At the two-and-a-half year mark following the devastating January 2010 Haiti Earthquake appeal in Haiti, we can claim that the impact of recovery, rehabilitation and reconstruction is clear, both for and its Haitian partners: 396 homes, housing more than 2,000 people, have been repaired and built in fifteen different small communities and throughout the vast area of greater Port-au-Prince. Three thousand people who were living in dusty tent camps have returned home to their repaired houses.
Two and a half years after the earthquake that devastated Haiti, life here can still be a struggle. When the 7.0-magnitude earthquake struck Haiti on January 12, 2010, at least 220,000 people lost their lives, and millions were displaced from their homes.
I couldn’t even get my mom a decent Mother’s Day gift,” Soraya said, pouting. “Finally, I used my measly allowance and bought her a ticket to Paris. It’s nothing special, but I figure it’s the thought that counts.”
Soraya isn’t a real Haitian, at least not exactly. She’s a character played by a 26-year-old actress named Belinda Paul in a sketch-comedy television show called “Regards Croisés.”
Soraya is a caricature of a certain kind of privileged, bubbleheaded daughter of the Haitian elite — a Zuzu. Zuzu girls are conspicuous in places like Miami and Paris, but they are hard to see in the hills of Port-au-Prince, where they shop, go to the gym and party behind high walls topped with bougainvillea and concertina wire. Zuzu-speak, an affected whine of Creole, French and “omigod” English, is deliciously recognizable to the less fortunate masses, and every Saturday night Haitian viewers roar, clap and rock with laughter at Soraya’s airs.
“Regards Croisés,” which translates roughly as “Viewpoints,” has been on the air a little more than a year and is a runaway hit with middle- and working-class Haitians who live, as people in the capital put it, “down the hill.” The show’s improvised skits, which feature all-too-familiar character types — the ill-trained schoolteacher, the mercurial embassy consul — gently send up Haitian daily life, particularly the class divides and crushing hardships that make so many Haitians desperate to get out.
Haiti is a poor, aid-dependent country rich in political instability, corruption and disaster. People here have a deep craving for comic relief. “Regards Croisés” is one of the few things that provide it; in a spare television landscape dominated by Mexican telenovelas dubbed into French, and Creole rap videos, the show makes Haitians laugh at their misfortunes and themselves.
The success of “Regards Croisés” is a little unlikely — it’s a comedy show in a nation full of tragedy — and that says something about Haitian resilience.
The limit of its popularity says just as much, though, about the rigidity of Haitian society, the inflexibility of the country’s class boundaries.
This low-budget program remains largely unknown or disregarded by Haiti’s tiny French- and English-speaking upper class; it is equally overlooked by the humanitarian agencies that devote time, money and expertise to communicating with the local population. It’s a phantom hit. Foreign aid workers and executives of Haiti’s many commercial TV channels complain that Haitians need meaningful shows made in Haiti for Haitians. Just out of their line of sight, on state-owned TV no less, one is already on the air.
In one improv skit, Sophia Baudin plays Consul Sophia, an imperious American Embassy official who finds wildly arbitrary reasons to deny Haitians visas, like bad hair. Flanked by two burly security guards, Consul Sophia torments applicants with their own answers. A meek, educated woman says she owns her own house but can’t remember how much she paid for it. “If you can’t remember how much you paid for your house, how will you remember that I issued you a visa?” Consul Sophia thunders. She shakes her head in disgust and calls for the next case.
In the 1st few days following the earthquake, provided medical care to dislocated kids and families in Haiti. And over the past year, over one.8 million folks have received food, and many thousands were supplied with life-saving provides, together with tarpaulins and tents. We conjointly opened Child-Friendly areas in Haiti to assist kid’s work the trauma caused by the earthquake and started providing transmutation shelters to families UN agency had lost their homes.
Challenges to providing relief
We have been active in Haiti for over thirty years, and our presence there enabled our workers to be among the primary on the scene, responding inside hours.
Maintained a strong earthquake response program, despite challenges such as:
• Inadequate infrastructure in situ before the disaster, together with restricted access to safe water and sanitation
• Lack of clarity in land possession, delaying the building of homes and transmutation shelters
• Lack of clear government strategy, due partially to transition in leadership and loss from the quake
• Difficulty in disaster response in Associate in Nursing populated area already tormented by overspill
• A
infectious disease natural event in Gregorian calendar month 2010, that
affected 500,000 people.
Quake response close to complete, development work continues
As of September 2011we had spent nearly ninety % of the funds rose for its earthquake response and can doubtless complete its response program throughout the second quarter of 2012. However, the organization continues to interact in transmutation work, serving to families move from displacement camps into transmutation and permanent homes and can continue its semi permanent community development add areas outside of Port-au-Prince.
Singing, dancing, and learning in Child-Friendly areas has brought joy to thousands of youngsters since the Haiti earthquake.
“This isn't a time to backpedal, however rather a time to maximize, “With the disaster recovery part currently winding down, it’s Associate in nursing opportune time to visualize and work toward a stronger future for youngsters, their families, and communities of Haiti.”
“The folks of Haiti are resilient and hopeful. “We can stand aboard them as they transition from managing this crisis to putting together a higher future for themselves and their families.”
International support faltering
The international community has committed nearly $4.6 billion in support, however has solely consummated forty three % of its collective commitment to the Haitian folks.
We Acknowledges that Haiti’s success depends on over the work of international aid agencies. “Haiti has struggled in its development for many years. “Relief and development efforts don't seem to be enough to assist Haiti produce property development for its folks.”
“International support, furthermore as clarity and leadership from the govt. of Haiti, are going to be vital for Haiti’s success,”. “The international community should not abandon Haiti currently.
Another hopeful sign is what's shaping up as a vast public response from normal Americans. Relief teams that appealed for facilitate have reportable a huge response, and not simply in money donations. Search-and-rescue groups, together with from Fairfax County, were among the emergency staff heading into the country Wednesday; some three hundred nurses volunteered their services to travel to Haiti. Donations giant and little are urgently required. For people who wish to assist, an honest place to begin is that the Yankee nongovernmental organization.
In the wake of a crisis, it's kids that suffer most wants your support to assist US be prepared for disasters and also the tragic effects they need on people’s lives and communities. Your gift can facilitate US rush emergency provides like life-saving food, clean water, medical provides, and shelter to people who want it most. And you’ll facilitate workers be the scene to stay reconstruction within the years that follow. As a result of we’ve received government grants for our disaster relief work; your gift nowadays can multiply fourfold in power to revive lives.
Every day a lot of lives are shattered by earthquakes, floods, and famine. In a very typical year, we respond to as several as ninety disasters. We tend to are usually one amongst the primary organizations to start relief work when a disaster and those we stay on the bottom for the long run, reconstruction communities and restoring hope.
We need to be in these crisis zones. We want to be able to respond—ready to reconstruct. And that we want your facilitate to try to it. Please, pray for the vulnerable and provides no matter you'll be able to finish the suffering that rise out of devastating disasters.
