What Happened To Haiti Earthquake Relief Money

When a devastating earthquake leveled Haiti in 2010, millions of people donated to the American Red Cantankerous. The charity raised about half a billion dollars. It was one of its most successful fundraising efforts e'er.

The American Red Cross vowed to aid Haitians rebuild, but after five years the Red Cross' legacy in Haiti is not new roads, or schools, or hundreds of new homes. It's difficult to know where all the money went.

Haiti, simply days afterwards a 7.0 magnitude earthquake destroyed much of the land on Jan. 12, 2010. The disaster uprooted many of its residents and killed more than 200,000 people. David Gilkey/NPR hide caption

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David Gilkey/NPR

NPR and ProPublica went in search of the near $500 one thousand thousand and found a string of poorly managed projects, questionable spending and dubious claims of success, according to a review of hundreds of pages of the charity's internal documents and emails, as well as interviews with a dozen current and onetime officials.

The Red Cross says it has provided homes to more than than 130,000 people, merely the number of permanent homes the clemency has built is six.

The Red Cross long has been known for providing emergency disaster relief — food, blankets and shelter to people in need. And afterwards the earthquake, it did that work in Republic of haiti, too. But the Ruddy Cross has very little experience in the difficult piece of work of rebuilding in a developing country.

The arrangement, which in 2010 had a $100 meg deficit, out-raised other charities by hundreds of millions of dollars — and kept raising money well afterward it had enough for its emergency relief. But where exactly did that money go?

Ask a lot of Haitians — even the country'due south former prime number minister — and they will tell you they don't take any thought.

Today, Campeche, part of the larger Carrefour Feuilles neighborhood in Port-au-Prince, is where the Cherry-red Cross boasts one of its marquee housing projects. Marie Arago for NPR hide caption

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Marie Arago for NPR

Today, Campeche, part of the larger Carrefour Feuilles neighborhood in Port-au-Prince, is where the Red Cross boasts one of its marquee housing projects.

Marie Arago for NPR

"Five hundred million in Haiti is a lot of money," says Jean-Max Bellerive, who was prime minister until 2011. "I'1000 non a big mathematician, but I can make some additions. Information technology doesn't add together up for me."

On a recent twenty-four hours, Bellerive was sipping coffee in his living room, high higher up Port-au-Prince, with Joel Boutroue, who was the United Nations deputy special representative in Haiti before the earthquake and an advisor to the Haitian authorities afterward. Boutroue says he can't account for where the nearly $500 million went either.

They considered the Cerise Cross' claim on its website and press releases: That all the coin went to help 4.5 million Haitians become "dorsum on their anxiety."

"No, no, not possible," Bellerive says. "We don't have that population in the expanse affected by the earthquake."

Joel Boutroue (left), the United Nation's deputy special representative in Republic of haiti and Jean-Max Bellerive (right), Republic of haiti's old prime government minister, at a December. 18, 2006 press conference at the United nations in Geneva, Switzerland. Salvatore Di Nolfi/Keystone/AP hibernate explanation

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Salvatore Di Nolfi/Keystone/AP

"You know," Boutroue chimes in, "four.v meg was 100 percent of the urban surface area in 2010. I hundred pct. It would mean the American Red Cross would have served entire cities of Haiti."

It's not unheard of for the Red Cross to make such a merits. Not long ago, the charity hired a group of consultants to review one of its projects in the north of the country. They found the charity's math unreliable when it came to counting people it helped. In that location was double-counting, undercounting, and in one instance the Blood-red Cross claimed to have helped more people than really lived there.

David Meltzer, the Cerise Cross' general counsel and head of the international division, says the charity helped millions through trying and difficult circumstances, including a cholera outbreak and a government in disarray.

"The Cerise Cross has provided clean water, sanitation, vaccinations, disaster preparedness, cholera prevention," he says. "All of the money that has been spent has been focused on benefiting the people of Republic of haiti."

Meltzer says the Red Cross took the nigh $500 million and split information technology into sectors. For example, the system spent $69 million on emergency relief, $170 million providing shelter and $49 million on water and sanitation efforts.

The Cerise Cantankerous too has outlined over the years some of the projects information technology has funded, such as millions of dollars given for new hospitals, vaccination programs, and disbursement of tents and water tablets. The charity says information technology has done more 100 projects in Haiti, repairing iv,000 homes, giving several thousand families temporary shelters and altruistic $44 million for food.

But the charity will not provide a listing of specific programs it ran, how much they cost or what their expenses were.

Meltzer says the public can run across in the organization's five-twelvemonth report: a pie chart showing the percentage of the money that went to each sector. But he will not provide greater detail most where the money went.

