The organization has been forced to use boats and planes to ferry supplies to the south, but even that is complicated because the port is located by the Cite Soleil slum, where more than 200 people are believed to have been killed recently as rival gangs fought over territory. Increasingly powerful gangs have seized control of the main road leading from the capital of Port-au-Prince to Haiti’s southern region, disrupting efforts to provide food, water and other basic goods to those in need.Ī lot of organizations have been forced to pay bribes to avoid staff being kidnapped while driving to the south.Ĭindy Cox-Roman, CEO of Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit HelpAGE USA, said there is “a great feeling on the part of people there that they’re alone in this.”Ĭassendy Charles, emergency program manager for the Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit Mercy Corps, estimates it could take five years for the region to fully recover from the earthquake. It noted that a lack of funds and a spike in violence have delayed reconstruction. The state also opened a temporary bridge over the Grande-Anse River in early August.īut UNICEF warned last week that more than 250,000 children still have no access to adequate schools and that the majority of 1,250 schools destroyed or damaged have not been rebuilt. It has provided $100 each to vulnerable people in tens of thousands of homes across the south. The government says it has planted 400 tons of beans, cleaned 10,000 meters of canals, distributed 22,000 bags of fertilizer and donated more than 300,000 baskets filled with basic goods. On the earthquake’s anniversary, a group of government officials held a press conference describing the advances of the administration of Prime Minister Ariel Henry, who began leading the country shortly after President Jovenel Moïse was assassinated on July 7, 2021. “So far, it’s all been promises,” said 55-year-old farmer Nicolas Wilbert Ernest. Those living in the camps say they’ve heard on the radio that local government officials have met with international leaders about the post-earthquake plights, but they question if they’ll ever be helped. They rely on the neighbors for their only meal of the day. “I don’t know how long I can continue like this,” said Renel Cene, a 65-year-old who lost four children in the earthquake and once toiled the nearby fields of vetiver, a plant whose roots produce an oil used in fine perfumes.įamilies walk to get well water, sometimes letting the sediment settle before drinking it. The camp, like several others, also floods quickly when it rains, forcing hundreds to flee to higher ground as they watch their belongings get drenched. Thugs have ripped apart the shacks, thrown rocks at families and tried to set the camp on fire twice in recent months.
In one camp, friends of the property owner are trying to take back the land where the refugees settled. What’s worse, others are victimizing the quake victims. “I don’t have anything to provide for them,” Castel said. The tiny girl, Wood Branan Ernest, fell asleep during her failed attempt. But after a year of surviving on scraps in a makeshift camp, Castel had no milk. On Thursday morning, she tried to get her 9-month-old daughter to suckle. So today, Castel is alone, fighting for her family’s survival like many struggling to restart their lives after the quake. As the family waited for help, Ernest died of prostate cancer last year.
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