By Conor O’Loughlin, Trócaire (Caritas Ireland) This is a new Haiti. The differences between the country I arrived in this weekend and the zombie nation I left five months ago are startling, and incredible to behold. For a start, and the simplest of things, the airport is open. No more flying to the Dominican Republic [...]
Entries Tagged as ‘Haiti quake’
July 8, 2010
Haiti six months on: “Everything was black and neither up nor down”
By Conor O’Loughlin, Trócaire (Caritas Ireland) Stacey and Jean-Francoise have been friends for years. Stacey is the younger one, a tall-for-her-age eleven year old with little pigtails tied up with orange baubles and teddy bears on her t-shirt. Jean-Francoise is a wise fifteen, with her hair pulled back in a sensible way and a demure [...]
April 29, 2010
Haiti: what matters, is to care about the individual person
By Christine Decker After an over 10 hour-flight and several stopovers, we arrive in Port-au-Prince on Monday afternoon. From a bird’s eye view, we can already spot the countless tents and tarpaulins. Their blue, white or red colour stands off from the city’s grey rubble. The 12 January earthquake has changed the cityscape, at least [...]
April 9, 2010
Haiti heading towards reconstruction three months after the earthquake
Read this entry in French By Mathilde Magnier, Port-au-Prince Life is starting to get back to normal in Haiti three months after a devastating earthquake in Port-au-Prince left 230,000 people dead. While the government is working on a reconstruction strategy for the country, business is springing back up. The international community and the Haitian government [...]
April 6, 2010
Prayer, pain, and reflection. Easter in Haiti
Available in French By Mathilde Magnier From dawn, the faithful gather in the square outside the shattered Port-au-Prince cathedral. Most churches were destroyed in the 12 January earthquake in the capital of Haiti. The memories of the earthquake lay heavy as people mark Easter Sunday. They come in small groups, with stools in hand, to [...]
April 6, 2010
Food distributions continuing in Haiti
Available in French By Mathilde Magnier Despite heavy rains, food distributions are continuing in Haiti. This month, Caritas has reached almost 75,000 people in Port-au-Prince and more than 100,000 in the Nippes, Grandes Anse and the southern provinces. At the Pétionville Club camp, there is turmoil. Armed soldiers, human barricades and makeshift security services are [...]
March 10, 2010
Haiti quake: Healing the whole person
Available in French By Caritas Lebanon staff Our team of three staff from the Caritas Lebanon Migrants’ Center (CLMC) left for a mission to Haiti to offer counselling support to quake survivors. Psycho-social support is not always a priority in an emergency. It is help of utmost importance though. Our mission was to show people [...]
March 4, 2010
Haiti Quake: Love thy neighbour
Available in Spanish and French Mexico knows what it means to be hit by a major earthquake. In 1985, an 8.1 magnitude earthquake struck the country killing 10,000 people and causing major damage to the capital. Mexico has generously opened its arms to Haiti following the massive earthquake which hit its Latin American neighbour in [...]
March 2, 2010
Helping Haiti’s orphans
Available in French “I no longer know how to feed and clothe them” Before the 12th January earthquake, there were more than 350,000 orphans in Haiti. The disaster has left thousands more children without parents. Here we meet the director of one of the orphanages that Caritas is helping. By Mathilde Magnier Lesley Fucand is [...]
March 1, 2010
Haiti earthquake response a symbol of solidarity
By Oscar Andrés Cardinal Rodríguez Maradiaga, S.D.B. As President of Caritas Internationalis, I visited Haiti in February to offer solidarity with the people and to take aid from my home country of Honduras on behalf of our supporters. When I arrived in Port-au-Prince, I was shocked because the tragedy and devastation were even greater than [...]
