THE CONFERENCE GROUP

Interaction

January 28, 2010

• Operator: Welcome to the one p.m. audio press briefing on which US NGOs working in
Haiti will share details of progress and challenges since the earthquake. This call is
scheduled to last for one hour, with the question and answers portion scheduled to begin
at approximately 1:35 p.m. Nasserie Carew, Interaction's Senior Director of Public
Relations, will now provide you with the agenda and introduce the moderator. Nasserie,
you may begin.

• Ms. Nasserie Carew: Hello, everyone, and thank you for logging on to our [inaudible]
call. All participants will be muted during the question and answer session. And as a
reminder to everyone, if you do want to talk to the operator before the Q&A portion,
please press zero--star-zero on your telephone pad. And I know we're missing a couple
of people, but we will start right now and have our Vice President of Humanitarian Policy
and Practice to start us on the agenda.

• Mr. Jim Bishop: Hi, thank you. This is Jim Bishop of InterAction, Vice President of
Humanitarian Policy and Practice, as you just heard, and it is my pleasure to call Kathryn
Bolles, Director of Emergency Health and Nutrition for Save The Children, who is
calling from Port-Au-Prince. Kathryn Bolles, are you there, please?

• Ms. Kathryn Bolles: Hello, this is Kathryn Bolles. I'm having trouble hearing. Can
you hear me?

• Mr. Jim Bishop: Yes, we hear you loud and clear.

• Ms. Kathryn Bolles: Great. Thank you.

• Okay. Well, Save The Children has worked in Haiti for over 25 years and has launched a
massive response to the earthquake both for the three million people who have been
directly affected, living in areas impacted by the earthquake, but also in parts of the
country in which many people are moving by the thousands and tens of thousands in
other areas. Immediate and urgent relief that Save The Children is providing and is
urgently needed are food, water, sanitation, shelter, and medical care. Save The Children
is also focusing on education for children and their protection needs. I'm going to take a
few minutes and just speak about health conditions right now after the earthquake and
just start by saying that the situation in Haiti before the earthquake was quite precarious
for children. And now, in addition to facing the immediate impact of those who have
died, those who have been wounded, the trauma, those who have lost everything, their
 houses, their livelihoods, we're also looking at, unless we act now together, we can see a
second disaster coming in health for children. Specifically, some of the things that I'm
seeing when I go to visit the camps in these makeshift settlements where people are
gathering all over the community and all over Port-Au-Prince and the surrounding areas,
there are cases of diarrhea in the camps that are increasing by the day, and diarrhea is one
of already the biggest killers of children under five in the developing world. Immediate
response to these kinds of cases are providing essential life-saving messages around
hygiene, providing soap and clean water, sanitation, and mobilizing, talking with and
gathering the hundreds of community health workers and volunteers, doctors and nurses
who are themselves displaced and living in these settlements to talk with mothers and
children and the most vulnerable populations about hygiene messages and health
messages. Women are giving birth, and have been giving birth since the earthquake in
these settlement areas. And working with, again, the doctors, the nurses, the midwives,
those in the population who can assist mothers in the camps to deliver their children in a
safe way with clean supplies is also urgently needed. And I have been in Haiti since the
day after the earthquake hit. And in my visits to camps where from--anywhere from 200
families to 10,000 families are living, I continually run into women who are giving birth,
who are in labor, who are desperately in need of clean supplies and safe message. Lack
of access to food is crucial, and the need for food is growing by the day. Save The
Children is distributing food through partnerships with the World Food Programme and
others, specifically looking at the nutritional needs of malnourished children and the most
vulnerable populations. But, the need is great, and efforts of all humanitarian aid
agencies need to focus on providing these life-saving supplies of food, water, and shelter
immediately. And I'll just conclude by saying yesterday I visited a camp on the outskirts
of Port-Au-Prince with about 2,000 people. There was one woman that I would call a
hero, who is a volunteer health worker. She's in her 20s. Her name was Dr. Luke [sp], as
everyone called her in the camp. And she has been working since immediately after the
earthquake in this area, providing medical care and support to the community gathered
there. And when I visited her, she told me that she had run out of medicines. She didn't
have clean water, that the people needed water and food, and that she herself is sleeping
on the ground, and she had sort of infections and wounds and bug bites on her legs, and
said she was almost unable to continue. Without shelter over her head, without
medicines and supplies, she simply psychologically could not continue to work there.
So, Save The Children, in this example--and this is one of thousands of examples--are
providing a tent over her head so that she can conduct her clinic, bringing in some
nursing staff to support her, bringing in food and water. And this is an example of the
kind of person and the kind of support that's needed now to really be able to rebuild Haiti
over certainly the next week and the next month, but also the next three years and five
years and 20 years to make this a better place for children.

• Mr. Jim Bishop: Great, Kathryn. Thank you very much. We'll turn next to Amy
Gaver, the Director of International Response and Program Integration at the American
Red Cross here in Washington. Amy?

