Operation USA began working with the Port-au-Prince based NGO L’Athletique d’Haiti following the hurricanes that hit the Caribbean in the fall of 2008. The series of storms paired with a 50% rise in food costs exacerbated the already dire circumstance, leaving many impoverished Haitians without access to basic food and nutrition. Malnutrition was at crisis level for those most vulnerable, especially children.

L’Athletique d’Haiti (LADH) is an after-school sports program that serves children from ages 6 to 17 in Cité Soleil and Bel Air, the poorest slums in Port-au-Prince. In a country where soccer is a national obsession, the lack of sports programs deprives young people of the opportunity to acquire self esteem, discipline and dedication—the skills developed through playing sports. The program additionally offers a nutritious daily meal and transportation to its participants.

To address the increased demand created by the hurricanes, Operation USA contributed to the funding of a new cafeteria for the facility. Additionally, OpUSA provided LADH with a grant to support their food program which serves children from some of the most destitute areas of Port-au-Prince and surrounding provinces.

Now, in the wake of the January 2010 earthquake, the needs have grown.

PROJECT UPDATE:

The facilities at L’Athletique d’Haiti sustained some damage in the earthquake–however, a large number of the children and families the program supported have suffered tremendously. Many of those who survived lost their homes.

The two soccer fields at LADH are currently housing as many as 500 families, sheltered in self-made or donated tents. They are being provided food and water, alongside medical care. Under the guidance of LADH’s inspiring founder Boby Duval, massive food distributions have been undertaken for those living on site.

Operation USA is currently working with LADH to address both current and long-term needs. From providing material aid, shelter and water purification systems, to rebuilding infrastructure and funding for programs, OpUSA remains committed to this program.

Nonprofit community clinics provide healthcare to all people, regardless of their ability to pay. They serve the uninsured, working poor, high risk and vulnerable populations. But the demand for their services is increasing just as their funding is decreasing. For over 27 years, Operation USA has provided supplies, equipment and medicines—free of charge—to community clinics and health centers throughout California.

Operation USA’s California Clinics Supply Program provides, on average, more than $5 million worth of materials each year. Over 100 nonprofit agencies are served throughout the state that provide clinical, mental health and/or social service care to men, women, and children in need. Partnering with manufacturers, distributors, wholesalers and retailers, donated products are shipped directly to the clinics based on their current needs.

Operation USA maintains a 24,000 sq. ft California Board of Pharmacy-licensed warehouse at the Port of Los Angeles and a 6,000 sq ft. warehouse at the Port of San Francisco where donated items are received, staged and stored.

Operation USA Open Warehouse events are held regularly for partner clinics who are invited to ’shop’ at the warehouse and select, free of charge, useful items from the inventory. These events allow the clinics to interact with each other as well as learn more about the donating companies.

Operation USA’s California Clinics Supply Program continues with thanks to many generous supporters. Product donors include: Brother’s Brother Foundation, Heart to Heart International, Kaiser Permanente, DAVA Pharmaceuticals, King Pharmaceuticals, McKesson, Mitsubishi, and others. The California Endowment, Kaiser Permanente, Blue Shield Foundation, McKesson Foundation and The Lincy Foundation, among others, provide financial support.

The hurricane caused extensive and severe damage in Louisiana and Mississippi, with New Orleans clearly the hardest hit area. A break in the levee system caused massive flooding throughout most of the city. Preliminary damage estimates for the region were well in excess of $100 billion; over 1,800 people died; and it is reported that as many as 275,000 homes were lost.

Less than a month later, Hurricane Rita made landfall on the southern coast of Louisiana and Texas. Rita caused $11.3 billion in damage and was the third Category 5 hurricane of the historic 2005 Atlantic hurricane season. While Rita remained well to the south and west of New Orleans, more parts of the levee wall were breached causing major reflooding in New Orleans.

An impoverished region before the storm, the impact of Katrina and Rita added a devastating hurdle to the already taxed social services system in both Louisiana and Mississippi. As first responders to the area, Operation USA rapidly sent a wide range of emergency supplies to community-based clinics in both rural and urban areas.

To address the needs of Katrina victims in the immediate aftermath of the storm, Operation USA focused our resources on community health clinics. Having over 27 years of experience supporting low-income health programs, OpUSA provided an initial $8 million in supplies and $700,000 in cash grants to Gulf Coast clinics. These resources ensured the clinics’ continuity of operations and allowed them to provide critical disaster relief and social services. Ultimately, Operation USA’s donors were enormously generous following this disaster—allowing us to donate a total of over $17 million in medical supplies and more than $2 million in grants to over 50 local clinics and community organizations

While the natural devastation and the egregious human errors have been well documented, the will and determination of Gulf Coast residents affected by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita continues to inspire as they rebuild their lives and revive their communities. Although there has been significant progress in much of the region, many residents are still struggling to reconstruct their lives. Operation USA continues to respond to unmet needs.

