Haitians hold tight to optimism a month after massive quake
CAMP PERRIN, Haiti — “Yon ti kote apa.” The people of Camp-Perrin, located just 15 miles north of the largest city on this southern Haitian peninsula, like to say “it’s a very special place.” Green in a denuded nation, peaceful in a sometimes volatile region, it prides itself on being different.
That uniqueness, say residents, who are among the hardest hit from last month’s powerful 7.2 magnitude earthquake, is what will get them through the worst disaster they have ever experienced.
“It’s Mother Nature at work,” said Oblate Father Jean Pierre Constant Loubeau, the superior at the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate, a Roman Catholic order that runs Mazenod College in Camp Perrin near Les Cayes.
In a commune that prides itself on valuing education, Mazenod College stands out not just because of its sprawling campus of large overhanging trees and brightly colored flowers, but its reputation.
For more than seven decades, the school has been one of the region’s leading institutions, educating future leaders as well as priests, and providing educational classes for, among others, children whose parents have turned them over to other families to work as domestics, known as Restaveks.
In many way, its collapsed classrooms and crumbled sleeping quarters where two priests were trapped underneath the rubble before being rescued, underscore the loss throughout Haiti’s Tiburon peninsula, where more than 129,000 homes were damaged or destroyed, according to the government.
But instead of the despair found in many communities across the southwest, where life was upended on Aug. 14, there is — like in the developed urban reaches of Camp Perrin — hope amid the rubble.
“It’s not the end of the world, life will retake,” Loubeau said with conviction. “All of these buildings have collapsed, but we are still here.”
A month after Haiti’s devastating disaster, communities along its southern peninsula are still struggling to find aid and shelter. Homes have been destroyed, schools and hospitals turned to rubble and hundreds of people remain missing along with the more than 2,200 confirmed dead.
Optimism, while it exists, isn’t always easy to find.
The country was already facing rising hunger and gang violence when the disaster struck. And the quake has only added to the woes in a nation still reeling from the shocking July 7 assassination of President Jovenel Moïse.
In the wake of the tremors, multiple assessments by the United Nations and non-governmental organizations paint a grim outlook for both the unfolding humanitarian crisis, and the prospect for recovery without additional aid from the international community.
For example, a “Rapid Gender Analysis” by CARE, U.N. Women and the Haitian government on the impact of the earthquake on people’s lives according to sex, age, and other conditions of vulnerability, show that 60% of communities in the three regional departments of the South, Grand’Anse and Nippes were left without access to potable water.
Additionally, the findings suggest that women, who represent 40% of households in the affected communities, have been particularly hard hit, with limited or no access to health care and rising fear of sexual violence.
According to the report, 53.6% of women and 46% of men have already encountered difficulties in accessing health services due to the current health crisis, and the lack of housing and shelter is perceived by 83% of those surveyed as leading to insecurity and increased risk of violence.
And despite the delivery of food, spiking hunger has been raised as one of the pressing needs to be addressed. The earthquake has exacerbated preexisting vulnerabilities, with the destruction of markets, rural roads and irrigation systems.
“Those interviewed asserted that they did not receive sufficient support,” the gender analysis report said. “The most vulnerable, children, the elderly, the sick, and those living with disabilities seem to have difficulties accessing food being distributed.”
Muhamed Bizimana, CARE Haiti Assistant Country Director, said based on the assessment, there needs to be a more inclusive response that creates space for women, children, people with disabilities and other vulnerable populations.
“Without their direct involvement, the recovery is at risk of leaving them behind,” she said.
Added to the challenges is the situation with schools. More than 1,060 school buildings have been damaged, including 171 that were completely destroyed, the United Nations said. Mazenod College is one of them.
Earlier this month, Haiti’s government announced that schools for students in the quake-affected regions will start on Oct. 4, as opposed to Sept. 21, when the rest of the country is scheduled to return to the classrooms.
But on Monday, the nonprofit Save the Children said it is unlikely that shelters would be built safely in time for classes to resume by the adjusted start date.
“Children in Haiti have survived a nightmare event, and the fear and stress continue,” said Perpétue Vendredi, Save the Children’s Deputy Country Director in Haiti.
“Many have lost everything — their homes, even family members and friends,” she added. “Children tell us they struggle to sleep. They desperately need to return to the predictability and support that a school environment provides.”
Ann Lee, who runs a charity in the region cofounded by Hollywood actor Sean Penn that has been helping to remove rubble in some of the affected communities, says she is concerned that “people are desperately looking for a quick fix” in Haiti because there are so many competing urgent needs. But there are none, and the country needs more support from the international community.