• Ms. Amy Gaver: Thank you. The American Red Cross has spent or committed more
than $67 million to meet the most urgent needs in Haiti - food, water, shelter, and health.
 The International Red Cross and Red Crescent movement is deeply committed to
organizing the most effective response to the tremendous humanitarian need caused by
the earthquake which struck Haiti on the 12th of January. Response and rescue for this
earthquake began immediately with the actions of the Haitian Red Cross and their
government. Soon after, the other Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies joined in those
efforts, some outstanding, such as the Colombia Red Cross, which brought the rescue
dogs, even as late as yesterday finding another person yet to save. The Haitian Red Cross
and other Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies plan for disaster response in the method
of teaching the individual and community level so that rescue can become part of an
action that is taken immediately. First aid skills, understanding of how to approach a
rescue are integral to this disaster community level planning. Through our response and
recovery efforts through our 100-plus year history, we have learned many key lessons on
large events such as this earthquake. First and foremost, assist government coordination
and planning. Secondly, support organizations that are best placed to respond. Third,
adapt programming to the changing needs, and there will be many. Fourth, plan for early
sustainability so that the programs who we support are able to be taken up by the
networks that exist within country, or, in our case, the Red Crescent--the Haitian Red
Cross Society, which has been there since the 1930s, and it's worked as--we with--
worked as a partner with for the last 30-plus years. Other key lessons are coordination,
coordination, coordination, coordinate at strategic and operational level. That is what it
takes to make it effective. Plan recovery early. Recovery and release go hand-in-hand
and should be planned as such. To that end, we're sending a senior level mission--
scoping mission to Haiti to work with the World Bank, the UN, the Haitian government
and other key partnerships to do a scoping mission of the long--the immediate,
intermediate and long-term recovery needs for Haitian people. Integrated planning must
be created from the beginning. People live in a holistic way. Our solutions and offers to
them must also be holistic in their measure. Allow sufficient time to consult with
communities and government. We often act in a rush, and one of the key pieces not to
miss is the participatory process of the community's input in the--in their own solution.
Accountabilities to beneficiary is achieved only by placing them at the center of
programming, an essential key lesson. Accountability to donors must be ensured. We
consistently provide updates of information through multiple media here at the American
Red Cross, as do our in-country partners. Capacity building is paramount, capacity
building in our case, for the national societies as with other agencies, so that the programs
can continue to the benefit of the Haitian people. And then, finally, reduction must be
integral from the beginning. We must ensure disaster risk reduction strategies are central
to design and implementation and monitoring. The devastation that has occurred in Haiti
is a sober reminder to all of us to maintain our commitment to reducing risk globally for
the most vulnerable.

• Mr. Jim Bishop: Thank you very much, Amy. We'll hear next from Jeff Wright,
disaster response expert with World Vision US, who's calling in from Port-Au-Prince.
Jeff?

• Mr. Jeff Wright: Hi, thanks for that. Just a few stats about World Vision's response.
First of all, at this point, we have a known financial pipeline of approximately 60 million
 for the response. That's expected to grow a bit over the coming weeks. But, at this point,
that's what we're looking at. We're looking at a phased approach to this disaster, with an
initial 90-day emergency response period. Close to the end of that 90 days, we'll be
reviewing and coming up with early recovery and long-term recovery plans, at this point
estimating, all told, recovery programming lasting for about five years. Right now, we're
prioritizing the following sectors: shelter, water and sanitation, livelihood, child
protection, with cost-cutting themes of accountability [inaudible]. In terms of outputs to
date, we've been conducting food distributions every day since the earthquake happened.
Yeah, approximately 40 metric tons per day, give or take. We're looking at [inaudible]--
sorry, cutting in and out here--we're looking at partnering with World Food Programme
to deliver a very significant amount of food starting up this weekend in Soleil, and
[unintelligible], we're still negotiating the final arrangement on [inaudible]. That's it for
me. Thank you.

• Mr. Jim Bishop: Yes, thank you very much, Jeff. We'll hear next from Lane Harhtill
with Catholic Relief Services, Communications Officer, who is also calling in from Port-
Au-Prince. Lane?

• Mr. Lane Harthill: Yes, thank you for having me. I just kind of want to set the scene
for the listeners on this call. Catholic Relief Services is heavily involved in two sectors,
primarily health and in food distribution. And right now, I'm at--sitting at the Petion-
Ville Club, which is one of the sites where we're distributing food. It's one of the largest
camps in the city. Nobody knows exactly how many people are here, somewhere around
30 to 50,000 people. It's growing all the time. And we're just--we're delivering--we've
been delivering food over the last few days. We have 240 metric tons of food that has
come in, and a little bit more is yet to arrive. What we've done is we've divided the camp
into quadrants, and we've delivered tickets to heads of household in each quadrant. So,
we went tent-to-tent, handed out these vouchers. Each voucher is a different color. And
every day, a color comes through and receives food. We have a team right now
assembling food kits. This is USAID food. It's lentils, vegetable oil and bulgur, and
those kits are then brought down. It's enough rations for about two weeks for a family of
five. The US military has secured the site, and they are helping us transport this food.
They're also helping with security. The distributions have gone incredibly smooth. I'm
looking right now - there's somewhere around 1,000 or so people gathered. They've lined
up. They've got their tickets. They're going through the line, getting their food and going
back into the camp. We've also--we also have teams delivering food at smaller camps
throughout the city. I don't know exactly how many of these makeshift camps have
sprung up. There's somewhere around 600 in the greater Port-Au-Prince area, so there's a
lot of need out there. We had a lot of requests coming in for food, and we're doing our
best to get it out there as quickly and efficiently as we can. But, as days go by,
desperation grows, and we want to do this as safe as we can. That's why we decided to
go with the ticket system, because we know you can't just back a truck in and open the
doors. It's going to be really chaotic. So, the tickets seem to work, and we're really
pleased with the outcome. Thank you.
• Mr. Jim Bishop: Thank you, Lane. Mario Flores, have you joined us? Apparently
Mario has not, so let's turn next to Sam Worthington, the President and CEO of
InterAction.

