We caught colleagues Karina Copen and Enrique Garcia on the phone in El Salvador this morning before they headed out the door for a day in the field.

The flooding and landslides in Central America this past week have been disastrous – the result of rainfall so heavy that it’s outstripped even the catastrophic hurricane Mitch of 1998. In El Salvador, landslides are occurring by the hundreds, and nearly 50,000 people have taken refuge in shelters.

Hundreds of thousands of people have been affected by the rains and flooding in Central America.

But thanks to a carefully positioned warehouse packed with supplies and a network of trained partners, Oxfam was able to reach thousands of people with aid by the time a national state of emergency was declared.  The warehouse is more or less empty now, but that’s a good thing, said Karina. “What people needed was what we had.”

After updating us on the latest events, Karina and Enrique talked about the past, present, and future. Years of work to help communities, partners, and the government prepare for emergencies are paying off in lives saved: the death toll from this massive storm doesn’t compare to Mitch. But the loss of homes and crops could be devastating for those who can least afford it.

“We need to keep addressing hazards,” said Enrique, “but also the issues that put poor people at such risk in emergencies.”

“The good news,” said Karina, as they signed off, “is that the sun’s out.”

We will need to make a significant commitment to address poverty in Haiti lest we simply reconstruct the conditions of poverty already there before the earthquake. Photo by Jeff Antebi.

We are privileged here at Oxfam America to have some photography from Haiti taken by photojournalist (and music producer) Jeff Antebi last year, so we are incorporating his images in an audio slide show on our web site. Please have a look and a listen, the images show how poor people are working to survive in Haiti, and the audio explains some of the particular challenges they face every day.

Recovering from Tuesday’s earthquake in Haiti will not be easy. We are going to have to take a hard look at what it will take to address the chronic level of pre-earthquake poverty in Haiti, instead of simply rebuilding what was already there.

Those inclined to help can contribute to our Haiti Earthquake Response Fund. If you have already donated, we thank you and ask you to share this url with others willing to help the people of Haiti:

Oxfam America Haiti Earthquake Response Fund: https://secure.oxfamamerica.org/site/Donation2?df_id=3560&3560.donation=form1