Operation USA received over $4 million in donations from private citizens, corporations and foundations. Over $12 million more in products and transportation was also donated. Operation USA’s extensive experience in Asia resulted in quickly mobilizing partners on the ground.

Projects were funded in Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Thailand and India. The scope of work ranged from providing emergency supplies such as water purification, medical aid and shelter materials to longer-term recovery projects that included building health centers, giving livelihood grants, as well as making the commitment to rebuild an entire Sri Lankan fishing village.

Operation USA remains an active and dedicated part of the long-term recovery process, and numerous projects continue in a large number of these communities.

Operation USA’s largest Tsunami relief project has been in the fishing village of Kallady, in the Trincomalee District on the East coast of Sri Lanka. The village was devastated by the Tsunami–leaving homes and livelihoods destroyed, and any semblance of basic infrastructure in tatters.

In 2005, Operation USA committed to partnering with local NGOs to rebuild Kallady. This project has provided 136 homes, a health center, community center, primary school and preschool, as well as livelihood materials, including 60 boats and fishing nets, to allow for self-sustaining income generation for the village.

In July 2007, Kallady village sustained additional damage as a result of the renewal of civil conflict, displacing local residents until early 2008. They returned to damaged homes and wells, missing fishing boats, and increased army presence. Early in 2009, in partnership with Consortium of Humanitarian Agencies, Operation USA began work on a large-scale water and sanitation project in the village, including the reconstruction of 53 latrines.

The storms were responsible for the deaths of 74 people in the United States, with physical damage estimates ranging in the tens of billions of dollars.

Operation USA’s response to the devastation began immediately following Hurricane Gustav with a shipment of antibiotics and heart medications to twenty community health clinics throughout Mississippi and Louisiana. Following Hurricane Ike, OpUSA provided the Texas Association of Community Health Centers (TACHC) with funds to purchase much needed over-the-counter medications for area health clinics and purchased a 25KVA generator for the South Central Houston Community Clinic to aid its service for its low-income community.

Operation USA was a major responder to Hurricane Mitch throughout its impact area (Nicaragua, Honduras and El Salvador). After an initial airlift of medical and shelter supplies, Operation USA began a series of projects to restore people’s lives. Through this work, Santa Rosa was discovered—a small village of about 70 families near Nicaragua’s frontier with Honduras, originally set up in 1984 as a resettlement camp to move villagers out of a war zone. Santa Rosa had always functioned at a bare subsistence level—and Mitch nearly destroyed the village.

Our approach in Santa Rosa was to first guarantee the very survival of Santa Rosa’s residents by providing them with food, shelter, access to water and medical assistance. In the years which followed, Operation USA built a village health clinic, a common kitchen, a pre-school, an irrigation system, a micro-hydropower electrical system, a connection to the national power grid, a library, a computer training center, a recreational park and several outbuildings used by the villagers to house a series of microcredit projects.

Operation USA has made a long-term commitment to the village of Santa Rosa, which, over the years, has been transformed from a disaster site to a healthy, productive, self-sustaining community.

Operation USA used the Santa Rosa development model to assist the village of Kalladi, Sri Lanka recover and regain its livelihood after the devastation of the December 2004 tsunami. These village projects are two of Operation USA’s largest ongoing development projects.

Operation USA responded quickly to the disaster by coordinating with regional partners in Haiti and Cuba to deliver water purification tablets, medical supplies to pediatric hospitals, and critically needed food and nutritional aid to children affected by the storms.

In response, Operation USA coordinated with the National Association of Community Health Care Centers, state and local officials, and state primary care associations to deliver emergency medical, shelter and nutritional supplies to the thousands affected by the storms.

Additionally, OpUSA made a series of grants to small family farmers to help them recover from the devastating floods which left many with no crops to harvest and to help them cope with the effects of the economic downturn.

Airlift History

Cambodia, Thailand, Malaysia (1979)
Vietnam, Somalia (1980)
Honduras (1981)
Poland, Lebanon (1982)
Nicaragua (1983)
Ethiopia, Sudan (1984)
Mexico (1985)
Jamaica (1986)
The Philippines (1987)
Armenia (1988)
Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bangladesh (1992)
Rwanda (1994)
Cuba (1998)
Albania and Kosovo, Turkey (1999)
El Salvador (1984)
India, Sri Lanka (2001)
Afghanistan, West Bank (2002)
Iraq (2003)
Iran (2004)
Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Morocco (2005)
Morocco, Lebanon (2006)