• Mr. Sam Worthington: Thank you for the chance to address you this afternoon and for
the comments from our colleagues in Port-Au-Prince for being on the phone with us. It is
important to understand that the InterAction community has been working in Haiti for up
to 55 years, that as this earthquake happened, it happened on many organizations, and
sadly, there was a loss of life and family. Many in our community are going to work
from homes that were damaged. There are currently 2,277 member staff supporting some
80 organizations who are either directly involved or supporting relief efforts on the
ground in Haiti. One of the core lessons we learned from the tsunami was the need to
stand up for more effective coordination of the NGO community. The US government,
through its Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance, has asked InterAction to set up a
coordination office in Port-Au-Prince that will be responsible for not only our member
community but, in partnership with our umbrella organization in Europe, for all NGOs
operating on the ground, sharing information with the disaster response team of the US
government, and looking at possible funding opportunities as that unfolds. We're also on
a regular basis, as part of the UN coordination under General Secretary John Holmes,
involved in information sharing on strategic issues affecting the crisis. We have a desk
officer who, in essence, regularly joins our working groups here in Washington and have
also delegated a staff person within the coordination mechanism of the US government.
We're seeing a much closer coordination between the UN, the US military, the US
government, and the NGO community than we ever did during the tsunami, and this was-
-able to stand this up quite rapidly as this unfolded. The greatest constraint has been, of
course, the infrastructure in Haiti and the ability of our community to function under very
difficult times, whether it's responding to the WFP's call to set up 16 formal camps and
deliver a million MREs tomorrow or the type of efforts you've been hearing. There's a
wide array of responses happening from different organizations, and we have various
experts from those organizations also on this call. The numbers are significant if one
looks at 120 different water distribution sites helping 106,000 people, or one organization
will concern other staples for 25,000, or Save The Children are reaching 105,000
beneficiaries to date or UMCOR, safe water to an additional 200,000 people, we see a
tremendous infrastructure of the US NGO community at work in Haiti. One key
indicator of this is the generosity of the American people, and we have launched a Haiti
earthquake relief barometer. The barometer currently registers just over $350 million,
donations from the American public. We will be tracking these donations just as we did
for the tsunami reef. This is an aggregate total, not necessarily what is coming to
individual groups, and it will certainly be growing at time--over time. And in many
ways, we are also looking at how these resources--these private resources will be used to
the longer-term investment in the reconstruction of the country. At the heart of this
coordinated response is a recognition that it is the partnership between US NGOs, local
groups and experience going back decades operating on the ground that brings the value
added of our community, and we are pleased to see that both the US government and the
UN recognizes the important role that the NGO community plans. We're oftentimes, I
think it was--as it was illustrated, we're receiving supplies flown in from the US military,
 food from either USAID or the World Food Programme, distributed into a camp managed
by a US NGO in partnership with local institutions. And this ability to have this
infrastructure in place and its coordination lies at the heart of what we're doing. To get a
better sense of the broad list of organizations who are responding to the crisis, we have a
list of InterAction members that can be found at our website at www.interaction.org. this
gives you a sense of some, I believe, currently 82 organizations that are engaged either in
emergency relief supplies, logistics, water/sanitation, ending search and rescue operations
and emergency food assistance and food security, and ultimately looking at issue of
health and shelter and long-term development. Our community is in this for the long
haul. We will be in Haiti for years, if not decades, after this disaster. And we are looking
to try as best we can, out of this horrific situation, to build a better partnership with Haiti
and its people so that they can build a better country for themselves. And I'll turn it back
to Jim. Thank you.

• Mr. Mario Flores: Mario Flores is here with Habitat for Humanity.

• Mr. Jim Bishop: Excuse me?

• Mr. Mario Flores: Mario Flores with Habitat for Humanity is here.

• Mr. Jim Bishop: Okay, Mario. Please, looking forward to hearing what you have to
say. Mario, we've reached you on our schedule. Are you prepared to speak?

• Mr. Mario Flores: Okay. Yes, Habitat for Humanity is responding to the earthquake in
Haiti. We are working with our local Habitat for Humanity Haiti staff on assessment of
damages to shelter and housing, with particular emphasis where low-income families live
in the Port-Au-Prince and surrounding areas. Part of the results of our assessment is that
we estimate that as many as 200,000 houses have been severely damaged or destroyed,
and probably 1.2, 1.5 million people are facing displacement or homelessness at this
moment. The damages and destruction to homes, building and infrastructure can be
attributed to poor quality of materials, construction, as well as to the lack of planning and
thousands of people living in cramped settlements with very unhealthy conditions in
highly vulnerable risk-prone areas before the earthquake. And this is the result of the--
that vulnerability interacting with the natural hazard of an earthquake. The victims of the
earthquake have not lost only their property, but they have also lost their financial and
emotional security. The loss of property in the Haitian context imposes a severe blow to
the sustainability of the livelihood of thousands of families, as many of the families, you
know, would use their dwelling and their small house for microeconomic activities and
income generation activities. And given the extent of the destruction of the housing
stock, we at Habitat believe that we are facing a very challenging multi-year response
that will require creative and very flexible shelter and housing response programming.
Habitat is moving forward with a response that will include a number of phases. In the
first phase, of course, we are concentrating in the distribution of emergency shelter kits
because we anticipate that emergency shelter, it's a dire need at this point, in particular
thinking about the rainy season that--it's approaching in April, and God forbid hurricane
season making also an impact in Haiti a few months later. So, even though emergency
 shelter is only a short-term solution, we are also thinking on transitional shelter strategies
and permanent reconstruction options for the families in Haiti. So, Habitat for Humanity
is operational in Haiti. We have been working in the country for over 26 years, helping
more than 2,000 families with housing solutions through a variety of initiatives. That
includes new home construction, progressive building, repairs, and incremental
improvements of homes. We hope to apply all the knowledge that Habitat has in terms of
building disaster-resistant homes and apply all of our past experiences in other disasters,
such as the tsunami response in Asia, and also earthquakes in China, Pakistan and
Indonesia. And we look forward to be in the long-term reconstruction along the people
of Haiti in the years to come.

