allowed to enter them for any reason.

During the first few days of assessment we interviewed business owners and residents regarding how they were coping with the effects of the quake.  Many businesses had been forced to shut down and residents were living with friends or relatives. The government had installed port –a- potties along the streets and large tanks of water.  The sewer and water lines had broken throughout the earthquake zone causing the drinking water to be contaminated.  Much of the sewer run-off was, by unfortunate necessity, directed to open water such as the ocean and the various creeks throughout the city. 

We were advised by the government earthquake relief center in Lyttelton (RAC Center) that the eastern suburbs needed the most help.  We were told that many people in poverty lived in these areas.  We were also told that we were the first Americans (Kai and I) who had come to the center to offer aid.  Through our contacts we were able to set up a meeting at The Pacific Hub, which provides community services for the Maori and other Pacific Islanders in and around the eastern suburbs of Aranui and Wainoni.  The Pacific Hub is a small organization supported by New Zealand’s Ministry of Pacific Island Affairs.

Christchurch Cathedral destroyed
by the earthquake. Photo: Kai Kirwin

Through meetings with the kind folks at The Pacific Hub we found out that the last food aid available to the Pacific Islander families, donations from the Salvation Army, had just ceased. Even though these families would be without adequate food, there was no more non-profit-provided aid expected for them.  As you can well imagine, the local government is overwhelmed with the assistance effort, trying to repair the sewer /water lines and provide temporary housing for the displaced as well as rebuild the commercial zones.

We learned that many Pacific Islanders in the area had lost their homes and were living in cramped quarters with other families; one home had 29 people in it.  Respiratory infections were becoming a health concern because so many people were sleeping on damp floors caused by the liquefaction mud and water that came up through the surface of the ground right after the quake.  Many people had lost their jobs and had no income because of the quake damage to the commercial sector.

We found out these residents needed food, blankets, wind up torches (flash lights), water, generators, raised beds and other basic needs.  So, off we went to find out how KIRF could help with some of these items.

Through the generous support of several New Zealand businesses, such as the Wainoni Pak N’Save (where we purchased food), clothing manufacturer MOKO (who supported the travel and hotel costs for this trip as well as donated supplies) and MOKO’s suppliers: Texco International (where we purchased discounted blankets) and Headwear Specialists (where we purchased beanies at a significant discount). We were able to provide the needed and requested food supplies, blankets, socks, and beanies for 100 impoverished Pacific Islander families who had been severely affected by the earthquake.

After purchasing the food items and other relief supplies, we worked with police officers, who had been transferred from Auckland to help with the recovery effort. Together with them, a local police officer and more people from The Pacific Hub, we were able to create care packages for each of the families.  All of these people provided a tremendous help to us and were very kind and generous in their own time and efforts to help out the local community.

As special thank you goes out to MOKO who provided the relief volunteers with some cool t-shirts and a generous sponsorship for this relief trip. We thank our anonymous donor from Canada, and others from the US, who all made this relief trip possible.

Thank you.

Mark

Director and President
Kirwin International Relief Foundation, KIRFaid.org 

KIRF's earthquake relief volunteers and their new friends at
The Pacific Hub after helping out families who lost their homes.

 

KIRF planning earthquake relief effort with local friend in Christchurch, NZ

KIRF is collecting donations to purchase living supplies for earthquake survivors who lost the local Kiwi business owner in Christchurch, New Zealand. We are sourcing relief supplies in the Christchurch area as much as possible in order to support the local businesses that have also been devastated by the earthquake. Tourism is the main source of income for the area according to a recent Wall Street Journal article. The tourist economy has been temporarily halted by the 6.3 earthquake that flattened much of downtown Christchurch last Tuesday, February 22nd. The main tourist attraction in Christchurch, the Christchurch Cathedral has been destroyed and tourists are being asked to "stay away."

Have loved one's in Christchurch?
Google is helping people find their loved ones in Christchurch with their Earthquake Person Finder: http://christchurch-2011.person-finder.appspot.com/

Canterbury Earthquake Map
This map shows updated information on emergency services, road closures, water deliveries in Christchurch:
http://canterburyearthquake.org.nz/earthquake-map-overview/

Every little bit helps. It feels good to help others–and to get help when you need it.  Humans are social animals and what we do best as a species is to work together.  Working together with people affected by a natural disaster through informal aid networks and local caregivers is what our grassroots  100% volunteer Kirwin International Relief Foundation is all about. After five-plus years of disaster relief from the earthquake in Haiti with a local business owner in Port-au-Prince in 2010 to the doing Hurricane Katrina relief in Mississippi with a local school district to helping out with the Andaman Sea tsunami  disaster in Thailand in December 2004, we know from experience what it takes to really help people within their local community recover from a disaster with dignity, cultural competence and sustainability.

KIRF is an informal network of experienced Stage 2 disaster relief volunteers, led by Angela or Mark Kirwin, founders of KIRF, who pay their own way. We work with local Good Samaritans and aid professionals in a disaster area to deliver essential living supplies we purchase to those who need them the most. My heart goes out to those with loved ones in Christchurch.

