So many projects and dreams have vanished in the life of this young twenty-two year old girl. Tuesday, January 12, 2010, was a date that was  tragic and memorable for every Haitian. I am Carine Exantus, student at the Faculty of Human Sciences (FASCH) at the University of Haiti.

After my secondary studies in 2007, I went to the Faculty and I chose to study communications, among all the other studies taught there. This Tuesday, January 12 has left two marks in my thoughts.

My story

Around one o clock in the afternoon, I witnessed the murder of a professor at the University, named Jean Anil Louis Juste. It was with a lot of pain that the students of FASCH overcame this sad moment of the death of a sociology doctor. Two men with motorcycles pulled up at the intersection of the Capois and Lafleur du Chene roads. The day was already hard enough to bear when around 4:45 PM, the violent earthquake of January 12th started.

After the murder of my professor, I had gone home – disconcerted and downhearted – through the public transport. Suddenly, the van – in which I was traveling – lost its balance. Panicked, the driver slowed down quickly, throwing all the passengers into the road. I found myself on the ground, in the road, traumatized. I realized that there had been an earthquake. Lying in the middle of the road, I noticed the collapse of several buildings in the area.

Although I was in shock, I had the presence of mind to look for a shelter to protect myself from the concrete which was about to fall on me. Having seen that the Sylvio Cator Stadium was open and understanding already the frightened people (who were taking refuge there), I threw myself into a parking space in the stadium to keep myself out of danger.

Finding my family

Observing the numerous losses – in human life and in material things – I was worried more and more about my family. My legs felt dead. I couldn’t even speak yet. I was stretched out on the ground in the hope of clearing my head. But hearing the sobs of wounded people and of family members of the victims, my anguish grew.

No news of my relatives. Fear seized me. I couldn’t walk. So I spent the whole night, sitting on the ground, thinking of the fate of my family members, of my mother and my brother in particular. For me, it was the longest night, as long as every aftershock that punctuated the night terrified me.

Panic

The next day, around five in the morning, I left the stadium in the direction of my home to know what had happened to my family and our house. On the way, I came across dead bodies, wounded people. The people were panicked. All these sights did not ease my anguish. On the way I had the feeling that there would be victims at the house. Arriving at the Place du Marron  Inconnu, I met a neighbor who told me that my gentle mother had looked for me desperately all last night at the Champ du Mars. All of a sudden, I became less worried, knowing that the person most dear to me in the world was alive. A little later, several meters away, I met my wonderful little mother. We hugged like old friends who hadn’t seen each other in a long time. We cried out in joy and pleasure.

My mother told me that our house had been destroyed and that we had lost two members of our family. I couldn’t contain my tears. I no longer had the courage to go towards my house. We had to find a place where we would be, “more calm.” It was thus that we became refugees at the Place pigeon. We spent the whole day of Wednesday January 13, 2010 there. Night fell and we slept on the wet grass, spreading out just two sheets that a neighbor had offered us.

Our new life

Thus our new life started to which I must adapt to survive from day to day. It’s my duty to start over at zero. I spent the whole weekend of the earthquake sleeping – with my family – under the moonlight and on the wet grass. Thus, we started to reflect on how to make a small shelter to protect ourselves from the sun and the rain. We procured some wooden posts in order to make a shelter. Neighbors and friends gave us bedding and shared cleaning and cooking materials with us. Thus, it’s these precious objects that we struggle with in our new reality that has imposed itself on us, and we don’t know how long it will be until we can get rid of them.

This blog post was originally written in French by the writer Carine Exantus, a student living in a refugee camp in Haiti. It was translated into English by the Conversations for a Better World team.

Three months after the violent earthquake of January 12, 2010, the situation of the families in the refugee camp at Place Pigeon remains just as hard. The problems of housing, food, health and security persist. No families wanted to spend all this time living in a camp located in the historic center of the capital.

