{"id":254485,"date":"2010-01-31T07:22:51","date_gmt":"2010-01-31T12:22:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/globalvoicesonline.org\/?p=120515"},"modified":"2010-01-31T07:22:51","modified_gmt":"2010-01-31T12:22:51","slug":"global-voices-in-haiti-talking-to-volunteer-regine-zamor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/254485","title":{"rendered":"Global Voices in Haiti: Talking to Volunteer R\u00e9gine Zamor"},"content":{"rendered":"

Global Voices has sent a two-person team to Port-au-Prince in the wake of the Haiti earthquake<\/a>, to help support citizen media activity. Georgia Popplewell<\/a> and Alice Backer<\/a> are also contributing firsthand reporting to our coverage of recovery efforts. Find out more about their assignment here.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI, 30 January, 2010<\/p>\n

R\u00e9gine Zamor is a Haitian-American based in New Rochelle, New York, but raised in Brooklyn. Her Haitian family is from Martissant. She decided to come to Haiti after the 12 January earthquake and volunteer on her own, without signing up with a major NGO. She had contacts in Haiti and the Dominican Republic before arriving, having volunteered with Haitian indentured laborers in Batey Ocho, Barahona, in the Dominican Republic last summer. Her family and friends in the United States were supportive of her decision.<\/p>\n

R\u00e9gine is a film producer and writer who just finished a documentary film on street children in Cap Ha\u00eftien<\/a>, titled Bagay<\/em> Dw\u00f2l<\/em>. She has been blogging about the film and about her first-response volunteering at her blog, Bagay Dwol Journal<\/em>.<\/a><\/p>\n

When she initially arrived in Haiti, a couple of days after the quake, she researched where her help was needed and wound up volunteering in food distribution, information sharing \u2014 both in person and through her blog \u2014 and in medical supplies distribution through various contacts at smaller NGOs such as SOIL<\/a>, Wynn Farm, and COHEF<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Georgia Popplewell and I met with her at the Hotel Oloffson a couple of afternoons ago.
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\n \u201cI didn't want to wait\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

When I told other Haitians living in the United States that I was traveling to Haiti with Global Voices, many who were on waiting lists with large well-known NGOs and US government agencies expressed dismay. For example, my friend Alex \u2014 who holds a masters degree in public health administration and has been working in the healthcare industry in the United States for years \u2014 was itching to be picked from a volunteer list. When R\u00e9gine explained to Georgia and me how she made it to Haiti shortly after the quake, I immediately thought of Alex and all the others waiting in the U.S.<\/p>\n

R\u00e9gine decided not to wait, and in this video she explains how she connected with the work she wound up doing:
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