It was April when, in passing, I asked the head of a nonprofit that's doing a lot of work in Haiti how things were going there. The look on his face said everything.
Tens of thousands of children lost a parent in the earthquake that struck Haiti on Jan. 12. Among them: Dieu Fatane, age 6, above, photographed in her aunt's house in Port au Prince. An army of aid workers is working to help find a permanent home for her.
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He proceeded to tell me how the need in Haiti is still overwhelming, how not enough resources are getting in and how some NGOs are growing frustrated waiting on someone to take lead.
This is six months after the earthquake. I couldn't believe it. What about the millions people texted to help the relief efforts? What about the billions pledged by USAID and the U.N.?
The media isn't talking about Haiti anymore, so the perception is everything there is on the road to recovery. But if what he said about Haiti is true, someone should be talking about it. Three weeks later, Roxanne Wieman and I boarded a plane for the short two-hour trip. We had to see this for ourselves.
What we encountered was, in a word, unbelievable. The devastation was mind-numbing, the poverty more severe than anything we could've anticipated. The loss was palpable.
Haiti, right now, is in a holding pattern. As bad as it looks, all of the relief agencies say the crisis of the earthquake is largely under control. People are fed, sheltered (though, many, crudely) and getting back to life as normal.
The country just can't move forward because there's too much to do--and no plan. Centuries of mishandled (some have said corrupt) government have created a nation with no infrastructure, stripped natural resources, no public schools and no clear way to dig itself out. And that was before a devastating earthquake wiped out the country's capital, killing hundreds of thousands and displacing more than a million.
What you'd think is happening in Haiti right now is widespread clean-up and construction, right? It's not. But ask any Haitian why not, and you'll find it's just not a top priority. Aside from the fact there is virtually no equipment to clear debris (let alone rebuild), the loss of jobs and need for infrastructure is far more pressing. Unfortunately, those are the types of needs that can't be fixed quickly.
We landed in Port-au-Prince and spent most of a week canvassing as much of Haiti as we could. It was like drinking water from a firehose. Roxanne went into Port-au-Prince and met with NGOs and government agencies about the work happening, asking hard questions and seeing up-close what's going on. You can read her story here.
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SOURCE: Relevant Magazine
Cameron Strang
