Kingston woman rushing to help Haiti

By Jen Roberts

Haiti relief: Cloverleaf Bowling Lanes plays host to a fundraiser Bowl A Thon in support of Tammy Babcock, founder of the Help Tammy Help Haiti organization which aims to provide aid and relief to the people of Cité Soleil, Haiti. Babcock will be leaving for Haiti on Jan 26. Photo by Jen RobertsTammy Babcock is not one to run from a crisis.
When thousands of people were killed after a tsunami hit Thailand in 2004, instead of watching from afar, Babcock hopped on a plane and flew to the ravaged area to work on rebuilding homes for those who survived.
And now, days after a 7.0 earthquake rocked the city of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Babcock finds herself packing to board a plane to the ravaged country. She will be leaving on Jan. 26.
“I’m in my emergency mode now,” says Babcock. “I don’t have time to grieve what I’ve lost. I’m just trying so hard to get us prepared to get there and be as strong as we can.”
Babcock, 33, founded the Help Tammy Help Haiti organization in 2008, along with two other Canadian directors. The aim of the organization is to improve the living conditions of the citizens of Cité Soleil, Port-au-Prince Haiti.
Initially Babcock, a security supervisor at Queen’s University, had planned to return to Haiti on Jan. 26 to break ground on a medical clinic. But with the earthquake, all that has changed.
“Now we are going down with another initiative, and that’s to help clean up and help everybody that we can there with our first aid,” says Babcock. “Also, I’m not just going for two weeks. I have a one-way ticket and I’m not too sure when I’ll be coming back.”
Babcock, along with her director, will be setting up at a medical clinic in Cité Soleil, where they will be able to work relatively safely among the growing amount of violence. They are taking over 300 pounds of emergency first aid supplies.
“My partner will be returning back to Canada after two weeks, so she will be able to feed me money as I need it,” says Babcock. “I’m not going down there with an abundance of money on my person so it can be stolen. We’re trying to be as smart as we can here with people’s donations.”
The growing violence is a concern for Babcock and her crew, but it’s not going to stop them from helping as much as they can.
“I walked into Haiti two years ago knowing it was going to be violent but I don’t really dwell on that,” says Babcock. “We do have followers [in Haiti] that are in gangs that understand and support us. They know we’re there to help them and hopefully, we won’t be harmed.”
Working in Haiti does not come cheap to Babcock either.
From March 2008 to March 2009, she estimates she has easily spent $10,000 of her own money on accommodation and travel expenses.
“The way I look at it, I also spent $10,000 on putting siding and soffits on my house and I don’t give a shit about that,” says Babcock.
“But this $10,000 is helping people and also, changing my life at the same time. The people that live in Cité Soleil are definitely my friends and family and I think that anybody would consider doing what I’ve done, if they felt that their friends and family were in need.”
On this particular trip, Babcock expects to face a different set of challenges. On previous trips, she has had the support and the strength of the people of Port-au-Prince and of the United Nations. But now that has changed.
“I have always looked to the them as my strength. If I’m weak, they can build me up. But now, they’re in emergency mode and I’m going to have to be my own strength and I might find that difficult,” says Babcock.
“I’m going to be seeing images that will stay with me for a long time and I have lost a lot of friends. Right now it’s hard for me to grasp, and I’m sure when I get there it’s going to hit me like a ton of bricks.”
Unfortunately, it takes something like an earthquake or a tsunami to get people to pay attention. But Babcock is hopeful that Haiti will come out of this disaster a bit better than before.
“You have to think of the best. There is definitely a lot of support out there now. I just hope it carries on. It’s so easy to make a donation,” says Babcock. “I hope it’s not forgotten too quickly, because this is going to take years to reconstruct.”
Babcock has been bombarded with over 300 emails a day but feels it’s necessary to respond to every one with a personal response.
“People could so easily choose to support a bigger organization that can offer a tax benefit,” says Babcock. “Unfortunately I can’t, so people believing in me really means a lot.”
Donations to Help Tammy Help Haiti have been pouring in from all over the place. Belleville dentist Greg Tucker, who has know of Babcock’s cause for some time, has offered to donate one of his used dental chairs to the cause.
“I’ve offered to help out any way I can. I know they’re trying to include a dental clinic in the medical centre, and dental chairs can be very expensive. They can run $5,000-$6,000. I’ve recently replaced one in my office and the one I took out is functioning just fine,” says Tucker.
“When I heard yesterday that a local businessman in Kingston was donating a container, and the transport of whatever’s in that container, I thought that’d be great, the dental chair can be placed in there and away we go.”
Tucker is also keen on the idea of helping out personally.
“If they needed help, I would look forward to an opportunity to go down and help”