• Mr. Jim Bishop: Thank you very much, Mario. Operator, we can now move into the
question and answer portion [unintelligible].

• Operator: At this time, if you would like to ask a question, please press star-one on your
telephone keypad. Once again, if you would like to ask a question or make a comment,
please press star-one on your telephone keypad.

• Mr. Jim Bishop: When you do that, please identify yourself. And if there is a particular
speaker or speakers to whom you would like to address your questions, please so
indicate. The first question?

• Mr. Dominic MacSorley: Jim? Jim, hi, this is Dominic [sp] from Concerned--can you
hear me?

• Mr. Jim Bishop: Yes, Dominic.

• Mr. Dominic MacSorley: Hi. Just can I give you [unintelligible]--if it's okay, sorry, I
was in the queue there. I was a little bit late. Can I give a short update just from here,
calling in from Port-Au-Prince?

• Mr. Jim Bishop: Yes, very quickly, Dominic, and give your full name, please.

• Mr. Dominic MacSorely: Dominic MacSorely, Operations Director for Concern

Worldwide here in Port-Au-Prince. Very quickly, just want to thank Jim and Sam for
organizing this. I think it's very important that we collectively give our view and
response of what the reality is, of course, of what happened in the [unintelligible], the
challenges, and what has been achieved. Very quickly, Concern has been here for 16
years. We've been doing development and hurricane response. We're working very
closely in the coordination structure, and we're starting to see now that coordination is
moving a little bit back into the community levels. And we're primarily focusing on
communities that we worked with before in Saint-Martin, Martison [sp]. These are the
slum areas. We had 400 youth volunteers that we were working with before. And I think
it's important to note that we've been letting other agencies come in and use these people
who have a vast knowledge to facilitate their distributions. I think there's been a huge
amount of cooperation at that community level between the organizations. The ones that
 were here before recognize that we don't have the capacity to do everything. We're very
interested in working with new organizations that have come in that can provide that
level of capacity. In addition, I think we're fanning out a little bit. We conducted
assessments in Maganaut [sp] and other areas outside. Nutrition, worrying--a worrying
aspect is there were 10,000 chronically malnourished children in Port-Au-Prince before,
and we're starting to see that mothers have been traumatized, are not breastfeeding, and
we're setting up with Action Consular Frere [sp] and [unintelligible] to encourage
breastfeeding and to ensure that malnutrition doesn't rise further. I won't go on again
about what we're doing, but one important--a few important notes. In relation to disaster
risk reduction and to echo what other people are saying, we had to make choices a year
ago about programs due to cutbacks and global recessions--.

• Mr. Jim Bishop: --Dominic--.

• Mr. Dominic MacSorley: --Between keeping schools open--yes?

• Mr. Jim Bishop: Dominic, we are going to have to go into the question and answer
portion of our discussion.

• Mr. Dominic MacSorley: Okay.

• Mr. Jim Bishop: There's a bunch of folks lined up, presumably anxious to raise some
questions. So, as I mentioned a moment ago, those of you who have questions, please
identify yourself. And if there's a speaker who you would like to pose your question to,
please identify that person or persons. So, first question?

• Operator: Our first question comes from the line of Pamela Fessler with National Public
Radio.

• Ms. Pamela Fessler: Hi. Can you hear me? There's a lot of noise in the background.
Hello, can you hear me? Can you hear me?

• Unidentified Man: Hello?

• Mr. Jim Bishop: We can hear you.

• Ms. Pamela Fessler: Yeah, I'm sorry. Okay. You--this is probably for Mr.
Worthington, but, if anybody else wants to answer, I'd be interested. You spoke a lot
about the coordination of the aid efforts and that it was actually better, you thought, than
after the tsunami. But, our reporters on the ground, what they're seeing is a lot of chaos
and a lack of coordination, and I'm wondering how you would explain the discrepancy.

• Mr. Sam Worthington: We're looking at this [unintelligible] in terms of how we're set
up [unintelligible] coordination effort over both months and years. What has been
interesting in this one is the degree to which the UN system was organized, talking
[unintelligible] and other parts [unintelligible] government rapidly organizing--.
• Ms. Pamela Fessler: --I apologize, but you're going in and out, your sound. The line is-
-I can only hear every other word.

• Mr. Sam Worthington: [Inaudible] line should be good. We're [inaudible].

• Ms. Pamela Fessler: I'm afraid I'm not hearing anything right now. Sorry.

• Ms. Nasserie Carew: Hello, Operator? Hello, Operator?

• Operator: Yes, I'm here.

• Ms. Nasserie Carew: Yeah. If you can have people who are in the leader--.

• Operator: --It was Lane's line. I just muted it, ma'am.

• Ms. Nasserie Carew: Okay, thank you very much.

• Operator: You may proceed.

• Mr. Sam Worthington: Let me try again. Is this any better?

• Ms. Pamela Fessler: Well, there's something else going on now. Okay, I think I--.

• Mr. Sam Worthington: Unfortunately, we seem to have had some line--for some other
lines. If people particularly in Port-Au-Prince can mute their line, because we seem to
have other people picking up background from your calls, please mute your lines. Thank
you. Anyway, to try to answer your question, there's--from the beginning of this disaster,
there was significant dialogue in terms of setting in the UN system, to set up the clusters,
a clear leadership established within the US government by the President for
Administrator Raj Shah at USAID and a rapid outreach to the NGO community and its
mobilization on the ground. And in many ways, the reality being from day one,
individuals in hospitals being treated and so forth by the NGO community. I fully
recognize that the current reality remains somewhat chaotic. There is a significant
challenge in standing up the operational capacity and coordination capacity that exists. I
think the example given of the camp by Catholic Relief Services shows efforts to do so.
What I am observing, however, is that the degree to which different parts of the UN
system, the US government and the NGO community are working together to coordinate
is at a level that is superior to that that--which happened during the tsunami. And as a
result, we anticipate that, over time, this should stabilize things in Haiti. We cannot,
however, in any complex environment like this, guarantee a type of coordination that will
ensure reaching a broad population. It is very different, and their--you know, one of
perhaps the best ways to frame this is on the tsunami. I--you know, was in Aceh. It was
in Hambantota and Sri Lanka, and served as the--working with President Clinton as his
special--when he was special envoy on sharing and impact assessments for our
 community. And what we're finding is that bringing some of those lessons into the
coordination of this response has been something that we've been able to do. Thank you.