Thank you,
Angela

Our "KIRF Work": Disaster relief that is small-scale but effective

Mark Kirwin driving through Port-Au-Prince.
Photo: CJ Paone

We started our small foundation KIRF (short for "Kirwin International Relief Foundation") in January 2005 after we returned home after surviving the tsunami disaster in southern Thailand with our children. Since then we have raised funds and have delivered disaster relief supplies to communities of natural and man-made disaster survivors nearly all over the world. Our in Haiti (2010 January earthquake relief), Burma (Cyclone Nargis relief), India (drought relief with KIRF India), Mississippi (Hurricane Katrina relief), Peru (2007 earthquake relief), Tanzania (drought relief with Roots and Shoots) and, of course, Thailand (Andaman Sea Tsunami relief).

Project managing efficient disaster relief can be incredibly complex enterprise in a foreign community and culture. There is the language barrier, a foreign culture and an unknown social network, an unknown transportation network and political structure that has to be worked at a time of, sometimes, near-chaos after a huge disaster such as the earthquake that devastated the government and the Port-Au-Prince area of Haiti.  Because KIRF is a small non-profit, managing the delivery of disaster relief supplies has to be done with extra efficiency. That is why we partner with local people and groups in a disaster area. Their enthusiastic support can make the seemingly impossible aid delivery effort, possible– even in the face of political opposition such as in Burma after Cyclone Nargis in 2008 and and structural violence, more recently, in Haiti*.

Basically, we "help others help themselves" in a respectful and culturally appropriate manner. We do this by working with local contacts and informal aid networks in disaster areas. Informal aid networks are ad hoc all-volunteer groups of good Samaritans who are comprised of locally respected leaders  such as medical workers, teachers, monks, church-leaders, local business owners and others.

Our local contacts come from a variety of sources but since their disaster relief goals are the same as ours, to help people in need directly and with accountability,  KIRF's disaster relief efforts have been pretty efficient and effective. An example of a local aid network would be the monks at several Buddhist monasteries who bravely delivered our aid supplies from the Thai border to the disaster survivors in the Irrawaddy Penninsula in Burma after Cyclone Nargis.The military regime's violations of human rights and obstruction of humanitarian aid for disaster victims was said to be "worse than Cyclone Nargis" according to the president of the Inter Parliamentary Union's (IPU) – a prominent international human rights group.

Angela Kirwin with Tanzanian Roots & Shoots youth.
Photo: CJ Oliverson

KIRF also works with formal aid groups with expert experience in a disaster area. For example, KIRF supported the local Roots and Shoots group in Arusha, Tanzania office with in-kind donations in 2006.**  While in Haiti, KIRF coordinated the delivery of relief supplies with an order of Salesian monks based in the Dominican Republic and identified formerly unknown camps of homeless earthquake survivors right after the earthquake to the US 82 Airborne of the US Army. Read about KIRF's Haitian disaster relief in our February Haitian earthquake posts.

Our foundation is 100% volunteer. We pay our own airfare expenses to disaster areas as do our volunteers. KIRF volunteers are also KIRF donors and have either some experience in the disaster area or have previous volunteer experience with KIRF.  They are used to roughing it in areas where 24-hour electricity and safe drinking water from a tap just doesn't exist.

Our disaster relief projects are small and narrowly focused. Instead of tens of thousands helped, we make a difference for tens of dozens at most. However, KIRF's relief supplies fill the needs of real families in need and help them make tomorrow a better day and a better future more possible for themselves and their children. To read more about KIRF  and our direct delivery of disaster relief and sustainable aid please go to our web site KIRFaid.org.

Thank you,

Angela Rockett Kirwin
Co-Founder of KIRF

*The term "structural violence" was popularized by medical anthropologist Dr. Paul Farmer in response to the political and economic barriers to medical care and health that he witnessed his working-class and peasant patients struggle with as they tried to get the basic necessities for life such as drinking water, nutritious food and access to education and medical care in Haiti. You can learn more about Dr. Farmer's effective work in Haiti at Partners In Health and in the inspiring book Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, a Man Who Would Cure the World
by Tracy Kidder.

**Roots and Shoots is an international youth service learning program of the Jane Goodall Institute with  groups of young people and parent volunteers making a difference in their communities all over the world.

Mark Kirwin and KIRF's Haiti relief profiled by Citations Magazine

KIRF's Haiti earthquake relief effort was profiled in Citations Magazine this month. Citations is published by the Ventura County Bar Association. Mark is a member of the Ventura County Bar Association and a principle at Haffner, Haffner & Kirwin as well as 11th Hour Mediation here in Ventura, California.

In addition to KIRF's last disaster relief effort in Haiti, KIRF co-founder Mark Kirwin's personal story that has influenced his work helping others is written about in the Citations article "The Dontquitman of San Buenaventura" >

Thanks to our generous donors and local support here in Ventura, California, KIRF was able to make a real difference for families who lost their homes in Haiti. Mark Kirwin arrived in Haiti on February 7th with local Ventura volunteers CJ Paone and Patrick Rea. Working with a local business owner in Port-au-Prince and his informal aid network of employees, KIRF was able to distribute 15,000 pounds of food relief and supplies in three days.

