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Brian Lehrer: Brian Lehrer on WNYC. Now, how to really help the victims of Saturday's earthquake in Haiti? As you've probably heard, in addition to the earthquake, Tropical Storm Grace crossed right over the impacted area shortly afterwards. UNICEF now estimates that around 1.2 million people, including 540,000 children, have been impacted by the back-to-back environmental disasters these past few days. Even before these two things in just a span of three days, of course, Haiti was experiencing instability economically and politically as the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse on July 7th remains unsolved.

Joining me now to discuss the latest from Haiti, including especially how New York's Haitian population is reacting and how you can help if you're listening right now following the earthquake and tropical storm is New York State Assemblymember Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn. She's from the 42nd district which includes Flatbush, East Flatbush, Ditmas Park, and Midwood in Brooklyn. The Assemblymember is the first Haitian-American to hold that office. She's also the Brooklyn Democratic Party chair. Assemblymember, welcome back to WNYC and thank you for joining us during this very difficult time.

Assemblymember Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn: No, thank you for having me on the show.

Brian Lehrer: Listeners, Haitian-American listeners, or anyone else, help us report this story. If you're Haitian-American and are hearing from people down there, have you been able to get good information about what the situation is that you would like to share? What are you hearing from people? Tweet @BrianLehrer or give us a call at 646-435-7280, or if you just have questions on the best ways to help 646-435-7280. Assemblymember, let's cut right to the chase. For people who want to help but don't know how to, what are you recommending?

Assemblymember Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn: We are doing a number of things. First of all, I just want to say that I do represent the largest population of Haitians in the State of New York. We have a number of different organizations and people and legislators from across the state who are focusing on our community because we have the largest concentration and the people are definitely in despair. We are doing a number of things. We are opening all of our offices to accept donations of supplies. We are looking at things like feminine napkins, in some cases canned food, medical supplies, baby products like wipes, and things of that nature.

We are working with Mayor Bill de Blasio. We have opened up a mayor's fund for Haiti, which includes four organization that has been on the ground. People who prefer to donate monetarily, they can go to the website nyc.gov/funds, and you will see four organizations listed; Ayiti Community Trust, CapraCare, Hope for Haiti, Partners In Health. We wanted to make sure that if people are helping, they work with Haitian-led organizations and organizations that were on the ground. In the past in 2010, as you know, Brian, there were a number of NGOs that really capitalized on the backs of our vulnerable people in Haiti in 2010. People were getting rich with their overhead, and we've learned from that.

Since then, there's been a number of grassroots Haitian-led organizations that have stayed in Haiti working with the people. We're asking folks to go there. In terms of medical supplies, we are working with the Mayor and Lieutenant Governor Kathy Hochul in not only getting a place to get all the medical supplies donated, but we're getting medical supplies from the city. We're working on logistics with Kathy Hochul's office and working with JetBlue to actually ship the medical supplies out to Haiti as well as shipping and transporting medical doctors and nurses and other healthcare workers for the relief. We are talking to a number of different countries.

I spoke to the Council of Israel who they have their Israel aid in Haiti already. They landed yesterday. We're working with a number of other countries who are sending troops. When I say troops, I'm not talking about military troops. They're sending medical relief troops in Haiti. We have an issue with access. There was an important bridge that transported people from one area to another area that's been disrupted, so there's a mechanism of airlifting. All of that has to-- It's in the works. It's being planned. Everybody is calling. My office has turned into a donation supply holding spot. We don't have room for desks and computers anymore. It's just literally everybody is coming to the office. People are shook.

Brian Lehrer: I want to follow up on that, stuff coming to the office and what you said earlier in your first answer about things that are needed down there that people can donate. I think people's first impulse generally is, "Oh, it's pointless to bring food or medical supplies or clothing or whatever to a collection point in New York City and ship it to Haiti. What these organizations need is simply cash donations and then they have the mechanisms." I think you're saying that is not entirely true, right?

Assemblymember Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn: I'm saying that is not entirely true. We need both. Although we have a lot of these great organizations that are on the ground, it's a lot. As you've mentioned, 1.2 million people were affected. Right now, the death toll is about 2,000. About 10,000 people are seriously injured. These organizations may not have the capacity and may not have all the things that they need that's why we have a whole bunch-- We have 2,000 doctors who are in Haiti right now from outside of Haiti who came in, and they need supplies. They need supplies and we need to help provide those supplies so that they can care for the many injured.

It's something that can be done in parallel. As we're raising money for these organizations, we should be collecting supplies for them. As they get the money, they're going to have to also buy the equipment, hire people to serve the people who are injured over there. It's definitely needed. It's not only about medical supplies. I know when people are calling, they want to donate clothes. They want to donate canned food. Sometimes canned food can be very heavy and very expensive to ship. I'm working with the Supermarket Association. They called me and they're sending over to my office 2,000 cases of supermarket food products that are nonperishable.