• Mr. Jim Bishop: Next question, please?

• Operator: Our next question comes from Kate Sheppard with Mother Jones.

• Ms. Kate Sheppard: Hi, thanks for holding this. A few of the speakers--or first, a
practical question. I didn't hear the name of the woman from the Red Cross.

• Mr. Jim Bishop: Her name is Amy Gaver, G-A-V-E-R.

• Ms. Kate Sheppard: Great. Thanks. And several of the speakers talked a little bit more
about not just the immediate needs but the longer-term. I'm wondering if we could--if
some of the speakers could speak a little bit more to these longer-term needs, how long
you're envisioning some of these needs being in place, and how much money--what
groups in the US and individuals in the US should really be thinking about in terms of not
just the immediate but the longer term.

• Mr. Jim Bishop: [Inaudible], take that first, please. Amy, are you there?

• Ms. Amy Gaver: Yes. Yes. So, am I the first to take the question?

• Mr. Jim Bishop: Yes, please.

• Ms. Amy Gaver: Okay. I think one of the terrible lessons we learned from the tsunami
was not to put artificial timeframes on recovery, that to feel a sense of urgency and to
move as quickly as possible, but also to do participatory planning in the process. That
said, we're really not talking years, as in two or three or five, but more of the long-term
solutions for Haiti. Haiti has needed a global solution for systemic problems for a very
long time. So, to the degree that each of us can, in our planning, integrate both our
practices and our support of essential needs, such as shelter and food, security and water,
and sanitation and significant changes to improve health, that in and of itself is probably
the measure of the effectiveness of--for each of us in our recovery efforts. They do break
down by essential life sectors of water and sanitation and food and health, but they must
be integrated in a way that's holistic for the--you know, down to the individual and to the
family and to the community. And that's our vision and our thinking. We are hoping to
look at how we plan not just with the beneficiaries but also with our partners. I think one
of the key lessons I mentioned was to find what's working and to work within that. Our
former president, Bill Clinton, mentioned the economic recovery. I know that there were
many areas where things were moving forward, would like to link into that and keep
supporting what's working.

• Mr. Jim Bishop: Great, Amy, thank you very much. We have some other experts on
the line. Any of you like to respond to Kate's question?
• Mr. Mario Flores: Yeah. This is Mario Flores with Habitat for Humanity. That's a
very important question, indeed. After all the relief and after all the immediate priority
needs are being managed, we need to start thinking on how to rebuild the country and
how to do it in a way that it doesn't rebuild the vulnerabilities that existed before the
earthquake. As mentioned, Haiti had a lot of problems before the earthquake. The
earthquake has only exacerbated those problems. But, this is, again, another opportunity
for all the stakeholders to really, you know, think through what the long-term recovery is
going to look like.

• Mr. Jim Bishop: Great, [unintelligible], thank you very much. Can we have our next
question, please?

• Operator: Our next question on the line comes from Frank Manfredi with Plan
International.

• Mr. Frank Manfredi: Thank you. Speaking for Plan, you know, we've been in Haiti
for 37 years, and we have a staff of almost 145 people. In our assessments in the Port-
Au-Prince area, both Cuade Basce [sp], [unintelligible]--.

• Mr. Jim Bishop: --Frank?

• Mr. Frank Manfredi: Yes?

• Mr. Jim Bishop: We'd like to give priority [inaudible] down the line if they have
questions that they wanted to pose. So, could I ask the operator to funnel those questions
to us? Hello?

• Mr. Frank Manfredi: Jim, you asking me or the operator?

• Mr. Jim Bishop: I'm asking the operator.

• Operator: I'm sorry?

• Mr. Jim Bishop: We would like to have the questions from the journalists who are
participating in this discussion rather than additional presentations.

• Operator: Okay. I'm not aware who those persons are.

• Unidentified Man: Next one.

• Mr. Jim Bishop: Next one, please. Next question.

• Unidentified Man: Yeah, but we should let the other ones know that they could answer.

• Operator: The next question comes from Nicole Wallace with The Chronicle of
Philanthropy.
• Ms. Nicole Wallace: Hello. My question for the panelists is we've been hearing reports
about migration out of Port-Au-Prince into more--into the rural areas of Haiti. How will
that affect relief efforts, going forward?

• Mr. Jim Bishop: Lane, would you like to respond to that? Lane, are you there?

• Mr. Lane Harthill: That's ironic, that question. Here I just talked with Sisters, some
religious Sisters, who were requesting food for over 100,000 people outside the city.
They were--they said that they're seeing a lot of people coming in that are leaving the
city. The people in those areas have very little money. There's very little food available
in Port-Au-Prince. Those outlying areas used to rely on Port-Au-Prince for food. We,
Catholic Relief Services and our Charitas partners have started to--delivering food in
Leogane, in Jacmel, some of these areas outside the city. We have teams going out there
and looking at sites that we're hearing about. But, you're right, there is a lot of need out
in the city, and we need to start getting food out there as quickly as possible because
those people are being--those towns and cities are being inundated by people from Port-
Au-Prince moving out there. The Sister gave me an example of a one-room house. They
had 11 people in it, which was, you know, miserably under-equipped to house that many
people. So, it is an urgent need, and we are looking to get food out there as quickly as we
can.

