Why Haitians are urging people not to donate to American Red Cross

The organization was supposed to have built thousands of homes in Haiti. This was after they received half a billion dollars to do so.

But Truth Command has reported that since the 2010 earthquake happened, the Red Cross has only built 6 houses. Eight years later and they still haven’t fulfilled their promise.

According to Huffington Post, after the devastating 2010 earthquake in Haiti, plans were made by the Red Cross to help build hundreds of thousands of homes. But the plans fell through.

The Red Cross had said they would build no less than 130,000 homes for survivors of the earthquake. Many of the survivors were left with absolutely nothing.

People from all across the world offered relief which totaled to half a billion dollars. But a series of errors has led to the plans being stopped and many doubt that the houses will ever be built.

To this day many of the areas hit by the earthquake have not been rebuilt. Most people are now living in shacks cobbled together from debris with little if any access to clean water.

“Like many humanitarian organizations responding in Haiti, the American Red Cross met complications in relation to government coordination delays, disputes over land ownership, delays at Haitian customs, challenges finding qualified staff who were in short supply and high demand, and the cholera outbreak, among other challenges.”

Red Cross, Truth Command, October 17, 2018

Leaked memos from the company have shown how many of the errors that have hindered the building process came from within the company. These errors are things that could have been avoided with better planning and management.

Some former employees revealed how the staff was hired who could not read French or Creole. This caused workers to not be able to work properly in the environment.

Source: Wikimedia Commons

ProPublica reported that Judith St. Fort, who was the director at the time, wrote in a 2011 memo how the managers responsible for overseeing the operation had made “very disturbing” remarks about Haitian employees.

Managers apparently stated that “the ones that we have hired are not strong so we probably should not pay close attention to Haitian CVs.” The Independent reported that despite this failing on the part of the Red Cross, they were still the leading charity who people turned to when humanitarian crises such as this occurred.