Finding shelter

Some families whose houses weren’t destroyed or who have perhaps found a more secure shelter have abandoned this camp, destroying their makeshift shelters. But most of the families are still there. After every rain shower, these families rebuild their shelters with whatever materials they can find.

Food

Each family’s diet depends on their economic means. The families who have sick members take them to the health center set up at the police station named Anti-gang, located near the camp.

Security

In terms of security, some things are starting to get better thanks to the hard work of the police officers of the national police of Haiti (PNH). The PNH has strengthened surveillance of the camp to counteract the illegal activity of criminals who more and more have been giving the camp a bad reputation. They only prevent family disputes which continue in the camp, encouraged by the promiscuity. These families often resort to the police to help resolve their personal differences.

Cleaning up

Since April 17, 2010, people have noticed an operation involving the removal of garbage in all the camps of the Champ de Mars, including Place Pigeon. Those involved in this operation wear red shirts with a “Save the Children” logo. The helmets differ from one camp to another, differentiating those working in each camp. In Place Pigeon, they wear red helmets. A committee supervises this work. The workers are made up of people living in the camp and outsiders who have been recruited for this operation, “Cash for work.” Daily pay is 200 gourdes (or about $5 USD). Certain families in the camp complain about the presence of outsiders doing this clean up job. The work starts at 7 in the morning and finishes at 1 in the afternoon. The workers clean the camp and around it with materials received from “Save the Children.”

This blog post was originally written in French by the writer Carine Exantus, a student living in a refugee camp in Haiti. It was translated into English by the Conversations for a Better World team.

At Place Pigeon, a neglected refugee camp constructed after the earthquakes of January 12, 2010, the expectations of families housed in this temporary shelter remain the same. Their situation hasn’t changed, and every family maintains their own shelter as best they can. It’s as if the earthquake just happened yesterday in terms of the quality of life for these people. This camp reflects a complete absence of planning or help from authority figures concerning how to organize this poor area.

A committee hasn’t emerged to run the camp, despite the unstable situation, where families search for a way to adapt, especially those without a shelter.

Sanitation

In terms of sanitation, only water is always available. Everyone bathes publicly because of the unhygienic situation of the showers that the committee had installed. The gathering of garbage is one of the biggest problems families confront. Each family clears out their household garbage and cleans only their own area.

Weather

After the rain, it’s impossible to walk around the camp due to the mud. And even when it doesn’t rain, there are still swampy areas of stagnant water near the showers that had been put up, which expose the refugees to illness.

The problem of toilets was resolved with the JEDCO toilets installed by ACF (Action Against Hunger), the institution with the most visible presence on the Place Pigeon. It organizes meetings for awareness raising for women and children, teaching them how to take precautions and what to do remain in good health and avoid illness caused by the lack of hygiene.

Food distribution

During the last few weeks, IOM (International Organization for Migration) took a census at Champ du Mars, including Place Pigeon, by giving each family an identification card. With this card, families at the camp took part in a distribution. The families that were registered received a hygiene kit from CRS (Catholic Relief Service), a sack of wheat from USAID, flour, and beans. Families showed their contentment by saying that this was the first time that they had received food aid since they’d been living in the camp.

Safety and security

In terms of security, this is one of the camps at Champ du Mars that has a bad reputation for its lack of safety. Often escapees frequent the Place Pigeon, which attracts attention of National Police officers. Almost every night, the police come to the camp and arrest alleged criminals.

After International Women’s Day on March 8, a young man was arrested at the camp for attempted rape on March 10, 2010.

Almost every night, the police arrest two or three young men. The young women here are subjected to ill treatment from their husbands or partners. They are left vulnerable to all forms of violence: physical, sexual, psychological, etc. Because of this, some of them are even more worried about their deplorable situation.

Tuesday March 23, 2010, more than forty people were arrested, among them, one young girl. Most of them were escaped prisoners from the National Prison. Those who weren’t escapees or problem causers were released, about five of them. From then on, people noticed young men coming and going around the camp.

This blog post was originally written in French by the writer Carine Exantus, a student living in a refugee camp in Haiti. It was translated into English by the Conversations for a Better World team.