• Mr. Jim Bishop: Thanks very much, Lane. Other experts on the line have anything to
say in response to Nicole's question?

• Unidentified Woman: Hello?

• Unidentified Woman: Yes, this is [unintelligible] from American Jewish World

Service. Can you hear me?

• Mr. Jim Bishop: Yes, we can.

• Unidentified Woman: I just wanted to mention that AJWS, in addition to providing

support to people directly affected by the earthquake, are also reaching out to
community-based organizations in the countryside that are seeing their populations
double practically overnight. This is putting great strains on local food, shelter and health
clinics. And we're also hearing from our grantees that part of this migration out includes
youth and other people who are not used to life in the countryside. And so, our grantees
are helping to build their skills so that they can become productive members of village
life in anticipation for reconstruction taking a while, so particularly in preparing for the
next planting, which starts in April.

• Mr. Jim Bishop: Thanks very much. Operator, could we have the next question,
please?
• Operator: There are no other questions at this time. But, as a reminder, if you would
like to ask a question, please press star-one on your telephone keypad to be placed into
 queue. And we actually have two questions in queue. Our first question comes from
Sandaya [sp] Sahoo with Machett-Clacky [sp].

• Ms. Sananda Sahoo: Hi, this is Sananda. I'm calling from McClatchy in Washington,
D.C. I'm just coming from a Senate hearing where one of the persons testifying said that
NGOs do not follow ground rules in Haiti and they keep too much for their own overhead
costs. Can anybody respond to this?

• Mr. Jim Bishop: I'll ask Sam Worthington to respond to it.

• Mr. Sam Worthington: This is Sam Worthington, respond to that. I think making
broad generalizations is a difficult one. Overhead rates, of course, vary on the nature of
work over--and organizations involved in food relief usually have overhead rates of 1 or
2 percent. Broader grants tend to be in the 15 percent range, and organizations that have
large infrastructures with private funds tend to have overhead rates in the 20 percent
range. If you take the total of the entire US NGO community that is a member of
InterAction, about 92 percent of the resources go into programs. So, I think it's important
to recognize that the frame of overhead is not the best frame to use to look at an effective
response, and the generalizations like this are, unfortunately, not helpful. Thank you.

• Mr. Jim Bishop: Anyone else on the line like to respond to our colleague from
McClatchy's question? The next question, please, Operator?

• Operator: Our next question comes from Fran--Frank Manfredi with Plan International.

• Mr. Frank Manfredi: Thank you. If I can continue with my question, what I was going
to mention is that, in our assessments and in some of our outreach in the informal camps
in [unintelligible] and also out in Jacmel, we have been concerned by the number of child
protection issues that we've uncovered, including cases of unaccompanied children that
we are referring to UNICEF for registration and for immediate shelter. And we're
wondering if some of the other organizations, some of the folks who are there on the
ground, if they're getting a sense of the same thing, what kind of scale they are seeing in
terms of not just child protection, which I know we're all working in, but also some of the
concerns about--around unaccompanied children and some of those issues. Thank you.

• Mr. Jim Bishop: Kathryn Bolles, would you like to respond?

• Ms. Sonya: In--this is [unintelligible], Save The Children. I'm not sure if Kathryn is still
on.

• Ms. Kathryn Bolles: I am still on the line, thank you--.

• Ms. Sonya: --Oh, okay--.

• Ms. Kathryn Bolles: --But go ahead, Wendy, and then I'll follow.
• Ms. Sonya: Oh, Kathryn, go ahead. It's Sonya.

• Ms. Kathryn Bolles: Thank you, Jim. And thank you for the question, and it's quite
important. Save The Children and other agencies are participating in family tracing and
identifying those unaccompanied children, those have--been orphaned, but those who
also have family that they're not able to reach. And that's--it's an urgent issue, and at the
national level down to the community level in these affected areas, this kind of
unification process is going on. And Jim, if I might link this to the out-migration
question and give a little bit of a microscopic sort of perspective from the ground, I
personally used to live in Haiti and live in Leogane, and am quite sort of familiar with the
interpersonal networks that extend quite deeply out into all areas of the country. And as
we're looking at out-migration patterns, just for those on the line to understand that
connections of people who live in the affected areas of Port-Au-Prince, Leogane, Jacmel,
all along the West Coast, there are informal networks and extended families and friends
all over the country. And I think this is an opportunity, certainly as the first responder to
the question mentioned, to look at those patterns, to look at where influx of additional
persons are affecting food needs and livelihoods and shelter and water and the essential
sort of immediate needs, healthcare, but also to look at how, out in the future, this is an
opportunity to rebuild Haiti not just in the affected areas but in the country and to build
up some of these networks. And just if I may be, again, a little bit more microscopic,
everyone knows someone who lives in another part of Haiti. And as soon as the
earthquake happened, the government put out a call over the radio waves that, if you're
able to get out of what--some of these heavily impacted areas, do so. Get out of the area
and go find your family and your networks there. And from my standing where my
house that I used to live in, Leogane, fell, I could see just along the road trucks that are
the public transport, called taps-taps, chock full of people and of luggage and belongings
outbound away from Leogane, away from Port-Au-Prince, and nothing was coming
inbound. And as I think I--that's a critical issue certainly to address those needs, but also
look to those opportunities for building families and structures and rebuilding Haiti at a
national level.

• Mr. Jim Bishop: Thank you very much, Kathryn. Operator, do we have other
questions?

• Operator: We have John Pollock on the line with MSH.

• Mr. Jim Bishop: Go ahead, John.

