“No food, no milk, if they are feeding the children, why don’t they give us some too? I haven’t eaten all morning and I am hungry.”

This was the passionate plea of Antoniné, one of seven hundred displaced people who have been living in a temporary camp following the 12 January earthquake in Haiti.

As well as coping with the aftermath of the earthquake, Antoniné also told us that two of her children have died over the last nine months.

“The clothes I’m wearing are all I have”

She lost everything during the earthquake: her house, clothes, food, furniture, everything. “The clothes I’m wearing are all I have,” she said.
 
Some of the main challenges in the camp include overcrowding and the outbreak of illness – flu, infection, intestinal worms and other viruses - due to a lack of water, sanitation and shelter. For many of the older people in the camp, these living conditions are particularly dehumanising and confusing; especially for those who cannot move around easily. 

Keep reading

 Email This Post

HelpAge’s Caribbean Regional Representative, Jeff James, spoke to 75 year old Kenold Moreau about his experience of the Haiti earthquake. The image shows Kenold in the rubble of his collapsed home:

“12 January was like any other day for Kenold Moreau, 75. He collected his nine year old daughter, Marie Michele from school and she settled down to do her homework at 4:00 pm while he listened to the news on local radio.

“Within seconds the building crumbled”

Keep reading

 Email This Post

Latest Haiti update from HelpAge Caribbean regional representative Jeff James and Programme Officer Julian McKoy. The image shows the damage done to the HelpAge office in Port-au-Prince by the earthquake: 

Julian and I left Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, Tuesday morning (January 19) at 6:30am in a bus hired from a transport company. We left with about GB£3,000 of supplies, including rice, sugar, cornmeal, corned beef, sardines, water, juices, snacks, tarpaulin, tents, cup soups, biscuits, cooking oil, adult diapers and other items.

The ride to the Dominican Republic/Haiti border was very smooth for the most part on nicely paved roads and breathtaking views of the countryside. There were many security check points on the way, and we suspect this was put in place to monitor Haitians trying to flee into the Dominican Republic.

Keep reading

 Email This Post

An update we received in the last two days shows that those affected by the earthquake in Haiti are receiving emergency aid and medical assistance.

HelpAge’s Dominican partner, ALA Dominicana, with which we are coordinating our emergency response to the Haiti earthquake, is also a member of NGO network, Jaques Viau, which is distributing aid in Haiti.

Keep reading

 Email This Post

Mark Gorman, HelpAge’s Director of Strategic Development has written on the International Longevity Centre UK’s blog about responding to the needs of older people in the Haiti earthquake emergency:

Keep reading

 Email This Post

I was able to also talk with the priest of Petit-Goâve who also runs a home for older people.  He needs food assistance for 65 older people. 

In Cotes-de-Fer, a town in the South East, the priest also reports damage to houses, but not many casualties.  He said the people have moved away from the coastal town.  He will need food for 500 families.  He also requests a mobile clinic to provide healthcare to these families.  For the older people, he said some of them need wheelchairs and emotional support, because they have not seen anything like this in their lifetime. 

Keep reading

 Email This Post

Relief is slowly reaching the victims of the quake, 4 days after the quake.  Rescue teams are searching for survivors under the rubbles. The people at the camps still looked patient.

Several women were already busy setting up their open air restaurant serving the campers.  Tire repairmen were also busy. The streets are filling up with cars. Gas stations are packed with motorcycles and vehicles trying desperately to get some gas. Grocery stores are opening their doors half way and allowing people to come in one by one to buy groceries. Relief workers are getting busy to assist people.

Keep reading

 Email This Post

There was one relatively strong aftershock yesterday Saturday - 4.5 magnitude but fortunately it did not cause any more damage.

I was in Petion-Ville today in central Port-au-Prince. People were starting to get some assistance although not a lot. I saw search and rescue activities still going on.

Keep reading

 Email This Post

HelpAge’s Emergencies Programme Officer in Haiti, Bertin Meance, reports from Port-au-Prince on the destruction caused by the 7.0 magnitude earthquake, which struck on Tuesday 12 January:

“The devastating earthquake that violently shook Haiti and destroyed much of the capital, Port-au-Prince, is the biggest disaster that Haiti has faced in more than 200 years. The humanitarian community’s biggest fear has, in effect, materialised.

Hundreds of people trapped under rubble

The National Palace, Cathedral and UN mission headquarters have collapsed. Most of the houses in the slum areas were not able to withstand the strength of the quake. Several schools and orphanages are also reported destroyed.
Keep reading

 Email This Post

HelpAge International’s East Asia Pacific Regional Representative, Eduardo Klien, looks back at the events that followed the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami…

The 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami not only took us by surprise – it caught us completely unprepared. I had been in HelpAge’s South East Asia office for only three months, and had no idea of what type of response we, as HelpAge, were capable of taking forth.

Our team had only had experience managing some elements of the Gujarat earthquake response. We had little institutional experience in responding to such a huge catastrophe.

Little by little news of the tsunami filtered through a few hours after it had struck. The true extent of the damage was only known the next day. We contacted our network partners who were as perplexed as we were.

Wijewantha and Tilak in HelpAge Sri Lanka, Mathew, Anup and Col Sharma in HelpAge India, Eva in Indonesia…They were all gathering information and preparing their responses, and all of them asking for support from HelpAge.
Keep reading

 Email This Post