Utahns try alternative relief methods to aid Haitians

JIMANI, Dominican Republic — Everywhere Boyd Barney looks, he sees people in pain. He can't walk down the streets without having a reason to stop and help — except there are 132 reasons to keep going.

So he has to keep focused, keep thinking of the children waiting for food and water a mile away in the heart of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, and keep going.

As a member of Washington County's search and rescue team, Barney is used to harrowing situations. But this is different.

"It's a lot harder, because you want to help everybody and you can't," Barney said, after successfully carrying food and supplies Wednesday to a desperate orphanage with 132 children. "You have to kind of pick your battles and stay on track and accomplish what you had planned for. And it changes hourly."

Hours before, caretakers at the Maison des Enfants de Dieu orphanage had received deflating news that 113 of their 132 orphans — who are already in the process of being adopted — would be sleeping yet another night in the back of a cargo truck, or on the ground under a tent, instead of starting the journey to their new homes.

In Utah, the wheels turned to secure a safe place for the orphans to stay if they need to stop en route to their destinations. Attorney General Mark Shurtleff has organized temporary places for the children to stay at the government-run Christmas Box Houses in Salt Lake County and receive food, medicine and clothing.

"The bottom line is, there are places where you don't have to scatter them around to a bunch of homes," Shurtleff said. "It's up to the federal officials where they'll send them, but we want to say, 'Hey, things are available here. If you want to send them here, they will be safe.' "

Gov. Gary Herbert has contacted Gen. Brian Tarbet, adjutant general of the Utah National Guard, to see if there is anything else the state can do to help.

If the orphans receive a green light to leave, Utah Haiti Relief will do everything they can to give the children safe passage. The group of more than 20 Utahns, of which Barney is a part, has taken an alternative approach to giving aid to Haiti.

They're camped out on a rented baseball diamond in the Dominican Republic, which they use as a command center and landing pad for three helicopters bought by 34-year-old Jeremy Johnson for the express purpose of flying over the rubble in Haiti, speeding the wounded to hospitals and delivering food where possible. The Dominican Republic has offered the group a security detail and local guides to help.