Learning About Disaster Relief in the OAS
The day is January 13, 2010. In Léogâne, Haiti, a man surveys the rubble around him, his body (and spirit) barely intact and fortunate not to have been buried under the walls of his own home. He sees his only surviving daughter, seated uncomfortably on a stone with a blank stare on her face and her hands on her stomach; and he looks away, not knowing how to explain to her what has become of her brothers, her mother or her grandmother who had braided her hair just the day before. Nearly overwhelmed by despair, his mind turns to the future: even with his cell phone having survived the Apocalypse, how will he be able to reach his distant relatives in Miami to let them know that he and his daughter are still alive? Where will they live? What will they eat? How will they get treatment for their open wounds? And how will he protect his little girl from hostile, violent predators that could be on the loose?
I had no idea that dealing with such questions would become pivotal to my work at the Organization of American States (OAS) when I received an offer from them to go to Washington, D.C. for the last semester (Spring 2010). Having been accepted into the Inter-American Telecommunication Commission (known by its Spanish acronym, CITEL), I had expected to spend most of my time either updating databases on interconnection and telehealth or transcribing speeches from the Commission’s General Assembly meeting in March in Mexico City. But once I arrived at the OAS at the end of January, both my supervisor and the directors of the internship program quickly let me know that disaster relief had taken top priority across the board.
For CITEL, my co-intern and I worked on compiling relevant information on the disaster risk management system of each member country in the OAS; that is, what legal backing does it have, to what extent does it require the participation of government ministries and the private sector, what are the technical capabilities or deficiencies of the Disaster Risk Management offices at the local and municipal levels, from where does it receive funding, etc. In this way, as my supervisor explained on the first day, we would assist the Commission in finding out how it could help direct logistical aid to OAS member countries, especially in the areas of improving emergency alert systems and post-disaster access to telecommunications. Furthermore, on her behalf we attended and provided reports on the Haitian Diaspora Forum, held in the OAS’s main building to facilitate disaster response coordination amongst Haitian expatriate communities in the United States, Canada and France; and the “Telehealth and Mobile Communications” discussion at the Brookings Institute, in which the panelists critiqued the lack of logistical organization that rendered useless much of the regional and international aid that had been sent to Haiti in the immediate aftermath of the earthquake. As part of the internship, I also participated in a mock OAS General Assembly meeting in which, as a rapporteur, I helped two working groups draft resolutions: one aimed at convening a reunion of disaster relief experts of the Inter-American Network for Disaster Mitigation, and the other to regularizing meetings of the Inter-American Committee on Natural Disaster Reduction.
This experience allowed me an opportunity to learn about, and contribute to, the efforts being made to improve disaster risk management and vulnerability reduction at national and regional levels in the Americas. Moreover, it familiarized myself and my colleagues in the internship program, most of whom were young, Latin American, highly-educated professionals (journalists, economists, lawyers, etc.), with the rigorous level of planning and support necessary for any country to respond to a natural disaster. One would hope that with what we have witnessed and learned during our time at the OAS, we would be galvanized to pursue improved coordination among countries in the Americas, and the maintenance of minimum standards, in the areas of disaster relief and preparedness. The greatest lesson I have drawn from my time at the OAS is that with the aforementioned regional improvements, the Haitian father and his daughter would not only be able to rest assured that aid, communication and shelter will be provided to them in a more timely manner; perhaps, they would be able to live in an earthquake-proof house and avoid such devastating loss in the first place.
A native of Gainesville, Florida, Paul-Denys Calixte is now a second-semester senior at the College majoring in Government. His subfield is international relations, and his primary interest is US-Latin American relations. He received a DRCLAS Summer Independent Internship Grant, retroactively covering costs of his spring internship with the OAS.
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I had accepted to 70-411
I had accepted to 70-411 absorb best of my time either afterlight databases on alternation 70-411 exam and telehealth or transcribing speeches from the Commission’s General Assembly affair in March in Mexico City. http://www.examsmafia.com/70-411.html
For most people, having a
For most people, having a home to call their own is their life long dream. When a natural disaster destroys so many homes, it's a real tragedy for the entire community. In an article I've read , http://www.decorplanet.com/Steam_Showers_s/49.htm, people from villages that weren't affected came to the disaster zone with food and supplies and helped rebuild the homes. This is how I wish any community would act, united.
Me encanta este articulo
Para ser sincera soy una persona que no me gusta la politica, y tampoco me gusta mirar noticias porque siento que hay tanta pobreza y dolor en el mundo que para mi es demasiado, como me imagino que lo es para otros.
Pero al leer este articulo en el cual Paul expresa su experiencia me da otra manera para mirar la realidad del mundo saber que la OEA esta ayudando a los paises hermanos en tiempo de desestres, o de extrema pobreza, dice mucho de las Organizaciones Unidad de America, me hace pensar en una mano abierta para una familia pobre. He escuchado que la OEA hace muchas cosas para ayudar, pero como seres humanos muchas veces no se cree que se realiza.
Este articulo me invita a desear saber mas y mas sobre lo que hace la OEA o la CITEL. Pero al mismo tiempo me digo y me pregunto, que suerte tuvo Paul para poder tener esta experiencia (como tambien sus demas compañeros); me imagino que tiene otra vision a la realidad en la que vivimos, y pienso que personas como él deberian tener oportunidades para seguir escarbando y dar opiniones y ayudar en este tipo de trabajo. Y de esta manera seguir compartiendo sus experiencias y ayudar a otros (as) a interesarce por las realidad social (como YO)... Felicitaciones Paul por esta experiencia, sigue adelante y sigue buscando oportunidades para que lo aprendido en Harvard tenga frutos... animo en tu futuro..
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