Place Pigeon, a camp situated at a strategic point on the Champ de Mars, near the presidential palace of the Ministry of Culture and Communication and the 2004 tour. The atmosphere is becoming more and more monotonous.

The most vital needs of every family living in the camp remain: food, shelter and health care.

Food

It’s been over a month since the families received a little bag full of nine pots of rice. There hasn’t been any other food distributed since. Twice they have received, from Brazilian agents from United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH), portable bottles of water. This distribution took place in front of the “Palais National.”

The families in the camp are complaining that they’ve been abandoned. They’re doing their best to feed themselves with what little they have.

The need for shelter

The makeshift shelters grow every day. Everyone is trying to protect themselves from the sun and the rain and they are resorting to wooden pots, plastic, plywood, and sheet metal. Families have procured these materials — which most people don’t know where they got them from — by their own means.

Every time it rains, some families touch up — or reconstruct — their shelters to better protect themselves. They dig tunnels around their shelters to prevent the water from coming in. No weather condition is favorable to these shelters. When the sun is out, the families complain of the heat which is very strong inside their shelters. When it rains, it’s practically impossible to go around in the camp because of the mud caused by the rain.

Weather conditions

The families, already vulnerable to the least amount of rain, have become panicked at the news of the cyclonic season (June 1 to November 31). Every family on the Place Pigeon needs a tent to deal with this way of life.

No one notices any donation, whatever it is: food, shelter, etc. Some institutions have carried out censuses which were not followed by any concrete action. The International Migration Organization (OIM) carried out a census of families with the goal of identifying people without shelter or families (giving them an identification card). Action Against Hunger (ACF) has also done a census of families and raised awareness about hygiene. Volunteers for National Development (VDH) has raised awareness among young people in the camp about safe sex. The Ministry of the Interior and Semi Autonomous Regions has also carried out a census, whose results we haven’t seen.

Keeping clean

To keep one’s shelter clean is one of the biggest priorities for people living there, in order to prevent illness. Each family cleans their own area where they live and collects their garbage in a little bag near their shelter. Certain families throw their bags on a pile of rubbish nearby; others throw them in a big garbage can near the Marron Inconnu statue.

Hygiene and bathing

During the first weeks immediately following the earthquake, people noticed the presence of a seven member committee that was trying to organize the camp in its own way. Now, it’s no longer here. The committee had constructed showers that weren’t very convenient. Because the water for bathing — which flowed out of a hole — reached the camp, stagnated and infested the camp with mosquitoes. Now, the showers are in a bad state; people can no longer use them.

Sometimes, there isn’t enough water in the reservoirs that ACF installed for domestic uses. ACF had also installed JEDCO toilets. These were not cleaned regularly. They smelled bad. This made the people take them far from camp and scattered them in the road.

This blog post was originally written in French by the writer Carine Exantus, a student living in a refugee camp in Haiti. It was translated into English by the Conversations for a Better World team.

On the Place Pigeon, the need for food is the primary goal of every family living in the camp. Certain families have received coupons for a small bag of rice, but only women are allowed to line up for distribution.

According to other families who haven’t received these, the committee has given these coupons out to people close to their own families. This distribution took place near the Palais National on Friday January 29, very early in the morning.

Access to shelter

From the evening of Wednesday February 10 to Thursday February 11, there was some rain, and the families all had to get up to make sure that the water didn’t damage the sheets that they were using both as shelter and as a bed. All their things got wet. The next day, the families washed their sheets, spread their belongings out to dry in the sun and tried to put together their shelters again with wood and plastic. Thus, protests started because no one in charge had foreseen this and taken steps to prevent the shelters from becoming wet.

The families want access to tents, only the families with greater economic means have bought tents, whose origins no one knows.

Often, you see people in the camp who chase after people who are rumored to have coupons but these people have not been identified.

