September 29, 2004
Section: News
Page: 4B
Suzan Clarke, Staff of THE JOURNAL NEWS

Rockland County and area residents sympathetic to the plight of Haitians are answering the plea for help for the impoverished Caribbean nation devastated by Tropical Storm Jeanne.

Donations of basic necessities including canned goods, first-aid supplies and clothing, have been pouring in to collection centers around Rockland, volunteers said yesterday.

Eric Alcin, transportation manager with Nyack Head Start and coordinator of collections at that drop-off site, said the community had been generous.

"The response was terrific," said Alcin, a Haitian immigrant and Central Nyack resident. "I don't know how much to thank everybody in the area, not only in Nyack, but people calling from New City, everywhere. I've been having tons of stuff being dropped to me every 20 minutes, every hour."

Tosun Bayrak, imam of Jerrahi Mosque in Chestnut Ridge, was horrified at the conditions in Haiti. Apart from the United Nations and a handful of individual nations, he said, the international community is not doing enough to help.

His congregation purchased five tons each of wheat and sugar, one ton each of rice and beans, 60 boxes of cookies and about 6,000 pair of children's underwear, which they will deliver to Ramapo Town Hall tomorrow morning, Bayrak said. He estimated the value of the contribution at $10,000 - a portion from money set aside for charity and the rest from a recent collection.

"Thank God that our congregation is very generous because, for instance, on Friday ... I mentioned that we are going to do this to (give) help to Haiti and in five minutes I collected $2,000 from the people," Bayrak said.

In Westchester County, others also were working hard.

Joseph Revers, president of the Haitian Heritage Group in White Plains, said his organization would will hold a fund-raiser and informational day Saturday in White Plains.

"Why we do it like this is because we know some people, they like to find someone to talk to, someone to explain exactly what are we doing," Revers said.

Because of the reported hardship in delivering aid supplies to Gonaives, the Haitian city that was hardest hit, Revers' group will accept only financial donations for the time being.

Jeanne is blamed for 1,500 deaths in Haiti. Another 900 people are missing there. Flooding and mudslides have left an estimated 250,000 people homeless. About 80 percent of Gonaives, a northern coastal town with 80,000 residents, was inundated.

U.N. peacekeepers have been trying to prevent desperate residents from looting the aid convoys. Doctors short on medicine and technical equipment have been treating severe infections, including gangrene, and gunshot wounds suffered by people caught in disputes over food and water.

The Rev. Jacques Michel, a sheriff's deputy and director of Haitian American Voters and Entrepreneurs National, a Spring Valley organization that has helped coordinate relief efforts, was disturbed by the unrest in Haiti.

Although his organization has received sizable donations from people in Rockland, Westchester and Dutchess counties, as well as in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, Michel was concerned about the fate of the goods.

"We are doing the best we can to send things over," Michel said, "but when they get there, the government is not able to handle it."

Inin Arteaga, a Gonaives native who recently moved from Valley Cottage to Chester, has been trying to contact people in her hometown.

"We tried to make contact and it has been impossible talking to anybody in Gonaives because they don't have electricity and the phone service is non-existent," said Arteaga, who works with Together Our Unity Can Heal, a Congers group that provides services to AIDS sufferers and their families.

"It is terrible and it is horrible," Arteaga said. "It's even inhuman. People are left alone and it's like they have no hope because it's nature."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Reach Suzan Clarke at snclarke@thejournalnews.com or 845-578-2414.

How to help

Donations of goods or money may be dropped off at:

· Ramapo Town Hall, 237 Route 59, Airmont. Call Supervisor Christopher St. Lawrence, 845-357-5100.

· Haitian American Cultural and Social Organization, 32 Grove St., Spring Valley. Call 845-352-5897.

· Haitian American Voters and Entrepreneurs National, 50A S. Main St., Suite 207, Spring Valley. Call 845-352-8025.

· Nyack Head Start, 85 Depew Ave., Nyack, NY 10977.

· Office of Assemblyman Ryan Karben, D-Monsey, 1 Blue Hill Plaza, 11th Floor, Pearl River, NY 10965. Call 845-624-4601.

· Office of Mount Vernon Comptroller Maureen Walker, City Hall, 1 Roosevelt Square, Mount Vernon.

Donations also may be mailed to:

· National Haitian Society, PO Box 3003, Garden City, NY 11531, or visit www.nationalhaitiansociety.org.

· Haitian Heritage Group, P.O. Box 8090, White Plains, NY 10602. The group will hold a fund-raiser from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday at Wespac, 255 Martin Luther King Blvd., White Plains. Call 914-772-1406 or 914-681-9160.