It's a nice validation for our pint-sized foundation to get some press coverage now and then--for us and for our donors. However, the best validations are the ones that we already have. They are our memories of doing the relief work ourselves, often in a difficult  and tragic disaster area like Port-au-Prince last February, and working with like-minded folks who are there to help, too. And, with them, make a difference.

There are so many stories. True stories. Good stories. Life changing stories. Someday we should write a book.

Peace.

Haiti earthquake relief: 22,000 pounds of food delivered to survivors in one week

KIRF Director Mark Kirwin and aid volunteers CJ Paone and Patrick Rea from Ventura, California are returning from a challenging but successful disaster relief effort in Haiti this weekend. In spite of the difficult road conditions, power outage, lack of hotels, the fuel shortage, grinding traffic and the language barrier, they were able to accomplish a lot due to their local contacts in Haiti and years of disaster relief experience.

In the first 3 days in Haiti, they, with the invaluable help of local Haitian business owner Lance Durban and the firm Manutech, were able to deliver about 15,000 pounds of food, water and other requested supplies to families who had lost their homes , jobs and, for many, loved ones. Many of the earthquake survivors that KIRF helped were living outside in ad hoc tent camps that were known to only the local Haitians. These families were in desperate need. For many of them their "KIRF family care packages" of culturally appropriate food, water, water filters and other living supplies was the first earthquake relief they had received.

The KIRF volunteers worked with a group of motivated and knowledgeable local Haitian volunteers--employees of Manutech, many who has lost their own homes and loved ones. Together in a hot warehouse the KIRF volunteers and Haitians worked for hours converting thousands of pounds of food staples and supplies, many purchased inside of Haiti by KIRF to help local farmers and venders, into single family care packages. Then, each day before dark, they delivered these packages to homeless earthquake survivors in need.

After only a week on the island, KIRF was able to deliver a total of 22, 000 pounds of food supplies through their local informal aid network with Manutech and our other contacts in Haiti and the order of Salesian monks in the Dominican Republic. We were able to get aid to previously undiscovered enclaves of homeless families and groups of children who were surviving just outside of Port-au-Prince. These undiscovered tent camp location were communicated to other local aid groups and to the amazing US 82nd Airborne soldiers who will be directing delivery of aid to them from the larger aid groups.

To our supporters here in the United States, and to our new friends in Haiti and the Dominican Republic: Thank you.

We could not of done this with out your help.

Haiti earthquake relief: Rain, rain go away...

It's raining now in Port-au-Prince. *sigh* According to my husband who is there, it took them 2 1/2 hours to drive out of the city this morning with the roads more congested and slow moving with the rainfall. (The photos on this post are from yesterday in Port-au-Prince and Jacmel.)

After driving through an early season downpour, they made it back to Santo Domingo finally. The KIRF team is currently working with a local order of Selasian monks to deliver the rest of food, water and living supplies after they return to the United States this weekend. However, it has been decided that KIRF will do more disaster relief in Haiti. We found a great informal aid network developed by the Haitian magnetic components manufacturer Manutech and their employees in Port-au-Prince. By working with the owners and employees of this firm, KIRF have been able to achieve a lot in a very short time:

• Aid delivery: KIRF purchased, packaged and delivered over 15,000 lbs of food supplies in 3 days
  
• Aid assessment: KIRF found new and unknown-to-the-international-aid-community earthquake survivor tent camps and delivered desperately needed food, water and other supplies that they needed
  
• Aid coordination: We shared new aid camp locations with larger international aid groups and governmental organizations such as the US Airborne division for future aid support
• Local rapport and respect: KIRF made lasting connections with local business leaders and citizens in Haiti for future aid work
• Culturally appropriate aid: we delivered easily utilized disaster relief supplies that the Haitians said they needed and could use
  
• Helped Haitian economy in our own small way: KIRF supported local Haitian business owners, farmers and their families by purchasing food relief supplies and petrol in Haiti (whenever it was possible)
• Efficient disaster relief: over 90% of each donated dollar went to purchasing and delivering disaster relief to families in need in Haiti

KIRF co-founder Mark Kirwin and KIRF volunteer aid workers CJ and Patrick of Ventura, Californai will be returning from Haiti this weekend.

We are blessed. Blessings to Haiti.

Haiti Aid Distribution hindered by crowded streets, fuel shortage (video)

Here's a short video from KIRF's rented van full of food care packages that were needed by one of the hundreds of tent camps just outside of Port-au-Prince. You can see how just getting supplies or medical care quickly from one part of Haiti to another can be a real challenge. The fuel shortage is another issue. Having local Haitian aid partners have been invaluable to KIRF for assessing needs, preparing aid packages, not getting lost, finding fuel, translating, and identifying earthquake survivor communities outside of PAP who have not yet received relief supplies. Our Haitian friends have helped us with all aspects of aid distribution. When we did find a new tent camp or community that needed disaster relief, we shared this information with the US Airborne who then, in turn, would get them more help. This video was taken early this morning just outside Port-au-Prince, Haiti.