THE HOMELESS IN HAITI NEEDS URGENT HELP

 

Many Still Seeking Food, Shelter a Year After Haiti Quake 

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Many Still Seeking Food, Shelter a Year After Haiti Quake 

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Women left homeless by last year's 7.2-magnitude earthquake create a frame for a makeshift shelter at Camp Devirel in Les Cayes, Haiti, Aug. 17, 2022.

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LES CAYES, HAITI — 

The cinderblock home with a tin roof that Erline Castel and Dieunord Ernest rented was among the more than 130,000 houses damaged or destroyed by a powerful earthquake that struck southern Haiti last year, killing more than 2,200 people.

In the days after the magnitude 7.2 quake hit, they gathered sheets, tarpaulins and wood and made a shelter for themselves and their three children. More than a year after the Aug. 14, 2021, quake, they are still living in the same makeshift tent like hundreds of others, and still wondering if anyone will help them.

If recent history is any guide, few people will.

Duverseau Marie Cephta, whose leg was amputated when she was injured in last year's 7.2-magnitude earthquake, listens to news via a radio inside her home in the Lagodray area of Les Cayes, Sep. 05, 2022.

The Associated Press visited several camps surrounding the southern coastal city of Les Cayes, which was one of the hardest hit areas, and over and over again people complained that no government official had visited them despite repeated promises that they would come to help.

As the family waited for help, Ernest died of prostate cancer last year. So today, Castel is alone, fighting for her family’s survival like many struggling to restart their lives after the quake.

On Thursday morning, she tried to get her 9-month-old daughter to suckle. But after a year of surviving on scraps in a makeshift camp, Castel had no milk. The tiny girl, Wood Branan Ernest, fell asleep during her failed attempt.

“I don’t have anything to provide for them,” Castel said.

What’s worse, others are victimizing the quake victims.

In one camp, friends of the property owner are trying to take back the land where the refugees settled. Thugs have ripped apart the shacks, thrown rocks at families and tried to set the camp on fire twice in recent months.

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.

“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.

Families walk to get well water, sometimes letting the sediment settle before drinking it. Many have no work. They rely on the neighbors for their only meal of the day.

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.