Posted by : Lizzie on 02/03/2010 at 11:13

7 weeks on from the devastating earthquake which demolished huge swathes of the capital of Haiti and killed an estimated 230,000 people, millions have been left homeless. The last couple of months have been perhaps the worst disaster in all the rocky history of Haiti. In the aftermath of the initial magnitude 7 quake, aftershocks rippled across the country causing further damage and deaths. The quake also triggered a minor tsunami which killed 3 more on the coast of Haiti as well as destroying more buildings. Even now, aftershocks are still hitting Haiti as we hear news of a 4.6 magnitude quake only yesterday.

As time ticks on, the imminent rainy season becomes more of a problem. Already the rains have caused a landslide in Cap-Haïtien which destroyed an elementary school and killed four children, including the young daughter of our partners medical director, Dr Toussaint. Devastating floods in the third largest city of Haiti, Les Cayes, have killed thirteen as well as destroying hundreds of homes as 3,000 are evacuated.

Although the rainy season does not really start for another month, these early rains have been heavy enough to cause problems for the 1.2 million homeless living in rough camps round the outskirts of Port-au-Prince. Living under simple plastic sheets offers no protection from the torrential rain of the Caribbean. Instead these makeshift camps turn into quagmires as the rains destroy the fragile tents. Officials believe that if they clear just enough rubble from certain areas of the city and improve drainage in flood-prone areas, they can move people from the camps and so ease the pressure on the camps and save lives. This is not a permanent solution, but at this stage they simply need to move people into more secure accommodation before the rains start in seriousness.

There is an opportunity not to be missed here to rebuild Port-au-Prince to better withstand future disasters. However, what are the millions of now homeless inhabitants to do in the meantime? These people simply want to return to their homes and get back to their lives, but it will be a long time before even the rubble is cleared sufficiently to start rebuilding. There is so much rubble blocking the streets and essential canals and drainage systems that aid officials estimate that it would take 1,000 trucks 1,000 days to clear all the rubble from the capital of Haiti.

Whatever the intentions of the US missionaries arrested in Haiti, it really highlighted some of the issues facing children there. For so many years, children have been at such risk in Haiti, with unknown numbers trafficked across the border to the Dominican Republic, some 25,000 children living on the streets, and thousands kept as restaveks, most of whom are effectively child slaves. With so many more children now homeless and the few organisations who had been working with street children and restaveks struggling to find their feet, if indeed they survived at all, this most at risk layer of society is now more vulnerable than ever. Take a look at this short video clip from the New York Times on the situation for restaveks in Haiti before and after the earthquake >>

We want to be helping children like these in the long term. To ensure that we are working where the need is greatest, Caroline will be going to visit Haiti next month to reconnect with her contacts from her previous visit in December. We are not looking to start up a brand new project but rather to partner with local experts and support a project which was well-established before the quake destroyed what they had achieved. Keep checking back for more news on our work in Haiti.