Again, we're working with the state to make sure that we can transport all of these things out of our offices and in the warehouse. Things like toiletries, feminine products, baby pampers, baby food, toothpaste, things like that, people don't think about that. We have women who need these things for themselves and for their babies, so that's needed. Again, these organizations not necessarily will have all of that in time to provide for these people. Everything is real-time now, Brian. We need help immediately. We cannot repeat what happened in 2010. 2010 took us by surprise.

We didn't have an infrastructure to ship things over or channel. We didn't have organizations that were fully ready on the ground to help aid. You had just a compilation of different organizations, some that probably were, again, capitalizing on the backs of the people using the opportunity to traffic and just make the situation worse. Now we have learned. We have learned how we can expeditiously, effectively be prompt in our response and get there. Like I said, about 2,000 doctors are out there already. We're sending out more with the medical relief team in all parts of New York right now.

We are on conference calls every day. I'm on three or four conference calls with different groups. I'm with the National Haitian-American elected officials. We have over 70 elected officials who are of Haitian descent across the United States. We are constantly talking to each other and seeing how we can collaboratively work with each other. Miami, Florida and the university has been a hub of supplies. It's just easier to get stuff to them and then they have the logistic to get it directly to the region. It's been a lot. I have to commend the NYPD. All police precincts in New York City are also accepting medical supplies, hiking products, bottled water, clothing. Things of that nature.

Brian Lehrer: Every precinct?

Assemblymember Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn: Every precinct. In NYPD, there's a number of affinity groups. We have a group called the Haitian-American Fraternal Law Enforcement Group, which has been very active and one of the largest Black organizations throughout NYPD in New York City. They have been very helpful and they've been working with the chief department, the commissioner, and opening all the precincts to make it available for donation supply so yes. That has not been done yet. Again, this is now being done, which we're very happy for.

Brian Lehrer: That's good to know for people who are hearing this and say, "Do I have to go to this assembly member's office or just a few of these other places." If you know every local police precinct in New York City, that's good for people to know if you want to donate the right things. If you're just joining us--

Assemblymember Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn: I would say also, Brian--

Brian Lehrer: Go ahead.

Assemblymember Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn: I would also say practically, most of the elected officials are also opening their offices.

Brian Lehrer: Great to know. If you're just joining us, folks, my guest is New York State assemblymember, Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn. She represents the 42nd District; Flatbush, East Flatbush, Ditmas Park, Midwood. She's Haitian-American, and she's a point person for informing everybody else how to help the people of Haiti after the earthquake. I'm going to repeat the four organizations that are officially sanctioned for you to give money to according to the City of New York and the Assemblymember.

That's Ayiti Community Trust, CapraCare Haiti, Hope for Haiti, and Partners In Health. I know when we mentioned the other day that list, a lot of people called in or tweeted and said, "Oh, repeat the list because you went by so quickly." There it is again. Ayiti Community Trust, CapraCare Haiti, Hope for Haiti, and Partners In Health. Let's take a phone call. Here's John Marie in Brooklyn. You're on WNYC. Hi, Jean-Marie.

Jean-Marie: Hi. I agree with her. Brian, how are you doing? I want to say I love your show all the time.

Brian Lehrer: Thank you, sir.

Jean-Marie: I just listened to the guest. I'm a Haitian also. I come from where those problem really happened. I want to say west of the country. I would like to actually guess from 2010 for the last earthquake, we get a lot of lesson. Even today, everybody reach to the needy. I would like to know how they're going to make sure the aid now reach the needy because they know how the government over there operate. They took those thing and then did not share to the people. The people did not really find it.

I would like to know this time how are they going to make sure those aid will reach the needy. Also, I come from, I have a lot of family member. I got my own sister, hers collapsed also. I have a lot of other family member who got a lot of problem in this area. Then how are they going to reach this area? I know this area there's a war. The war is really worse. How are they going to make sure to get in touch with those people in this area because I spoke with a lot of people in this area, they said they never-

Brian Lehrer: Jean-Marie,-

Jean-Marie: -see anybody coming to talk to them?

Brian Lehrer: -I'll get you an answer to those two really important questions. I wonder if you would put an individual human face on this tragedy for our listeners by describing, if you're willing, what I think I just heard you say, which is that your sister's house collapsed. What's she doing in that scenario?

Jean-Marie: Okay. I know about that. She talked about that. For the past two days, they've been staying, I would say, on this plastic thing and then in the rain. They cannot go into any other house and have been destroyed. After the aftershock, they're still scared to go inside to other family members their house not collapsed.

Brian Lehrer: Has anybody reached them yet?

Jean-Marie: No. They said they don't see anybody on this area coming to talk to anybody to ask them what's going on, how they're going to help them out.

