Posted with permission from the Hamilton Spectator
Ex-Beach guy Art Duerksen in the news.(We use to call him Arty)
Mark McNeil
The Hamilton Spectator
(Jan 22, 2010)
The exodus of residents from earthquake-ravaged Port-au-Prince into nearby communities is shaping up to be the next major crisis in Haiti, says a missionary who just returned to Hamilton from the Caribbean country.
Art Duerksen, 54, was in Cap-Haitien -- the second largest city in the country and about 100 miles from Port-au-Prince -- when the earthquake struck Jan. 12.
And in recent days, he says, the flow of dispossessed people to Cap-Haitien has been steadily growing.
"The people are going to the second largest city because there is nowhere else to go. They expect the population could double in Cap-Haitien and that is a big problem because they don't have the capacity for the people they have now.
"This is going to be a major, major problem ... the people coming up to the north from Port-au-Prince looking for somewhere to stay, something to eat, something to drink, somewhere to work. The city can't handle it... the unemployment rate is over 80 per cent."
Duerksen, who works with the Hamilton-based volunteer organization Joy and Hope of Haiti, had been in Cap-Haitien for a week when the quake struck.
He was helping to organize a foot race that was to take place in Cap-Haitien on the weekend of Jan. 16. as well as doing other missionary work.
He said he tried to get to Port-au-Prince with UN workers but the trip was cancelled because of security concerns and washed out roads from flooding.
Then on Monday this week he took a flight from Cap Haitien to return home because he felt he could help more by becoming involved in fundraising efforts in Hamilton.
Duerksen, a former co-owner of a Hamilton jewellery store, has been to Haiti about 20 times doing work for Joy and Hope of Haiti.
"It was disappointing leaving because you feel like you are leaving your friends. You're leaving in the middle of a crisis. But it was good in leaving that we could get to work here ... (to help out with fundraising). I've been working steady on the fundraising aspect to get money down there."
He says he plans to return to Haiti in February to continue work on a new skilled trades school, among other things.
mmcneil@thespec.com
905-526-4687
Ex-Beach guy Art Duerksen in the news.(We use to call him Arty)
Mark McNeil
The Hamilton Spectator
(Jan 22, 2010)
The exodus of residents from earthquake-ravaged Port-au-Prince into nearby communities is shaping up to be the next major crisis in Haiti, says a missionary who just returned to Hamilton from the Caribbean country.
Art Duerksen, 54, was in Cap-Haitien -- the second largest city in the country and about 100 miles from Port-au-Prince -- when the earthquake struck Jan. 12.
And in recent days, he says, the flow of dispossessed people to Cap-Haitien has been steadily growing.
"The people are going to the second largest city because there is nowhere else to go. They expect the population could double in Cap-Haitien and that is a big problem because they don't have the capacity for the people they have now.
"This is going to be a major, major problem ... the people coming up to the north from Port-au-Prince looking for somewhere to stay, something to eat, something to drink, somewhere to work. The city can't handle it... the unemployment rate is over 80 per cent."
Duerksen, who works with the Hamilton-based volunteer organization Joy and Hope of Haiti, had been in Cap-Haitien for a week when the quake struck.
He was helping to organize a foot race that was to take place in Cap-Haitien on the weekend of Jan. 16. as well as doing other missionary work.
He said he tried to get to Port-au-Prince with UN workers but the trip was cancelled because of security concerns and washed out roads from flooding.
Then on Monday this week he took a flight from Cap Haitien to return home because he felt he could help more by becoming involved in fundraising efforts in Hamilton.
Duerksen, a former co-owner of a Hamilton jewellery store, has been to Haiti about 20 times doing work for Joy and Hope of Haiti.
"It was disappointing leaving because you feel like you are leaving your friends. You're leaving in the middle of a crisis. But it was good in leaving that we could get to work here ... (to help out with fundraising). I've been working steady on the fundraising aspect to get money down there."
He says he plans to return to Haiti in February to continue work on a new skilled trades school, among other things.
mmcneil@thespec.com
905-526-4687