Former US Presidents to Review Haiti Earthquake Relief Efforts
Steve Baragona | Port-au-Prince 22 March 2010
Former Presidents George Bush and Bill Clinton are arriving in Haiti this week to survey reconstruction needs following the January 12 earthquake. Haitian officials say less food aid and more jobs are needed to get the Haitian economy running again. Some major organizations are scaling back donation efforts beginning April 1. Many Haitians are still in urgent need of food.
Suzette Etienne spent eight days in the hospital after the earthquake buried her in her house in Port-au-Prince.
She says after two-and-a-half months she is just starting to walk.
To escape the ruined city, her brother carried her onto a bus to Gonaives. Arriving without friends or family in the city, she searched for food and shelter. She found Fleuris Edlene, the head of a small local charity.
Edlene says after the earthquake, she went on a local radio station and said she had a four-room place that was available for anyone who needed help.
About a 150 people came, so many that some are sleeping on the roof.
For the first few weeks, she fed them all out of her own pocket, along with donations from local people. But now, the community has exhausted all the generosity it can afford, and the food is running out.
A reverend donated this bag of rice, but it is almost finished, she says. An organization donated 25 bags of rice and 25 bottles of water, but they are gone. It does not take long to use up these supplies, she says.
She says soon she may have to send them to live in an empty field nearby, because she cannot bear to look them in the eye when they go hungry.
Back in Port-au-Prince, this is one of the last food distributions this relief organization has planned. Haitian authorities say they want donors to focus on creating jobs, because giving away food is disrupting the local economy.
But more than two months after the earthquake, many Haitians appear to still need urgent help finding food. Simply meeting their needs, without further damaging the economy, will not be easy.
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