![\"bill](\"http:\/\/www.southernstudies.org\/bill%20quigley.jpg\")
<\/a><\/span>By Bill Quigley<\/p>\nHundreds of thousands of people are living and sleeping on the Many have no homes, their homes destroyed by Help support Haiti relief — donate to NC Haiti Action! <\/b>So far the Institute for Southern Studies community has raised over $8,500 for three excellent groups working in Haiti: Doctors without Borders, the Haiti Emergency Relief Fund and Partners in Health. Go make a donation now at one of these two sites:<\/i><\/p>\n
\nground in Port au Prince. <\/p>\n
\nthe<\/span> earthquake. I am sleeping
\n on the ground as well — surrounded by<\/span> nurses, doctors and humanitarian workers who sleep on the ground every<\/span> night. The buildings that are not on the ground have big cracks in<\/span> them and fallen sections so no one should be sleeping inside.<\/span>
<\/span>
There are sheet cities everywhere. Not tent cities. Sheet cities. <\/span>Old people and babies and everyone else under sheets held up by ropes<\/span> hooked onto branches pounded into the ground.<\/span>
With the rainy<\/span> season approaching, one of the emergency needs of Haitians is to get<\/span> tents. I have seen hundreds of little red topped Coleman pup tents<\/span> among the sheet shelters. There are tents in every space, from soccer<\/span> fields and parks to actually in the streets. There is a field
\n with<\/span> dozens
\nof majestic beige tents from Qatar marked Islamic Relief. But real
\ntents are outnumbered by sheet shelters by a ratio of 100 to 1. <\/span>
Rescues continue but the real emergency remains food, water, healthcare and shelter for millions.<\/span>
<\/span>
Though helicopters thunder through the skies, actual relief of food<\/span> and water and shelter remains mimimal to non-existent in most<\/span> neighborhoods. <\/span>
Haitians are helping Haitians. Young men have<\/span> organized into teams to guard communities of homeless families. Women<\/span> care for their own children as well as others now orphaned. Tens of<\/span> thousands are missing and presumed dead.<\/span>
The scenes of destruction boggle the mind. The scenes of
\n homeless families, overwhelmingly little children, crush the heart.<\/span>
But hope remains. Haitians say and pray that God must have a
\nplan. Maybe Haiti will be rebuilt in a way that allows all Haitians to
\nparticipate and<\/span> have a chance at a dignified life with a home, a school, and a job.<\/span>
One young Haitian man said, “One good sign is the solidarity of the world. Muslim doctors,<\/span> Jewish doctors, Christian doctors all come to help us. We see children<\/span> in Gaza collecting toys for Haitian children. It looks very bad right<\/span> now, but this is a big opportunity for the world and Haiti to change<\/span> and do good together.”<\/span><\/p>\n