Brian Lehrer: Jean-Marie, let me get answers to your questions from the Assemblymember to the extent that she can answer them. One is, how are they going to reach people in the more remote areas? The other is, and we had several calls like this the other day too, what about the corruption that was endemic after the 2010 earthquake in the relief efforts? How can people be assured that the relief is actually going to get to the people?

Assemblymember Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn: To answer your first question, again, we are discovering that yes, there is issue with access. As mentioned, there was a bridge that collapsed and it made it harder for people to get to some of the areas in the region. The region of Les Cayes, which is the Southern region of where the earthquake hit. One of the things that we learned from last time was, you're right, there were a number of organizations that were corrupt.

There were some other legitimate organizations that were not corrupt, but we felt that really most of the money that were donated to them went through their overhead versus the people itself, like the American Cross, like the Clinton foundation. That's why we are stressing that people donate to these organizations. We have a slew of other organizations. These organizations are in touch with us. They are in touch with the United States and the Haitian government. They are actually relating to the government in the US what's the difficulties, access, and so forth.

They are doing airlifts. They are airlifting folks from one area to another area. They are airlifting teams, they're using helicopters in order to transport a medical relief team. That's what they're doing now. We can't wait. Obviously, that was all discovered when they went over there and so that has been communicated back to us. To your point, and to the gentleman Jean-Marie, I'm really sorry about your family. It hurts me too because my family is also in Haiti. They have not been impacted as such so far that I know. They are in a different part of Haiti, but I've seen with my own two eyes.

I tweeted it on my Twitter account of an old lady, elderly lady, he could be our grandmothers, 90 years old. She is walking in the flood that was created by the Tropical Storm Grace.

She has nowhere to go. People do not want to stay in a structure because they are afraid of the aftershock. They prefer to sit on the streets, but guess what? There's no street to sleep on. You'll drown because the place is flooded. You see this 90-year-old woman, it's on my Twitter, who's walking and trying to get help, trying to stay warm, and she just have no place to live or no shelter to go to.

That's what's happening in Haiti. It is obstacles on top of obstacles. When we talk about the first responders who are going to Haiti, that's another issue. You have all these doctors who have no place to stay also. They're out there in the streets and in the water. We're also asking for tents because we need tents. We need tents, we need places that people can stay. It's a very tragic situation right now in Haiti.

Brian Lehrer: That's going to be an eye-opener for people who are hearing it the first time that they need tents. The story you just told, which reflects the story that Jean-Marie just told about his sister, her house was destroyed, then the rains came with the tropical storm. She was reduced to covering herself in plastic as he described. She was afraid to go back into her house because of aftershocks. That's the situation or part of the situation for some of the people. Even tents are needed, folks, as items for donation. Lauren in Brooklyn, you're on WNYC. Lauren, thank you for calling in.

Lauren: Hello.

Brian Lehrer: Hi. Lauren, you're on the air.

Lauren: Hi, can you hear me?

Brian Lehrer: Yes, I can.

Lauren: Thank you so much for taking my call. I'm calling, my husband is Haitian. He's actually from Jeremie. He survived the 2010 earthquake. He happened to be living in Port-au-Prince at the time. Thankfully, from what we've heard, his family members, our family is okay. I'm not really sure the conditions of their house and whatnot. I guess my question for your guest is--

Sorry if you can hear me. If you know if there's going to be any emergency visas, or any permission granted to those if we wanted to try to get family member here in the interim just because we know from last time, it's going to take us such a long time to really make actual improvements for people there? Is there any way that we can try to get family members here in the interim?

Assemblymember Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn: Yes. Thank you so much, Lauren. Again, my prayers to your husband's family and your family because they're your family too. I hope that everything is okay with them as much as possible. We as Haitian people we are resilient, we've gone through so much throughout the history of Haiti ever since being the first Black republic independent. I will say that a number of us had co-authored a letter to President Biden asking the president to end deportation, to raise the refugee admission ceilings for Haitians, and offer humanitarian aid in the form of food and COVID vaccinations.

We also had asked for political asylum. This was in the wake of the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse. Haiti is one of those countries that has been biased again. Sometimes it takes 20 years to get a permanent visa, to get your loved one from Haiti. Very, very seldom we get political asylum. You know Haiti has gone through a lot of political disarray. It's just been very challenging over the years. From a dictatorship to having to chase out the first president, and it goes on and on and on. Having [crosstalks] and coup d'états.

Brian Lehrer: In short just for time, you're saying you can't really hold out much hope for Lauren that her family might be able to get immigrant visas on this basis any time soon, right?

Assemblymember Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn: Yes. Very little hope because I'm sorry but the US sometimes treat us like crap. The Eastern European countries get visas. The Black countries do not give visas as quickly, we don't get political asylum. It's horrible. As you know, when we're trying to reach the shores of Miami, the Cubans are allowed, the Haitians are turned away to be eaten by the sharks. That's the reality.

