On Saturday we ran a medium sized distribution in an area of Port au Prince called Tabarre. It’s home to a sizeable number of people who have lost their homes & livelihoods, but also has a reputation for being the home area of a number of the local criminal element – some of those who escaped from jail during the earthquake. The distribution itself was of hygiene equipment – soap, laundry materials, cleaning brushes etc. Not the sort of thing to inspire trouble you would think………but then during the uncertain days we are experiencing in Haiti right now,it can flare at any time.
For those who have never seen an aid distribution, let me explain briefly how it normally works. When aid is to be distributed, we ascertain the quantities available and how it is to be divided up into parcels, and who are the target recipients. This varies according to the different donors, who set differing priorities. Not all households have the same needs, so of course they receive differing support from NGOs. Once this strategy has been decided, work goes on to prepare aid packages for the lucky recipients, and to plan logistics of ensuring they are delivered to the appointed distribution site. This work includes close liaison with security – both our own and the UN – to ensure it is planned carefully, and that a proper security plan is in place in case of problems. This includes a secure alternative exit route. At the same time NGO staff meet with community leaders and together we work through lists to identify those eligible for the distribution and to rank them in order of need. Normally we then distribute coupons to the recipients, so that they can be identified when they come for their aid. On the appointed day an orderly line forms and people come forward with their coupons, their identities are verified and they take away their aid parcel.
On Saturday we had one major problem. The community leader in the local mairie had decided to take a short-cut in distributing the coupons. Instead of carefully giving them to the selected people, they basically threw the coupons into the crowd like confetti, with the effect that many in possession of coupons really should have been nowhere in sight on Saturday morning. This was compounded in our case by the UN commander present not really understanding his role or the process (despite numerous explanations!) and letting this happen. So on Saturday morning we were faced with a line roughly 5 times the number of people who should have been recipients – made up of genuine claimants, individuals who had grabbed a coupon in the melee the evening before, and a good many who simply wanted to get what they could and enjoy the show. Once we realised the mairie’s error in distributing the coupons we rapidly remodelled our operation. The crowd was milling and surging and the UN troops pushed them into a line, although not without much muttering and discontent. We went back to our original list and decided to distribute against that, not the coupons. This was now going to be a much slower exercise. As people came forward, ID was verified and if they were on a list they received aid, and if not they were advised that they would receive nothing that day. It’s hard to be the one passing such messages, because many are simply desperate people eager for anything to alleviate the grind of their situation in some way, but we cannot simply give everyone everything they ask for at all times. We don’t have the resources! Anyway, the crowd was still surging and we were moving through the distribution, but it was apparent that many were being turned away, and the tension in the crowd rose higher. Slowly we edged through our lists and reached a point where we had distributed around 90% of our material to the correct recipients – and then the reality dawned on the remainder that they would leave empty handed. The remaining crowd – still around 4,000 people – surged forward towards the distribution site. The UN troops looked to their officer for guidance, their officer didn’t act and soon we had a major crowd rapidly getting out of control. Luckily we have several very experienced people on our team and we rapidly got the more vulnerable targets (mainly women and inexperienced staff) out of the picture and into vehicles, whilst more experienced hands waded into the crowd and engaged them, buying valuable time. At this point a megaphone rose above the crowd, the UN officer telling us all that he was going to determine himself who would get any aid: the crowd bayed in derision and surged again, this time moving from having fun and seeing what they could get into a mood of sullen anger. Luckily the UN officer’s sergeant removed him rapidly – almost physically putting him in a vehicle and moving off – before he could inflame things further. We got the last of our staff into vehicles, the more experienced of us backing up slowly and calmly (well outwardly calmly anyway!) to allow them time, and then into vehicles ourselves. The last remaining aid was soon snaffled by the crowd as we made an inglorious departure.
It’s not often that things like this go wrong – most armies these days are very used to their role in such environments and some are excellent at it, and work well with their NGO counterparts. However, small things can rapidly lead matters to spiral out of control: a lazy official from the mairie, an inexperienced UN officer overseeing order. Ultimately no one got hurt apart from a few bruises and some shredded nerves, but without the experience of a handful of NGO workers things could have been very ugly indeed.
One NGO worker from another agency was with us – a new arrival in country begging a lift from the airport and caught up in this. From the look on her face afterwards she may soon be an imminent departure – such days are not for the faint-hearted!
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