Haiti, une année après

 

(Video care of the kind folks at www.unicef.org)

I know too many facts about Haiti by heart: less than half of kids go to school. Almost no one has running water. Restavec children work for adults who aren't their families, in return for a meager living. And all this has been true since before the massive earthquake one year ago.

Two hundred thousand Haitians died during and after the 12 January earthquake last year. Aid and development workers lost many among their ranks in Port-au-Prince - more than 100 UN staffers were killed and entire offices decimated. And the city, with its centuries-old poverty and slums, had no means to deal with the tragedy.

Those of us at intergovernmental agencies and NGOs feel the hole in our hearts acutely, working as we do with the devastation - and the recovery process - on a daily basis. Please check out this update from the heads of  UNICEF in Port-au-Prince and at New York headquarters, and please donate again if you can. 

Haiti, mon pays,
wounded mother I’ll never see.
Ma famille set me free.
Throw my ashes into the sea.

Mes cousins jamais nes
hantent les nuits de Duvalier.
Rien n’arrete nos espirits.
Guns can’t kill what soldiers can’t see.

In the forest we are hiding,
unmarked graves where flowers grow.
Hear the soldiers angry yelling,
in the river we will go.

Tous les morts-nes forment une armee,
soon we will reclaim the earth.
All the tears and all the bodies
bring about our second birth.