Although the crisis in Haiti is off mainstream reporting that doesn’t mean that the need for aid to the people has gone away.
In the aftermath of the earthquake JETNET made a very generous donation to the relief efforts of C.A.R.E. (Corporate Aircraft Responding in Emergencies) the organization that immediately stepped up to mobilize private aircraft to bring medicine, doctors, food and other necessary supplies to the people of Haiti. Since that time, C.A.R.E has split into a new organization that is now known as AERObridge.
This is one of the times when it takes financial resources to facilitate the transport of goods to the people who will directly benefit from them. During Operation Haiti, AERObridge has had to pay for initial supplies to go in on the first of several aircraft before the current supply chain was in place. They had to hire a helicopter (none were available on a donation basis at the time) to get into areas cut off from ground transport, and pay the fuel for an owner operated aircraft to continue operating.
With the help of our very generous donation, and with their current supply chain in place, AERObridge has been able to assist 6 different NGOs (Non Government Organizations) get their cargo to Haiti and progress with their recovery program. AERObridge, has been approved to send 186 pallets of tarps, water filtration systems, medical equipment/supplies, and disinfectant to Haiti on the U.S.S. Iwo Jima. The Navy will transport the pallets to Port de Paix where AERObridge will then pay for the trucks to take the cargo to their end recipients in Port au Prince with the oversight of the U.S. Marines. The reason the cargo is not going directly to Port au Prince with a private shipping company is that many NGOs are experiencing difficulty having their cargo tied up in Customs. The free transit AERObridge has been able to acquire with the Navy and Marines as well as getting their assistance overcoming bureaucratic obstacles has made AERObridge able to complete the chain of transportation to reach those refugees in dire need of help.
I am sure that everyone here at JETNET is proud of our company’s generosity and the accomplishments of AERObridge.
Diane,
Thank you for sharing with your company the results of their generosity and if I may add a few details. Some of the money JETNET donated went directly to get the 186 pallets brought to Haiti on the U.S.S. Iwo Jima “the last tactical mile”. There were a few complications the Navy experienced in attempting to land their LDU (landing craft units) on the beaches of Port de Paix. In fact, the LCU’s got stuck in the mud so they improvized and helicoptered the pallets to shore over 4 days. AERObridge contracted with a Haitian truck company which had been vetted by a partner NGO who had worked with them for 3 months. Over the 4 days, the trucks picked up the pallets on the North Shore of Haiti and drove 10 hours to Port au Prince over washed out roads to bring the supplies to a small transit warehouse operated by Grassroots. From there, doctors came to get their medical supplies and anesthesia machines, Grace Intl’ with the 2nd largest IDP camp in Pap, came to get their tarps, a school/feeding center of 500 children came to get water filtration systems so now they can have clean water and break the cycle of water bourne illness. AERObridge also helped facilitate a health and hygiene program of 25 orphanages in Port au Prince by providing a ground team from another NGO the hospital grade disinfectant which was openly donated (no recipient identified by the donor) and 4000 teddy bears that the Navy had brought to Haiti. Transportation of people and supplies in is the largest gap in providing assistance in Emergency Response, Relief and Recovery. AERObridge’s mission is to fill that gap during Emergency Response primarily in the United States, but we will continue to assist the military, large aid organizations and small organizations through common sense approaches worldwide.
If I may add one last point, we formalized under the name AERObridge with the assistance of NBAA because of trademark infringement issues raised by CARE Intl. AERObridge understood their concerns as media sources referred to the groups interchangeably.
Thank You,
Marianne Stevenson
President AERObridge
Comment by Marianne Stevenson — August 15, 2010 @ 10:59 am