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Darwin, Australia • Santa Fe, New Mexico • Moreno Valley, California • Seattle, Washington • Cap Haitien, Haiti • Ha'apai, TongaArchives
Syria/Jordan
It’s the first time in 4 days I’ve had a moment to step outside. I am in Amman, and spending some time in the camps on the Syrian border, to assist in the development of a staff care program for the many humanitarian responders working with the refugees fleeing Syria. Having been indoors for several days, I am instantly inspired by the warm sun, bird songs, and call to prayer that begins to resound from some not to distant speaker. I have always loved to hear the call to prayer. I don’t understand it, but I hear the spirit. As I walk through a mostly residential area of Amman, I am struck by how peaceful and calm it feels. We are not even an hour’s drive from the border Jordan shares with Syria. I have been to Jordan once before, as a tourist, and it can be a deceptively simple …
Haiti January 12, 2013
4:53 pm, 1/12/13. I am turning our car into Belvil, the quiet neighborhood, where I stay in Port au Prince. It is the precise moment when the earthquake of 2010 devastated Port au Prince 3 years ago. My friends, colleagues and I have spent most of the preceding week talking about how impossible it is that 3 years have past. As I observe the life on the streets, I see hundreds of people on cell phones, selling market wares, buying, walking and sitting while sad, thin dogs scrap for food. I muse at the thought that perhaps none of them are aware that 4:53 pm is upon us; 2 years ago, at the multiple 1 year commemorations, there were thousands of moments of silence around the country. Today, life is doing the usual, just as it was in the moment the earth opened up and shook, rolled and slammed. I …
TRI awarded several grants to continue its work in Haiti!
TRI was awarded $3000.00 from the Marian Chace Foundation; $5000.00 from The Frost Foundation; $4000.00 from Charles F. Gray Trust; and $7500.00 from The Kind World Foundation. A brief report detailing how these funds will be used will follow our upcoming trip to Haiti.
Posted in 2010-2015, Blog, Business & Letters
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Body as Voice Part 4 Advanced Clinical Training
January 8-11, 2013 Body as Voice Part 4 Advanced Clinical Training for IDEO Psycho trauma team, Port au Prince, Haiti. Closed. Thank you, donors, for your support.
Body as Voice Part 3 Training
Somatic and Creative Arts-based Trauma & Resiliency Training for the Psycho Trauma Healing Center’s mental health staff in Port au Prince, Haiti. July 23-25, 2012. Thank you, donors, for your support.
2011 Trauma Resources International (“TRI”) Annual Report
January 1, 2012 Trauma Resources International (“TRI”) Annual Report TRI was established in 2010 based on requests from local non-governmental organizations in Haiti, The Middle East and elsewhere who did not have a budget to pay for the specialized training and consulting services TRI’s Director had provided to partner agencies in those regions. Immediately following the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, TRI mobilized to assist in disaster response efforts. Early in 2011, TRI moved from assisting with direct disaster response efforts in Haiti, to focusing on two smaller, community-based, mental health programs. TRI’s involvement in these programs comes at the direct invitation of a local Haitain NGO, with whom TRI’s Director has a longstanding professional relationship. The Sant Siko Twama (“Psycho Trauma Center”) was established jointly by URAMEL and IDEO, a few months after the 2010 earthquake, to provide much needed health and mental health services in Port au Prince. At …
Posted in 2010-2015, Business & Letters
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TRI’s 2012 Update and Fundraising Letter
January 12, 2012 Dear Supporter, Happy New Year! Your support over the last two years has been a lifeline for many in Haiti. You have provided the funding for projects through your generous contributions that otherwise would not have taken place. As we acknowledge the 2-year anniversary of the earthquake that destroyed Port au Prince, Haiti, my message is straightforward: Trauma Resources International (“TRI”) needs your help. The demand is ongoing. Many NGO’s have reduced, withdrawn, or are in the process of withdrawing, their programs. This withdrawal will leave thousands of Haitians without much needed services. Everything you’ve heard about aid that never arrived, the relatively small amount of rubble that has been removed, and the lack of leadership and support during crucial recovery periods is true. In 2010, we focused our efforts on direct assistance to local organizations assisting survivors of the earthquake. We provided training in Psychological First …
Posted in 2010-2015, Business & Letters
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Australia, Red Earth, 2011
I love Australia. Its hard to be precise in my description of why I am so enamored of this far away place; a specific example might illuminate. When I landed in Melbourne after the l-o-n-g flight, I had to go through customs/quarantine because I had revealed I was carrying food (sports bars, for the outback). This was no big deal, and I have found its always best to claim these things because they are usually ok, and not claiming them can be expensive. As I put all my bags through the X-ray machine, I asked if I should remove my coat, to send through. The response “Heck, no mate–I haven’t known you long enough.” Cheeky humor is one of the reasons I love Australia (and, Australians). I came to Australia to participate in ceremony with the women of the Pitjantjatjara group of Aborigines. As we are asked not to photograph, journal, or …
Georgia, September-October 2011
Georgia is not a place I ever thought about visiting. I knew very, very little about it, before my current trip here. Georgia is stunning. Its ancient. It has an air of mystery despite the warmth and openness to share of the people. Often thought of as a “former Soviet state”–it is actually a country with one of the oldest languages on earth (remnants of it only found here, and in Palestine) , some of the finest cuisine and wines, and gorgeous landscapes. In a space the size of Switzerland, Georgia’s terrain encompasses strong snowy mountains, river filled green valleys, ancient virgin forested slopes for hiking and skiing, lovely wine country with rolling hills and long views of yellow, gold and green impressionistic landscapes, remnants of ancient cave communities with intricate temple artwork (and whole icon-covered cathedrals carved into mountain sides, so ancient people could cleverly live in safety), and …
Port au Prince, Haiti, March 8-15, 2011
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I’ve returned to provide training in somatic and creative arts approaches to my beloved friends/colleagues at Haiti’s Psycho Trauma Center. We have talked about, and dreamed about, this for years. Finally, some funds raised through my non-profit enable us doing this.
Post-earthquake Haiti hasn’t changed much—still. Yes, there’s a little more rubble removed and evidence of new construction here and there. But really, not much change. Not as much as one would hope for—and would surely find elsewhere (i.e if the same were to occur in Hollywood or Dallas or Fairfield Country CT). Even I realized after 3 days that I was no longer seeing the rubble. Shortly after the earthquake that’s all I saw. Now, it seemed to take a much more conscious effort to really see the piles of rubble that still remain (and many do) and to realize how far Haiti has to go.
Why is it so easy to forget Haiti?