Brian Lehrer: Lauren, I wish we had better news for you in response to your question. I'll also say another baby makes his radio debut on The Brian Lehrer Show. What's his name?

Lauren: His name is Carri. We listen to you every day, he's very excited with that.

[chuckling]

Brian Lehrer: Thank you so much. Hello, Carri.

Assemblymember Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn: Hi, Carri.

Lauren: Thank you. Oh my God.

Brian Lehrer: Welcome to the airwaves. Lauren, good luck to you and your family. I wish we had a better answer for you.

Lauren: Thank you. I appreciate your time also.

Brian Lehrer: A few minutes left. We have the assembly member, Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn, from Brooklyn on how to help the victims of the Haiti earthquake. I actually want to use our remaining few minutes to, now that we've done that in I think a good deal of depth, just touch briefly on another couple of issues that you've been involved in. One is the topic of our previous segment, which is the new vaccine mandate in New York City for indoor dining and theaters and other venues in New York City.

I'm curious how your district is doing with the Delta variant and how you feel about the vaccine mandate. If in your district there may be a lower vaccination rate, I'm guessing than in some other parts of the city if you feel it's discriminatory, which came up in our previous segment or if you support it.

Assemblymember Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn: For one as you know, here in New York City 96% of all the COVID-19 cases involve the Delta strain. About nearly all new cases that involve those haven't been vaccinated. Many of the people who had the Delta strain were not vaccinated. The Delta variant is more contagious and potent than the standard form of the virus but you have a higher chance of protecting yourself by getting vaccinated. Unfortunately, in my district, which is the zip codes of 1121011230, we are amongst the few that has a low vaccination rate. Moderately to severely immunocompromised people can even now get a third dose of Pfizer or Moderna vaccine.

Brian Lehrer: Exactly. That's some breaking news. I'll break it right here. Breaking news Just in the last few minutes, the Biden administration has announced that all vaccinated Americans will be eligible for a third dose as of eight months for the second dose. That just came out a few minutes ago.

Assemblymember Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn: Wow. Awesome. this is great. The issue is there was an alarming trend because of failure in our public health policy that the vaccine rates show a major racial disparity. As you know, New York Times had recently reported only 28% of Black New Yorkers aged 18 to 44 are fully vaccinated. This is alarming. In my district is very alarming. As you know, has a high immigrant-populated group of people, healthcare disparities have been very high, access to vaccinations.

Our communities were one of the last ones to have access to vaccinations. There's this thing about is this good for Black people? We've been tested on, tried on. We've been guinea pigs for many years, and people just don't trust a lot of things. I think that has a lot to do with it. I know the city has been encouraging people to get vaccinated by incentivizing them with money like $100 on the first try. I always say that it should have been $50 and $50 on the second dose. It's tough.

Economic development, economic is very important in my district, it's very important to New York City. This week under the Key to New York City Pass mandate, the city began requiring all individuals looking to dine indoors, work out in gyms, or sea shows, they have to show proof of vaccinations. It won't take off until September 13th. That will mean that the patients will now have to show proof at least one vaccination dose in order to eat indoors.

Brian Lehrer: We're almost out of time and we did spend our previous segment explaining it in some detail. You support it. It sounds like you support that. You support that, correct?

Assemblymember Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn: I support it to some extent. Are you talking about the mandatory vaccination, the mandatory mandate?

Brian Lehrer: Yes.

Assemblymember Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn: I support it to an extent. I think we need to give people-- I think the mass mandate is definitely 100% I support. If people are not getting vaccinated, and it might affect businesses, businesses might just go out of business. It's just going to affect their bottom line.

Brian Lehrer: You're ambivalent on that?

Assemblymember Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn: Right. I would say I'm ambivalent on that. For the health crisis-- Sure.

Brian Lehrer: Last question, political question. I saw your name on a list of people likely being considered by Kathy Hochul for lieutenant governor. Can you confirm that you're being considered?

Assemblymember Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn: [chuckles] That's something you should ask Kathy. Look, all I can say about this there's a lot of qualified names floating around. The reality is, as you can see, right now my focus has been on the assembly, my district, building a unified Democratic Party as well as addressing this Haiti relief crisis. I have to say that we have made tremendous strides in having a lot of new faces in government, including a Black mayor in New York City. I think the word is the person needs to be from Brooklyn. I don't know. She might be looking for someone from Brooklyn.

Brian Lehrer: [chuckles] Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn is the Brooklyn Democratic Party chair as well as assemblymember from Flatbush and around there. Thank you for all the information on Haiti. That is the thing you should be focusing on now as you are. I'm glad we got so much information out about places and things that people can be focusing on to help after the earthquake. Thank you for giving us so much time.

Assemblymember Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn: Thank you so much, Brian. I appreciate being on the call.

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