• Mr. John Pollock: Thank you. This is actually not a question. It's a comment on the
journalist's question about overhead rates. And I just wanted to add the point that
[unintelligible] costs are real costs of programs distributed across many projects rather
than for a single project. It does not imply money wasted on people sitting in offices.
• Mr. Jeff Wright: I think it's also important to understand that overhead has--there are
many different ways of calculating overhead. Yeah, it's important for the public to
understand this.

• Mr. Jim Bishop: Thank you, John. Are there other questions, please?

• Operator: The next question comes from Taylor Thomas with WHUR.

• Ms. Taylor Thomas: Hi, this is Taylor Thomas, which she just said, from WHUR.
We're actually doing a fundraiser right--today and tomorrow for Save the--Save Our
Children. I have two--a two-part question for anyone that's in Port-Au-Prince, if you can
answer this. First of all, what are you seeing there in Port-Au-Prince that maybe we're
not aware of here in the District of Columbia in the essence of getting people to please
donate now?

• Mr. Jim Bishop: Jeff, do you want to take that [inaudible]?

• Mr. Jeff Wright: Well, I think that the key message at this point is that we need
donations of cash, not stuff. I mean, there's a tremendous amount in the media and in the
blogosphere and on the Internet right now about in-kind donations. It's incredibly
important to be very careful about what you donate and to whom if you're donating stuff.
The message that, in my opinion needs to be heard a little more clearly, at least in North
America, is that those donations need to be coming in in the form of cash.

• Ms. Taylor Thomas: Anyone else from Port-Au-Prince that wants to respond on that
question, then I do have one more quick one.

• Mr. Jim Bishop: Sophie Perez from CARE, are you on the line? Okay. Lane, do you
want to respond to Taylor's question?

• Operator: Lane disconnected.

• Mr. Jim Bishop: [Unintelligible--.]

• Ms. Taylor Thomas: --Lane?

• Operator: Lane is no longer connected.

• Mr. Jim Bishop: All right.

• Ms. Taylor Thomas: Okay. The second question I hope that you can hear--help me ask-
-answer, again, this is--I am trying to encourage people--when I get off the phone with
you, we're going to put this on the air today and tomorrow, raising money, again, for
Save The Children. What is the situation as it relates to food, shelter, for children who
have families and the orphans? And I think--when you think about them, is there
anything you could say to the people that are listening to our live broadcast when we air
 this that will let them know what's happening there and that this situation, just because
they're hearing millions is being poured in, we still need more dollars.

• Mr. Jim Bishop: Who did you want to address the question on orphans? Let me ask
Sam Worthington if he will.

• Mr. Sam Worthington: Sorry, we seem to be having some trouble with our lines to
Port-Au-Prince, and my apologies for that.

• Ms. Taylor Thomas: Sure.

• Mr. Sam Worthington: I think it is important that our audiences here in the United States
understand that this crisis, which is tremendous, is the world's largest crisis in terms of
affecting displaced children. Whether it was UNICEF or Save The Children or Plan or
others dealing with this, this is the most disastrous situation that the world has
experienced in terms of both individuals who are already in orphanages, children who
have lost their parents, and displaced children in general. We're--it is a response that will
need to touch tens of thousands of children. The key here are a few things. One, it must
be cash that goes in there. At this point in time, there are 900 to 1,000 flights backed up
to try to get into the Port-Au-Prince airport. Giving gifts in-kind is not a way to move
forward. Second, there are already stories that may be out there on child trafficking, and
it is crucial that, in the midst of a disaster, that we not look at exporting children to the
United States. It is crucial that these children be identified and reunited with members of
their family. And lastly, whether it's any of these organizations focusing on children,
they are creating safe spaces in camps for children. They are engaging in education
programs, and they will be working over years to try to find homes and an environment
for these children to thrive.

• Ms. Taylor Thomas: Sam, what does NGO stand for? I'm sorry, I didn't know what that
stood for.

• Mr. Jim Bishop: Non-Governmental Organization.

• Ms. Taylor Thomas: Great.

• Mr. Sam Worthington: It's another way of saying a US non-profit.

• Ms. Taylor Thomas: Okay, thanks.

• Mr. Jim Bishop: We have time for another question or two.

• Operator: There are currently no questions at this time. But, as a reminder, if you'd like
to ask a question or make a comment, please do so by pressing star-one on your
telephone keypad.

• Mr. Jim Bishop: If there are no questions but comments, we'll take the comments.
• Operator: We do have Donovan Gopie with New York Christian on the line.

• Mr. Donovan Gopie: New York Christian Times. Hi, this is Donovan Gopie here in
New York City for the New York Christian Times. I just want to commend all the
participant and all the information that we have been receiving here from you. And I
certainly hope, you know, in due time, you know, a concise information will be sent to us
so we can actually document it in the newspaper here in New York City. My question is,
in regards to the relief aid that is going out to the outlying area, could you give us a sense
of how is that happening in areas Belladere and areas like Carrefour, because the roads
have been destroyed. Could you give a sense of what's happening with that? And also,
from the sense of the government, could you give us an idea as to their participation in
the relief effort at this time?

• Mr. Jim Bishop: Let's break it apart. Anyone working in Carrefour or Belladere who'd
like to respond regarding the situation in those localities?

