by John Moore
Staff Writer
On Jan. 12, an earthquake with a magnitude of 7.0 struck the heart of an all-but-forgotten country in the Western hemisphere: Haiti. It was just over a month ago when we began to hear about Haiti. First it was the earthquake, then it was the disaster compounding the existing poverty of that country. But for most of the western world, what happened in Haiti would remain in Haiti—isolated. Those outside Haiti would be unaffected by its tragedy save what stories the media provided. But for IV Smith, things were different.
One week after the earthquake struck, a Bryan alumnus, Smith, or IV, as friends and family affectionately call him, was on a plane to the Dominican Republic with a friend. Their objective: to sneak across the border and guard and distribute relief supplies in conjunction with a mission organization called Thirst No More.
At Jacob Myer’s Deli in Dayton, Smith explained that in the first days following a major disaster, a small window exists when most major relief organizations are not yet able to mobilize, but the need is severe. The most effective response comes from those who are able to get in early.
“The cowboys are the ones who get things done,” he explained. Small teams like Smith and his friend are able to provide more efficient relief in the early days of disaster.
With the skills and abilities Smith and his friend, who he requested be unnamed, possess from their military backgrounds, their aim was to hit this small but needy window, bringing about as much of an effect as possible without becoming a further hindrance to the situation.
Taking food and water to last themselves about two weeks, they carried with them small medical supplies which they could easily pass out and administer.
Shortly after hitting the ground, Smith and his friend came to a refugee camp on the southeast side of Port Au Prince, where about 4,000 people were staying. The camp was set up in a Church of God compound; most people there had nothing, and the camp itself had one generator where people would come to charge their cell phones at night, Smith said.
When Smith and his friend arrived, he said the camp reeked of death. There were neither bathrooms set up nor burials taking place for the dead; the street was an open toilet and people simply lay on the ground to sleep at night.
One young man told Smith, “Pray to God before you sleep. Only He can keep you safe at night.”
Upon arrival at the refugee camp along with Thirst No More workers, he and his friend were the only non-Haitians; no other aid workers or organizations were set up; no assistance at all was coming from the UN, and Compassion was the only organization already responding to the earthquake.
Having brought only minimal supplies, Smith recounts simply administering peroxide to people with open wounds, treating infections while people awaited real medical relief. He said it was all they could do for people with infections who needed much more than they could offer.
Upon asking Smith what possessed him to go to Haiti so quickly after the disaster there, he responded without hesitation, quoting James 1:27: “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction.”
Smith, originally from Georgia, graduated from Bryan in 2002, with a degree in English Literature. From there he was commissioned a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army and rose to the rank of captain. Now in his time off, Smith says he “does good things for good people.” Relief work in Haiti fits that description.
Smith is married to Katie Buttram-Smith and has four children. He is currently earning a second degree in law from Nashville School of Law.