This is my fourth day in Haiti already. I haven’t really spent much time out of the office as my job is proposal writing and information management, but I hope to get out and see at least one of the shelter distributions coming up in the next week or so.
Friday was the one-month anniversary of the earthquake and declared a national day of mourning. CARE staff worked as usual but began the day with a short memorial service in the office compound. The earthquake has affected so many lives her, many of the staff remained in the office compound either in tents or in the office buildings. CARE is providing food and lodging for the national staff as well as occasional daily labour in the form of office cleaning or laundry for the visiting expatriates.
Saturday marked the end of the mass food distributions that CARE, as a partner of the World Food Program, has been carrying out in the Delmas area of town (reaching around 15,000 individuals). Staff working on the distributions have worked non-stop during the last two weeks, starting at 3am and often not finishing until 7 or 8pm in the evening. We had a small celebration to mark the end of the distributions, and to thank staff for their hard work and dedication during this time.
Those of us in the office took a drive out at lunchtime to the La Boule Mountain to survey the city from the top. From there it’s clear to see the damage to the hills surrounding the city as landslides have cleared whole hillsides whilst the earth shook for just 30 seconds but changed the whole landscape.
As it’s a Sunday many people were attending mass prayers, even where churches remain standing, they prayed outside. Many people are still afraid to enter concrete buildings.
The government has now declared more than 200,000 dead as result of this earthquake. This is the highest death toll from a natural disaster since the 2004 Asian tsunami, which killed around 250,000 people in seven countries. Approximately 1.2 million people have lost their homes and the race is on now to provide adequate transitional shelter to the people before the rainy season begins in April and the hurricane season fast on its tail.
Kate Akhtar. Feb 14th. Port Au Prince.