Stories from the field
Against all odds in Haiti, the Red Cross is answering the call in Guayave
June 15, 2010
By Charlie Musoka, Canadian Red Cross delegate
Every one of our team members, including our Haitian Red Cross volunteers were soaking wet today. We had been walking door-to-door for hours scouting villages full of collapsed houses and bringing good news to a number of survivors of the January 12th earthquake in the village of Guayave: it is their turn to receive shelters from the Red Cross. Most have been living in makeshift dwellings made of tents or plastic sheeting provided by the Red Cross in the aftermath of the deadly tremor. With rains that seem to go for days on end, and with the approaching hurricane season, sturdier shelter is a top priority.
The odds seem stacked against these villagers: they are both impoverished and isolated. Almost every household that we visited lacked even a rudimentary toilet and access to clean water. The villagers of Guayave are counting the days until the road to Jacmel, roughly two hours away, will be cut off. At one point in the near future, even motorcycle taxis will no longer be able to transport passengers.
In addition, the mountain clay soil is no match for the steady downpour, which has eroded entire mountainsides to the point that mudslides and erosions have rendered the road very narrow. In a few weeks, moving construction supplies through these treacherous roads will be major logistical challenge.
How do you rebuild houses for people who have been renters for generations and who have no land of their own? That is one of the problems that the Red Cross has been working on solving, and there are no easy answers in Haiti. In working with the Haitian Red Cross, and with community members, optimism is in the air. Haitians seem to be able to solve any problem, which is probably the secret of their resilience over the years.
In Guayave, the Red Cross will start the rebuilding process with about fifteen shelters. As we moved away from the improvised shelter belonging to Fernand Soifette, a frail 87-year-old man, he looked at our group of Red Cross members and said in Creole with a broad smile: “What would we do without the Red Cross?” As those words were translated to me, the wet clothes I was wearing felt a little less uncomfortable.
