Port-Au-Prince: In the month since the worst disaster in Haitian history, an enormous international aid effort has not provided the people of the Marassa 14 neighbourhood with the food, shelter and security they need. So they built a new community from scratch.
Cardboard street signs mark the rows of makeshift plastic tents where more than 2,500 people sleep in the dirt. Handwritten ID cards stamped by a security committee show who belongs, and women serve cheap fried plantains and breadfruit for families struggling to feed their children.
One month after 40 seconds of terrifying shaking killed more than 200,000 of their relatives and neighbours and levelled most of their capital, Haiti`s endlessly resilient people are struggling to recreate their lives.
Food has yet to reach all of the 3 million people who need it. Infrastructure problems and supply backlogs continue to hamper an international aid effort that has drawn $537 million from the United States alone. Schools remain closed. And on Thursday morning, in a taste of the new horrors the impending rainy season promises to bring, an early morning downpour muddied the dirt in which 1.2 million people have pitched makeshift camp.
Downtown, hundreds of Haitians marched Thursday from the destroyed National Palace to the temporary government headquarters demanding the resignation of President Rene Preval, who has been largely out of sight since the catastrophe. He appeared Wednesday to bicker publicly with his own communications minister over the death toll.
PTI
