Haiti, Three Weeks After: Chris Herlinger Reports for Act Alliance

In the nearly three weeks since the catastrophic Jan. 12 earthquake, Haiti feels like a desert bereft of much that makes for a dignified life.

Port-au-Princes downtown area, hit hardest by quake, still looks and feels as if the disaster happened just days ago. The smell of rotting
flesh wafts through the air, and the sides of some buildings look as
if they are ready to fall into the street at any moment.

It is startling to see a building cut in half, office chairs and
desks, filing cabinets and sinks suddenly exposed to the harsh midday
sunlight just as it is to see thousands of people, suddenly
displaced, living in the makeshift displacement camps within and
outside the capital city

Yet the capacity of Haitians to embrace elements of normalcy is
encouraging beyond words. That means dressing in your Sunday best to
attend church or offering a hand to neighbors or visitors.

The international community continues its role in providing humanitarian
assistance to Haiti an effort that by all accounts was slow in
starting and is still not seamless, given the many challenges that
faced Haiti before and immediately following the quake.

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News & Politics

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• Chris Herlinger
• Haiti
• Act Alliance
• Earthquake