 Look, we're living in hovels. If we had the means, we wouldn't choose to live here. But when you have nothing, you're nobody. You're less than nothing. Despite appearances, the reality in Haiti is brutal. A small minority of people may be able to appreciate the joys of life, but the overwhelming majority have to scrape by in appalling circumstances. Two-thirds of Haitians survive on less than $2 a day. In Port-au-Prince, the capital, between 2,000 and 300,000 people are crammed into two square kilometers of the Cité Soleil district, one of the largest slums in the entire northern hemisphere. This is a country in which society has always been sharply divided. Milato, black, rich, poor, white, black, and it's still like that. I think what we really lack is a sense of national unity. Whatever happens to say the people from Cité Soleil has nothing whatsoever to do with me. This is the common attitude of the Haitians. Whatever happens to other people, it's just not my problem. Originally built to house a few thousand workers, today Cité Soleil plays host to all the evils of Haitian society. Chronic unemployment, the breakdown of public services, a gang culture armed violence. My life was so sad. The reason my daughter is like this today is because she's been affected by everything that's happened here. During the clashes, there was a lot of shooting and every time she heard the gunfire, she'd start to cry. But I just couldn't afford to move anywhere else. In 2004, the president, Jean Bertrand Aristide, bowed to international pressure and stepped down. Almost immediately, clashes broke out between armed groups loyal to the former president and United Nations forces sent to stabilize the country. The election of René Préval as president in February 2006 restored relative calm. But more than anything, it inspired hope of a better life for people living in total poverty who had turned out in droves to vote for him. A hope also of not living in fear of a stray bullet or being kidnapped. Armed groups in Cité Soleil have established a thriving kidnap industry spreading terror throughout Haiti. Finding refuge in Cité Soleil, they have imposed their rule on the demoralized population. From August 2004, the International Committee of the Red Cross decided to help the Haitian National Red Cross Society's first aid workers in Cité Soleil. They are providing an ambulance service to the hospitals like the one run by Metsens en Frontière, where war surgery can be carried out. However, living and working in a hostile environment can also have a serious effect on volunteers. With everything that's going on in the city, I don't know if I'm really cut out for it. Often a sort of anxiety comes over me. I feel my heart thumping, and afterwards I find myself trembling. In 2005, first aid workers evacuated nearly 700 people, most of them victims of armed violence. In one incident, two first aid workers were shot and wounded. Arms bearers have since undertaken to respect the Red Cross emblem. We have issued instructions to battalion commanders to respect members of the Red Cross and of NGOs, and to make sure they're clearly identified whenever they're recovering the wounded or assisting women giving birth within an operational zone. As an independent organization, the Red Cross speaks to everyone without any discrimination, wherever they come from. In December 2004, the ICRC, working with local organizations, launched a water and sanitation program in Cité Soleil. The strictly humanitarian nature of the ICRC's work was explained to the leaders of all the armed groups. Now the work to repair boreholes and some 50 public water points can begin. When there was no water at the water points, we were paying seven or eight gourds for a little bucket and ten gourds for a big one. Now that there is water again, we only have to pay three gourds. Because of the threat of violence, not having to go long distances is much safer for women and children, who have to carry water to their homes every single day. With ICRC's support, water and refuse collections of water and refuse collection services have returned to Cité Soleil. Living conditions have improved, but there is still an enormous amount of work to be done. It's not up to the ICRC or the Haitian Red Cross to do the local authorities' work, but the presence of neutral organizations in Cité Soleil opens the way for humanitarian work to take place. For local people, the message is simple. We're living in a desperate state, the mosquitoes, the filthy water. Whatever happens, we want Cité Soleil to change. That's all we're asking for, change.