Kid Rock & Sheryl Crow & Keith Urban – Sings for Hope For Haiti
Source: CHF International
Date: 12 Feb 2010
originally appeared on UK Channel 4 in an interview done by reporter Sarah Smith.
Today we want to feature the story of the one of the members of our CHF family – Varnek-Edouard Bazile. Edouard works for CHF and has been assigned to Harris Corporation as their interpreter, local expert, and jack-of-all-trades as they work to improve telecommunications throughout Haiti for CHF and others. Before the earthquake, Edouard was an English teacher in Haiti and on the day of the quake managed to rescue his 20 students with him. He returned to his when the quake hit to see it crumbled with his wife and his children thought to be inside.
For the full interview please visit http://www.channel4.com/news/articles/world/americas/haiti+earthquake+the+lost+families/3508242.
“For most people in Port-au-Prince the sheer challenge of daily life is now difficult to imagine, with 200,000 people feared dead. For one resident, Edouard Bazile, that reality is even more unimaginable. His house collapsed in the 7.0 magnitude earthquake, burying his entire family. He has been speaking to Channel 4 News correspondent Sarah Smith about what happened and how he is now living with overwhelming grief. He described how he managed to pull his wife’s body from the rubble. He then spoke to her in her dying moments. He said: “I looked at her body, her torso was twisted. I said ‘You know I love you, right?’ “She said: ‘Yeah I know, but get me out please’.” He fears his two children, Anniha and Edwin, must also have died in the 7.0 magnitude earthquake but he has yet to locate their bodies. He said: “They are still in the rubble here. I miss my kids dearly.”.
Note from the author: CHF mourns the loss of the families of our staff who have been injured or perished in the earthquake. The tremendous courage and spirit of our staff as they continue to come to work in the face of absolute tragedy inspires us and renews our commitment to helping the Haitian people – not only in the wake of the earthquake but in the long term recovery of the nation.
News from Haiti – Compiled from various reports
* On 9 February, another aftershock (4.0 on the Richter scale) affected Port-au-Prince, causing further damage at the Caribbean Market on Delmas Avenue. Several people were trapped by falling debris and later rescued by US and French Military forces
* The Dominican Republic Humanitarian Country Team completed an inter-agency assessment of the border area. The team estimates that approximately 168,000 internally displaced persons are living along the border on the Haitian side. The majority of them are living with host families. There are some spontaneous settlement sites, such as in Anse-a-Pitre, where there are more than 1,000 people living. Another 400 people are in a spontaneous settlement in Gauthier, very near to the road leading to Port-au-Prince.
* The security situation throughout the country remains stable despite increased reports of insolated incidents, including the looting of one NGO warehouse where Haitian police shot a looter. Security around food distributions remains a concern and requires close coordination between MINUSTAH and humanitarian partners.
* The Government’s state of emergency period is scheduled to expire on Monday 15 February.
LOGISTICS
* A small number of commercial cargo flights have started arriving at Port-au-Prince airport.
* The first civilian passenger flight is scheduled for 19 February.
* Floating docks are being established at the Port-au-Prince port and are expected to raise capacity to a possible 1,500 containers a day. A slot system is now in place for incoming ships.
* A British Naval vessel will be arriving in Port-au-Prince on 18 February with port enhancement equipment and vehicles for use by NGO partners. This ship will be made available for tasking by WFP and the Logistics Cluster to shuttle cargo to ports within Haiti until 15 March.
* The border crossing at Jimani is severely congested. Passage is through a small gate allowing only one vehicle at a time.
* The road between Port-au-Prince and Jacmel suffered significant damage from the earthquake and subsequent aftershocks. Landslides have been cleared and work is ongoing by the Canadian military and MINUSTAH, but many areas remain at risk of landslides once the rainy season begins.
FOOD AND WATSAN
* WFP reports that 1.6 million people have received a two-week ration of rice since the beginning of the food surge operation.
* On February 10, relief agencies distributed emergency food assistance benefiting approximately 170,000 people in metropolitan Port-au-Prince. Since the earthquake, the U.N. World Food Program (WFP) and partners have provided emergency food assistance to more than 2.5 million people, including more than 1.5 million people to date through the 16-site distribution system.
* As of 9 February, the WASH Cluster reports that 911,200 people are being provided with safe drinking water (on the basis of 5 litres per person per day) through water tankering and water treatment in 300 sites across Port-au-Prince, Leogane, and Jacmel. Water coverage is actually greater than this figure as many other mechanisms to access water are now available.
* With a target of 1.1 million persons with 5/l/p/d, the estimated gap is approximately 188,800 persons in need of the minimum coverage.
SHELTER
* Distribution of plastic sheeting for emergency shelter remains a high priority. There are now close to 400,000 plastic sheets in stock and in the pipeline. As of 11 February, over 49,000 tarps have been distributed along with 23,000 family size tents.
* The Petionville spontaneous settlement site (at the golf course) was assessed by a Shelter Cluster team on 9 February and is reported to be one of the most vulnerable sites for epidemics and flooding. The team estimates that 25,000 people are living at the site which is very densely populated. A large number of shelters are on unstable slopes and heavy rains will cause them to slide. Low lying areas are at significant risk of flooding, with the market area most at risk. The team also found insufficient fire breaks with no fire risk mitigation strategy for the site. The team recommended that new sites are identified for families to move to on a voluntary basis.
Erin Mote (Manager of Resource Development )
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