Getting it done despite bureaucracy and traffic

Sometimes you just have to try harder. And sometimes, it still doesn't turn out how you wanted it to. And that's what happened today — a day when we arose early, got on the road quickly and arrived at yet another warehouse with precisely the right paperwork to pick up hygiene kits for a couple of Port-au-Prince’s most overwhelmed hospitals. But papers mean precisely nothing when the supplies you're searching for aren't there at all.

So sometime between late afternoon yesterday and early morning today, some critical supplies that we were supposed to deliver to young children and new mothers at the hospitals' maternity ward disappeared. Somewhere between an office and a warehouse, somewhere along the lines of communication — or lack thereof — the chance was missed to connect these relief items with the dozens of new mothers and their babies who we’d met last week.

The popular question about Haiti right now is why isn't the aid getting to earthquake survivors more quickly. Well, the roads of Port-au-Prince are still largely clogged with rubble, which grinds traffic to a standstill and makes it very hard to rush anywhere in the city. These kinds of obstacles are unavoidable in the aftermath of any disaster.

Bureaucracy, it seems, can be harder to overcome than the worst traffic snarls.

We did manage to procure and deliver a bundle of blankets to the hospital. And we also set up a system to cover the costs of the hospital’s purchase of fresh food and vegetables to supplement the 15 metric tons of food we brought yesterday. And we trust those missing hygiene kits ended up in the grateful hands of survivors just as in need as those at the hospital.

We tried hard today and delivered some much-needed help. We'll try even harder tomorrow.