"We have provided, through our public website, where the money has gone by sector, and we stand by the accuracy of that information," he says.

The charity's own documents, still, give some insight: Much of the money never reached people in need.

The Red Cross gave much of the coin to other groups to do the hands-on work, resulting in additional fees.

First the Cherry-red Cross took a customary administrative cutting, then the charities that received the coin took their own fees. And and then, according to the Red Cross' records, the charity took out an additional amount to pay for what it calls the "program costs incurred in managing" these third-party projects.

In 1 of the programs reviewed by NPR and ProPublica, these costs ate up a third of the coin that was supposed to help Haitians.

To really understand what happened, accept a look at one of the Blood-red Cross' marquee projects — a housing projection. The housing sector received more than double the funds that other sectors received, and information technology'southward the area in which the Ruby Cross made its biggest promises.

Campeche and the surrounding neighborhoods are dwelling to 1 of those projects. The town sits in a ravine in the hills of Port-au-Prince. People live inside shacks made of tarps and can. At that place'due south no running water. Trash and human waste material piles up at the bottom of the hill.

Evening in Campeche, a neighborhood that sits in the hills of Port-au-Prince. The neighborhood is part of a $24 million project the Blood-red Cross has designated for a "physical renewal." Marie Arago for NPR hibernate caption

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Marie Arago for NPR

Evening in Campeche, a neighborhood that sits in the hills of Port-au-Prince. The neighborhood is office of a $24 million project the Red Cantankerous has designated for a "physical renewal."

Marie Arago for NPR

In the steep, tight alleyways, residents smile warmly and greet passers-by with a Creole "bonswa." Above them all, at the top of the loma, the Cherry-red Cross has painted its proper name and logo across a large concrete wall.

Jean Jean Flaubert, one of the neighborhood'southward leaders, was hither when it was painted.

He explains in Creole that about three years ago the Red Cross came with glossy booklets saying it was going to build hundreds of new homes, a h2o and sanitation organization and a wellness dispensary.

None of that happened.

Jean Jean Flaubert (lower right) says he was there when the Scarlet Cross painted its logo on a wall in his neighborhood 3 years ago. Since then, he says, not much has inverse. Marie Arago for NPR hide caption

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Marie Arago for NPR

"We still take tents," he says. "I am going to testify you lot that the Red Cross has non intervened here at all. If you're talking about change, people should non be living similar this still."

The Red Cross promotes this projection heavily in its annual reports and press releases, under the headline "Rebuilding Neighborhoods." It'southward costing $24 meg.

From the main roadway, Flaubert calls to the other leaders to join him in the i-room community center. Inside, the men pull plastic lawn chairs around a metal desk.

Simon Julnet opens a filing chiffonier and spreads out the booklets that the Cerise Cross gave them in 2012. Inside is a listing of priorities they and the Crimson Cross agreed to for their area: homes, clinics, water and bathrooms. Asked nearly each 1, the men shake their heads no.

"Start, three years ago," Julnet says, "the master plan was to build houses."

The men say they think it's possible that the Ruddy Cross will nevertheless build them homes. Flaubert says they have asked the Crimson Cross repeatedly to tell them what'south going on.

"We're fighting now with the Red Cantankerous but we still do non have whatever answers," he says.

When shown a Red Cross promotional brochure about the project, the men are stunned.

The brochure says the projection is scheduled to terminate side by side year. Far from new homes and new neighborhoods, information technology says the Red Cross will do smaller projects such as repairing some homes, walkways and schools. The Red Cross is too building a route. The brochure says the project is costing $24 1000000.

"I don't understand an organization like the Crimson Cross acting like that," Julnet says. "If they have received that kind of money, maybe they paid their employees with information technology? That is OK. Merely that kind of money spent hither in the community? No, that cannot be said."

The men break into a heated chat in Creole. They pause for a moment and ask us if they can meet with the Cherry Cantankerous.

Subsequently that night, the Ruby-red Cross' caput of public affairs in Washington, D.C., sent NPR and ProPublica an email proverb nosotros had mischaracterized the project, though they did not dispute the information in the brochure.

A human being works on a pathway in Campeche. As the Ruby-red Cross prepares to get out the neighborhood at the cease of this yr, residents say the hundreds of houses the Red Cross told them would be built exercise not exist. Marie Arago for NPR hibernate explanation

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Marie Arago for NPR

A man works on a pathway in Campeche. As the Red Cross prepares to go out the neighborhood at the end of this twelvemonth, residents say the hundreds of houses the Ruddy Cantankerous told them would be built practise not exist.

