Dave Toycen, president of World Vision Canada, discusses his experiences in Haiti, and lessons learned after the earthquake hit the region on January 12.

World Vision exec reflects on Haiti relief
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Dave Toycen, president of World Vision, Canada, speaks with Prednor Metellus, a school librarian left homeless by the earthquake.
Jan. 16 photo by James Addis, World Vision
A magnitude-7 earthquake hit Haiti on Tuesday, Jan. 12. Dave Toycen, president of World Vision Canada, arrived in the island nation at 10 a.m. that Thursday.

"As we moved into the city (Port-au-Prince), there was just massive destruction, multistory buildings down, homes, schools, police stations and gasoline stations. There was destruction everywhere, and there was this fine grayish dust from the cement that pervaded the area," he said.

World Vision is a Christian charity organization with a staff of 40,000 worldwide, said Casey Calamusa, spokesman for World Vision. The organization serves about 100 million including earthquake and hurricane survivors, refugees and communities affected by AIDS.

USA TODAY's Jessica Durando spoke to Toycen about his experiences and lessons learned from the earthquake:

Q: How were you personally affected?

A: There were certainly times, especially in the first few days, where there was so little care for people. … There was a lack of food, a lack of water, everyone was just without so much and they were really desperate and discouraged. The result of that is you are just overwrought and emotionally exhausted after a while.

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Q: Explain the moment when you felt most overwhelmed.

A: I had gone to simply see the situation at one of the hospitals in (Port-au-Prince). All the patients, hundreds of them, were outside just lying around on whatever they could find to put people on — whether it was a small blanket on the ground, or an old door, or a rusty old bed. There was no medical staff really in evidence. You had people crying out in some cases, others were very silent. I just had a moment to stop and look around, and it was like one of those old artwork scenes that try to depict the end of days and people in all sorts of chaos and crisis.

… And then I looked across at where I'd come in, and there was still the dead body of a young woman just lying by the street. You saw that periodically, and nobody was willing or able to do anything. I think that was one of the moments, maybe the most intense moment for me, where I had a sense what we were up against here and how difficult it was going to be.

Q: What is one thing you would do differently if you could go back?

A: I would try to even be more aggressive and get more of our relief response staff into the country faster. Along with that, I would have brought more telephones into the country so that we could have got in touch with more people and got more aid into the country faster than we were able to because the communication was so broken.

Q: How would you have done that differently, if there was a lack of staff?

A: I would have put more pressure on our team to get more expatriate people in sooner to be able to deal with it. I don't think we fully realized how big the destruction was and how compromised the staff in the country really were when it came to responding. They were traumatized themselves, and even though they worked their guts out, we still did not have the capacity to handle that level of disaster with primarily our local staff in Haiti.

Q: There has been some criticism about the types of supplies that were brought into the country. Was there anything in that regard that should have been done differently?

A: I suppose baby formula is one of the most controversial. With the earthquake there was an extreme shortage of water, so just getting water was a challenge itself. Then ensuring that it was clean, that it was boiled and would be used properly for baby formula was really a challenge. Babies are especially vulnerable if they get stomach upset and diarrhea. They can dehydrate so quickly. …

So, other things like clothing, non-essential items, that aren't as critical upfront really don't need to come into the country right away. … I think there is always something to learn from this and to make it clear to people that good intentions are not enough. You have to send the right stuff that makes the most difference to the most people at the critical point in which they're living.

Q: What surprised you most in Haiti?

A: Just how hard it was to do relief work. … The other thing that surprised me was, I was amazed by how generous and caring people were in helping each other, especially in the first few days. Crammed together in these camps and people were oftentimes sharing what little they had quite generously.

Q: Do you feel the relief efforts were organized enough?

A: Were they good enough? No. Heavens no. You can look back and say we could have done things faster.

If there could have been more coordination, if there could have been more leadership provided at the very beginning. But there are reasons for all of these things. For example, the fact that the U.N. compound lost over 100 people.

I don't think I've ever been in a place where the disaster had damaged so much of the infrastructure around health — hospitals and clinics — that are so critical for care for people.

Q: Were you prepared for an earthquake of this magnitude?

A: No, I don't think we were fully prepared. If we were fully prepared, we would have had more supplies in country.

Q: What is the area that you can see that should be improved upon most?

A: I think the most important thing is to have a plan that is going to help build the kind of Haiti that Haitians want. And that everyone works to that plan. … It's going to take a long time. It's going to take a lot of cooperation, and it's going to take all of us to put Haiti first instead of our own little projects. That's the only hope for the future.

Q: What are some of the lessons learned in Haiti?

A: One of the most important lessons is doing whatever we can with disaster preparedness. Also, issues around building construction, the quality of the buildings so that when a disaster strikes, everything doesn't fall down like it did in Haiti.There has to be even more and more preparedness around security. If a disaster hits, there has to be a functioning police force.

Q: Are you ready for hurricane season in Haiti?

A: We've already done some planning. … I still don't think we are fully prepared to be able to say we are going to have all this in place by May when the hurricane season (starts). … It is a race against time to get it ready.

Q: Explain the worry about disease spreading from a potential hurricane.

A: There's great concern that people will have some kind of shelter that can withstand high winds and rain so that people are not constantly wet and have no place to have shelter during a heavy storm.

The second part that is related to it is just the spreading when people are crowded together. You start getting people sick. They then use the inadequate sanitation and so you've got things like diarrhea …

Q: How difficult is it to keep the mind-set on Haiti?

A: The only way it will happen is if countries that are partners in this as well as non-government organizations are prepared to make it a priority and not simply let it turn into the flavor of the month for a few months and then move on to something else.

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