Helen Hawkings continues her diary from Haiti, where she is working as a health advisor for Oxfam as part of a team helping to re-establish basic water and sanitation services for people displaced by the recent earthquake.
9 Feburary
Today a colleague went to visit her old friend in Carrefour – a commune where we are working – and found her sitting on the flat roof of her house. At night she stays with her nephew but during the day she sits on the rubble left from her house. She says she can’t leave because people will steal her possessions. I feel sad as there is not really anything left to take. People have lost the small things that mean the most, things like old photos and personal documents. The street where she lives is part of a deserted ghost town where there once used to be a constant stream of people moving around.
10 February
As well as providing latrines and water, we also distribute hygiene kits, buckets, basins, soap, sanitary towels and underwear so that people can maintain at least a basic level of personal hygiene. We are starting our distribution in one of the first camps we visited. Security at distributions takes a lot of organising so our strategy is to concentrate on distributing our kits to the smaller camps and communities where there are less people to manage who are less likely to receive aid from other organisations.
This morning we are having a meeting on the roof of the half of our building that survived the earthquake. Looking across to where the other half once stood, it seems miraculous to me that more people weren’t killed. I quietly thank whoever is up there looking out for me. Not being able to open the door to my room may have saved my life as the wall above my office collapsed. My colleague in the office opposite was not so lucky.
11 February
Sometime after 4.00am, a strange sound woke me up. Not the mosquitoes that somehow manage to get through my net to dine on me every night, nor, thankfully, the roar of another earthquake. It was torrential rain. Haiti is not ready for the rainy season, which is still several weeks away. It was raining hard though. Large tent and plastic sheeting distributions have already taken place but many people are still going to get very wet indeed. With the rain also comes more risks from bacteria, thriving in the rubbish and excreta, which could end up being washed directly into the water sources people are drinking from, causing an outbreak of diarrhoea.
It’s been a couple of weeks since I last visited the golf course. This was the first camp I visited where we immediately started work. It has continued to grow and is now the biggest camp that we support, with an estimated 45,000 people sleeping here.
My colleague Karine and her team have installed a T45 big water tank, which holds 45,000 litres of water. This is being distributed around the camp using the existing sprinkler system, previously used to keep the golfing green fresh. But following this morning’s rain, the golf course is far from green. I leave with my shoes weighed down with thick, muddy clay. Once the rains really begin, this camp will become a mud bath.
Many people here are unfamiliar with latrine use. I am taking a couple of days’ rest but before I go I need to take photos that can be used to promote hygiene, explaining how to make best use of the latrines we have installed.
12 February
Today is one month since the earthquake struck Haiti. The President has declared a day of mourning across the country. This weekend there will be three days of fasting and praying to honour the thousands of people Haiti lost in the earthquake.
When I look back over the past month, I remember that when we first visited these camps they had not yet received any help whatsoever. In many cases I was often one of the first foreigners to arrive. I am not an especially technically-minded person but as part of a two-person team we did everything we could to get our water project running so that we could start helping people. Now Oxfam has a team of national and international staff in place and Haiti is receiving a huge amount of support for this region and beyond. There is still an enormous number of un-met needs, particularly concerning shelter, sanitation and psychological support but in the past month we have helped nearly 100,000 people. I hope that we can help 100,000 more this month.
Donate now and find out more about Oxfam’s Haiti Earthquake response