Marie Arago for NPR

NPR and ProPublica were "creating ill volition in the community, which may requite ascent to a security incident," the electronic mail says. "We will hold you and your news organizations fully responsible."

No security incident happened — simply residents did ask if they could keep the brochure.

The Red Cross' internal emails and memos from the Campeche project testify that the residents were correct: The original plan was to build 700 new homes with living rooms and bathrooms. The Red Cross says it ran into issues acquiring state rights.

Their internal memos, however, prove there were other serious issues, including multiple staffing changes and long bureaucratic delays. And so there was a catamenia of almost a yr when the whole project appears to have sat dormant.

While all this was happening, a thousand miles abroad in Washington at Red Cantankerous headquarters, things weren't going much better.

The Red Cross' own memos and emails offer clues into what was happening. There were multiple warnings about internal delays bottleneck up efforts to become projects off the ground. Frustrated managers in Haiti wrote notes to supervisors waiting for approvals from headquarters.

Lee Malany, who ran the Red Cross' shelter program in Republic of haiti starting in 2010, says problems started right after the convulsion.

"They never had a real program for what they wanted to do in housing," Malany says.

Malany remembers flying in the fall of 2010 from Republic of haiti to Red Cantankerous headquarters, where he and other colleagues gathered in a conference room with the charity's top leadership. He says the senior managers didn't seem to accept any idea how to spend tens of millions of dollars set aside for housing.

The national headquarters for the American Blood-red Cross in Washington, D.C. Alex Wong/Getty Images hide caption

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Alex Wong/Getty Images

The national headquarters for the American Red Cross in Washington, D.C.

Alex Wong/Getty Images

"When I walked out of that meeting, I looked at the people that I was working with and said, you lot know, 'this is very disconcerting, this is depressing,' " Malany recalls. He says that there was "no talking about what is our overall program, and if nosotros practice this where's it going to go, and is this the best place to get."

He says the leadership, including Cerise Cross CEO Gail McGovern, seemed more concerned with which projects would generate skilful publicity.

"She was the one who made the argument 'well, I recall that would be OK and that will look all right,' " he says. "And the way I read it — to translate information technology — is: 'This will wait OK on the checklist, and we can give information technology to the public and not get any pushback.' "

Cherry Cantankerous officials dispute Malany'southward recollections of the meeting, saying that a housing strategy was discussed at the meeting and that the organization never would accept put public relations over Haiti's needs.

Three years afterward, though, documents evidence that officials in Washington were still struggling with how to spend housing money. McGovern wrote an electronic mail to her senior staff in November 2013 saying that a particular housing project was "going bust."

"We still are holding $20 1000000 of contingency," she writes in an electronic mail. "Any ideas on how to spend the rest of this? (Too the wonderful helicopter thought?) Tin we fund Conrad's infirmary? Or more to [Partners in Health]? Whatever more shelter projects?"

Reddish Cross officials wouldn't say what she meant by the helicopter thought, but it's a common reference in economics to giving money away — as in, throwing information technology out of a helicopter.

Either way, that'southward not what she promised donors and the public in 2011. Back then, McGovern went to a luncheon at the National Printing Club in Washington and said that a fifth of the money the charity raised would go to "provide tens of thousands of people with permanent homes ... where we develop make-new communities ... including water and sanitation."

The clemency built six permanent homes and, according to their ain account, no new communities.

Many of the projects it started ran into trouble.

There was a $13 million development endeavour in the northern office of the country. An internal review of the project constitute that local residents were angry because it had been more than two years and they hadn't seen anything useful happening. The review observed that neighbors had begun to "reject the projection" entirely.

The review besides found that officials spent some of the money teaching residents to launder their hands with soap and water — and that the residents did non have access to either soap or h2o.

Another project, started in a place chosen Quartier-Morin, was wracked past delays and high turnover, according to a regime review. First it spent 2 years on hold, and and then it was canceled. Then the Red Cross worked with the U.S authorities to come up up with a replacement project – which took another year.

Now the U.S. regime is belongings the money and is currently trying to notice a dissimilar charity to run this iv-year-quondam housing project, which has all the same to produce a single habitation.

Meltzer, the Red Cross lawyer, says that land ownership and government issues often were exterior of the charity's control.

"For the American Red Cross and the Red Cross in general, shelter has been a priority," says Meltzer, adding that the Red Cross has "provided homes for more than than 130,000 Haitians.

"If you get to [those] people and enquire them where they are living today, they volition tell you lot 'I am living in my home,' " he says.

But if you get in search of those tens of thousands of new permanent homes in Republic of haiti, y'all won't find them.