• Ms. Kathryn Bolles: This is Kathryn from Port-Au-Prince. My line is working a bit
better now. I can take that question. Those two areas in particular, the roads are clearing.
There is a lot of spirit among the Haitian community to join together, clear the roads,
allow the trucks to pass. And some of the reports in the media that highlight the chaos
and the rioting is just not what we're seeing on the ground, what--which is rather support
for one another and gathering together and forming committees. SOS committees exist
all over Port-Au-Prince and outlying areas that are working as a neighborhood to clear
roads and provide some relief to the communities themselves. So, that's one point, but I
think the point is quite good, that transport and distribution and supply chain of relief
items coming from--certainly into Port-Au-Prince and from Port-Au-Prince into outlying
areas is a critical issue. And if cars can't make it, then motorbikes can make it. And
there are--this decentralized coordination--and this speaks to an earlier question, I
believe, in the beginning of the Q&A period about coordination mechanisms. From the
ground perspective, this is happening better and better every day, certainly at the UN
level and at the national level of coordination, but also local and international
organizations have coordination meetings now in major impact areas in Leogane, further
west in Petit Goave, in Jacmel, in areas in which out-migration is happening. And that's
really where the support can be located and can get out to the communities in those areas
quickest. And so, I certainly support and encourage agencies to communicate and
coordinate with the relief efforts going on at the local level. It's much easier to divide up
and provide support in a comprehensive manner across all needs and all areas in that way.
Thanks.

• Mr. Jim Bishop: Thank you, Kathryn. And Donovan, for updates on what our--how our
members are responding and where, you can consult our website, www.interaction.org,
where we are posting the reports that we are receiving from our 82 members who are
engaged.

• Mr. Donovan Gopie: Could you just repeat that website once more for me, please?
• Mr. Jim Bishop: Sure, www.interaction.org.

• Mr. Donovan Gopie: Thank you very much.

• Mr. Jim Bishop: You're welcome. Do we have another question or comment in the few
moments that remain?

• Operator: Yes. We have Taylor Thomas with WHUR.

• Ms. Taylor Thomas: Kathryn Bolles, now that you're back online, would you be able to
describe to me the situation with the orphans? Are they being fed first? Are children
being fed first there in Port-Au-Prince? How is that handled?

• Mr. Jim Bishop: Kathryn?

• Ms. Kathryn Bolles: Thank you for the question. I heard that. That's--the orphan
children are certainly the most vulnerable in this situation. And as many have noted on
this call, as of right now, it's impossible to get an accurate count of exactly where these
children are. But, there are many agencies, like Save The Children, who are out going
camp to camp, going to orphanages, and receiving text messages and e-mails and phone
calls and information almost every hour about orphanages that need help. At the
coordination level, there is a growing list of these locations. In fact, just today, about 30
minutes before getting on this call, I received information of an orphanage with 25
children who had nothing, had received no aid, and we sent out a doctor and other staff to
go make a visit immediately. And I think that, on an individual basis and at a
coordination level country-wide, is happening. What I'm seeing in terms of immediate
needs for those children who are orphaned or are in orphanages and hospitals and other
facilities is, again, food, water and shelter. Those are basic and immediate needs to keep
these children alive. Secondly, and most importantly, linking those children with that
extended network of family that I described that exists in Haiti and is mobilizing at an
informal and a formal level to provide support and care and locate the children to their
families or their extended families, and then support those caregivers in providing what
they need. Thanks.

• Ms. Taylor Thomas: Thank you very much.

• Mr. Jim Bishop: Great, Kathryn. Thank you.

• Operator: We do have one more question in queue from Frank Manfredi with Plan
International.

• Mr. Frank Manfredi: Thank you very much. This is very brief, and it's actually--I just
wanted to reinforce the point that Sam made with regard to children and their
vulnerabilities, I think all of the organizations working on the ground, including Plan, are
keenly aware of this, and we think that it's an important message that needs to get out.
 Children are highly resilient, but, frankly, children have some unique and great
vulnerabilities in situations like this. The rehabilitation and reconstruction of Haiti is
going to take years. Children are going to the--you know, the kids who are there now are
going to be growing up with this, and we have to address their vulnerabilities now. We
have to address their protection needs, going forward, as we're moving into the rehab and
reconstruction periods. I just want to commend Sam's statement and hope that those
members of the media who are here are going to pick up on that and can help us get that
word out. Thank you very much.

• Mr. Jim Bishop: Thank you, Frank. And let me ask Sam Worthington to say a
concluding word.

• Mr. Sam Worthington: We'd like to thank you, particularly those calling in from Port-
Au-Prince, for your time in a very difficult schedule. I know many of you are living in
tents, and of the--you know, 2,200 staff of InterAction members in Haiti actively, long
days, difficult circumstances, and appreciate your time and sharing. I think this call has
provided all of us with an understanding of the breadth and depth of the response of the
US non-profit community in Haiti. As I mentioned earlier, from day one, US non-profits
were working and supporting hospitals and clinics in saving lives, and we will be there
supporting a shelter three years from now. This response of this enormous earthquake
requires multiple actors bringing different things to the table: the value of the US military
coming in to airlift food, the ability of the US government to engage with the Haitian
government and coordinate a whole of government response from our government. But,
what we see here in Haiti, just like what we saw in the tsunami, is a tremendous
outpouring of generosity from the American people through private nonprofit institutions
that we call NGOs. These institutions, with decades of experience on the ground in Haiti,
are in many ways the front line of our society and the world's response to this disaster. It
is their partnership with the world food program, their partnership with orphanages, their
ability to be and work in camps, and their understanding and technical ability to respond
to disasters that is the value-added of the US non-profit community. We hope that, as
you engage further in understanding this disaster and its recover and reconstruction as it
unfolds, that you will go to our website and look at the many different non-profits who
are, at this point in time, providing services, whether it's emergency relief supplies,
helping individuals who need postoperative care, distributing water, but the important
key here is that we hope the attention of the American people will remain on Haiti not
just a week or a month from now, but a year from now, because this disaster will take
years to recover from. I'd like to thank you for the opportunity to share this information,
and wish you a good afternoon.

• Operator: That concludes this event's teleconference. You may now disconnect your
lines. Thank you.