Oxfam health advisor Helen Hawkings gives us an insight into her experiences overseeing new water and sanitation projects in a steadily recovering Port-au-Prince.
At 5.10am I woke to what I thought was someone kicking my bed. It wasn’t, but it did feel like it. I leapt up with a start. These strong aftershocks continue to get me jumping around. Afterwards I lay outside watching the bright night stars fade into the daylight, I did not want to be inside the house.
By 6.45am the first members of the team are ready to drive down to the office. We currently have over 40 people who have come to work on the response, sleeping in our house and garden, so organisin
g transport for everyone is a huge task.
The public health team usually splits up into three groups, with two groups going out to the camps we work in to manage the water points, latrine digging and construction of bathing areas, while my team heads out to new sites to assess people’s needs and make recommendations for possible interventions.
Sleeping in the middle of the road
Today we visited a site which appears to be filling up with people who have had enough of the noise and discomfort that accompanies sleeping in the middle of the road. Other families said they had come down from the outlying hilly areas looking for help.
As we walk around the camp, I explain that we can provide the materials to make emergency toilets, that we can install a big storage container for the water trucks to fill up from every day and that we can give people the tools they need to keep their site clean.
Our next stop is a small, closely-knit fishing community down the road. A robust young woman greets us and shows me around. Several people pull me into their houses to show me the cracks the earthquake has left in the walls.
They, like most Haitians who have stayed in Port-au-Prince, are too afraid to sleep in their homes. They show me the collapsed houses that killed their neighbours and the damaged buildings they fear will fall on them. There are 105 families living here.
Treating water
Thankfully there is a functioning well so we can provide them with the means and know-how to treat water for the community to make it safe to drink. We can also give them plastic sheeting to protect them from the rain. It is such a relief that the earthquake did not hit Haiti during the hurricane season.
While I am particularly focused on water, sanitation and hygiene needs, other Oxfam colleagues are investigating other areas including food security and personal safety.
While some camps are reported to be relatively calm, in others we hear about domestic disputes and women being raped. I did not know that some here believe that old women suck babies blood at night – a couple of older women had been out in areas where they were not known and were beaten to death.
When I return to the office I see that the materials I requested that have been flown over from the UK have arrived. Some of these Oxfam buckets will be used tomorrow to clean the latrines we have built while others will be distributed as part of hygiene kits along with soap, water purification tablets and sanitary wear for women.
Pulled from the rubble
I love hearing about miraculous situations. Yesterday a teenager was pulled from the rubble alive over two weeks after the earthquake. Amazing! She had done what Rick our shelter advisor advised me to do in an earthquake. Go to the bathroom. If you get stuck, at least you have access to water.
Incidentally, there is no electricity right now so I’m writing this by moonlight listening to night sounds.
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