The American Blood-red Cross says it "provided homes" for more than 130,000 Haitians, only acknowledges that much of that is fabricated up of people who went to a training seminar on how to set their homes, received temporary rental help or lived in shelters like these in Bon Repos, which start to disintegrate after three to five years. Residents say they don't have bathrooms, kitchens or running water. Marie Arago for NPR hibernate caption

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Marie Arago for NPR

Afterward several emails, the Cherry Cantankerous acknowledged that the "130,000 Haitians" effigy is made up of people who went to a seminar on how to set up their own homes, people who received temporary rental help, and thousands of people who received temporary shelters — which offset to disintegrate after three to v years.

Archaic land title and authorities requirements make building in Haiti very difficult and time-consuming, only other charities take congenital almost nine,000 homes so far, according to figures from Global Shelter Cluster.

For case, Global Communities and PCI are building multifamily homes with running h2o afterwards completing more 300 homes in the neighborhood of Ravine Pintade.

John Wildy Marcelin, a Haitian engineer, is caput of construction for the projection, and says the new homes volition have kitchens and bathrooms.

He says the project has been successful because the majority of the staff and managers are also Haitian — and are passionate virtually rebuilding their country.

"All this work that you are looking at now, the adding was made by Haitian people, Haitian engineers, Haitian architects, Haitian foreman," he says. "We know what to do."

The Ruddy Cantankerous does non seem to have used that strategy. In one internal memo, the top manager of the Haiti program complains that Haitians were not being hired for top positions — and in some cases were treated disparagingly.

In a 2011 memo, the then-manager of the Republic of haiti program, Judith St. Fort, wrote that senior managers had fabricated "very disturbing" remarks disparaging Haitian employees. St. Fort, who is Haitian-American, wrote that the comments included "he is the only hard working one among them" and "the ones that nosotros have hired are not strong, so we probably should not pay close attention to Haitian CVs."

Several current and former employees told NPR and ProPublica that many managers could not speak French or Creole.

"Going to meetings with the community when you lot don't speak the language is not productive," says Carline Noailles, one of the old staffers. Sometimes, she recalls, Red Cross staffers would skip such meetings entirely.

The Crimson Cantankerous says it has "made it a priority to hire Haitians" and enlisted the help of a human resource firm. Information technology says more than than 90 percent of its staff is Haitian. Yet interviews with former staffers and a review of the charity's staff lists evidence very few of those Haitians made it to top positions.

That has proved costly for the clemency. According to an internal Cherry Cantankerous budgeting certificate for the projection in Campeche, the project director — a position reserved for an expatriate – was entitled to allowances for housing, food and other expenses, home leave trips, R&R four times a year, and relocation expenses. In all, including salary, it added up to $140,000.

But those weren't the but bug hindering efforts. Memo after memo sent to Washington by managers in Republic of haiti warned of problems similar gaps in staffing, high turnover, and astringent internal delays — many caused by the Washington office.

The problems most notably affected the charity's efforts to fight cholera. That was in the critical early weeks while thousands of people died.

Paul Christian Namphy, a Haitian water and sanitation official who helped lead the effort to fight cholera, says early failures past the Red Cantankerous and other NGOs had a devastating impact.

"These numbers should take been zero," he says.

St. Fort summed upwardly her 2011 memo: "To maintain the condition quo, will simply yield the same failed results."

Minouche Lamour, a fellow member of the Customs Platform for Development in Campeche, says she doesn't run across how millions of dollars from the Cherry Cross could take been spent in her neighborhood. Marie Arago for NPR hide caption

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Marie Arago for NPR

Minouche Lamour, a member of the Customs Platform for Development in Campeche, says she doesn't come across how millions of dollars from the Cherry-red Cross could accept been spent in her neighborhood.

Marie Arago for NPR

Meltzer, the Blood-red Cross lawyer, says the charity did non fail.

"When I look at where Haiti is today, I feel very adept nigh the progress nosotros have made every bit the American Red Cantankerous and the unabridged humanitarian sector," he says.

These days the American Red Cross is preparing to leave Haiti — it's handing over operations to the Haitian Red Cross next year. It'southward also getting prepare to leave the hills of Campeche and its surrounding neighborhoods, where information technology will accept spent $24 meg and once promised residents it would build new homes.

The residents hither will get a new route, and some homes and schools will be repaired. But like much of the American Red Cross' work in this country in the five years after the earthquake, that was not what residents expected.

Journalist Mitzy-Lynn Hyacinthe contributed reporting to this story.

Practise you have a tip to share? Eastpostal service NPR correspondent Laura Sullivan.

Source: https://www.npr.org/2015/06/03/411524156/in-search-of-the-red-cross-500-million-in-haiti-relief

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