Moving the refugee camps

According to rumors going around, the government of Haiti wants to move the people in refugee camps to send them to the Place Cathedrale, located at the Rue Docteur Aubry and Bonne Foi. It’s a housing center and its construction has already started.

However, people have noticed the installation of toilets by the JEDCO company in the back of the camp.

An atmosphere of anxiety

In the middle of the camp, near the back fence, shelters have been put up where young girls and boys are living, who are about fifteen to twenty five years old. Often, these young people fight and make a lot of  noise, despite their risky situation since the disaster. This creates an atmosphere of anxiety for the families living in the back of the camp.

Monday January 15, 2010, around 11:00 PM, police officers came to the Place Pigeon and were able to capture two prisoners who had allegedly escaped from prison in Port-au-Prince.

More and more needs arise

Days went by, more and more needs arise. The heads of the family–or more precisely, the women–complained of only having rice and that they needed other food to cook with and that rice wasn’t enough to feed their families.

In terms of health care, Cuban and Haitian doctors provided care to those wounded in the earthquake and to people suffering from illness. They are here almost every day between nine and twelve o’clock.

Presently, about a dozen of the JEDCO toilets are working, six for women and six for men. Only two are open at night. JEDCO provides toilet paper and a small tank of water and soap to use.

Shelter from the elements

Because of the strong rain in the evenings from Wednesday through Friday, the families living in this camp are reconstructing their cloth shelters by digging canals all around their shelters to avoid getting wet. This has sparked protests for tents from families so that they can protect themselves from the rain.

This blog post was originally written in French by the writer Carine Exantus, a student living in a refugee camp in Haiti. It was translated into English by the Conversations for a Better World team.

As Haiti slowly treads on the path to recovery and rebuilding, there is a sense of renewed concern for the countries children-especially the orphans. Various news agencies have been reporting on child traffickers targeting vulnerable children in the country, including this report at CNN.

The orphan debate has a lot of US connections because the arrested church group was American and a lot of the orphans were destined for USA if adoptions continued. On the US blogosphere, the opinion on the missionaries seems to be divided, and the attitude of the US Department of State is also being questioned.

At the legal blog Right Juris, blogger Ryan questions the State Department’s handling of the situation. In the light of facts that have emerged-that 22 out of 33 “orphans” the missionaries were trying to get to an orphanage in the Dominican Republic have living parents, and the group did not have necessary permission and documentation to take the children out of country; the State Department has decided to take the “hands off” approach.

No matter what happens the US Missionaries Charged with kidnapping Haitian orphans appear to be stuck in Haiti for quite some time. They will be there even longer if the State Department doesn’t help try and secure their release, or a transfer of the case to The United States. The question though is should the State Department intervene? What do you think? Should this group be tried and convicted of kidnapping? Should the U.S. government press for their release? Did the group really have only good intentions when they attempted to flee the country with 33 Haitian children? I would love to hear your thoughts.

Brazen attempt of the missionaries to go through their mission, without ever seeking necessary permission in the United States or in Haiti has raised doubts.

Paul Shepard at the blog Black Spin says that the missionaries have a tough road ahead.

While their hearts might have been in the right place, their heads were clearly out of commission in trying to pull off such a dangerous stunt without informing government officials in the United States or Haiti about what they were doing.

No one doubts some orphans in Haiti today would be better served by moving to loving families in other countries, but that kind of effort takes time and coordination with local officials.

Te-Ping Chen at Change.org, questions the children focused relief effort in Haiti. In her thought provoking post titled “When ‘Charity’ in Haiti Kills Children”, Chen examines the effect the missionaries’ arrest is having on volunteers who want to travel to Haiti to help.

…Since the missionaries were arrested last month, the misbegotten travails of ringleader Laura Silsby & co. have had a chilling effect on doctors, aid workers and government officials (you know, the people who have a legitimate mission in helping Haiti with the recovery process) trying to save the lives of critically injured Haitian kids.

Now, the New York Times is reporting that 10 children have died or become worse while waiting for authorization from newly skittish authorities to get on flights out of the country for treatment.

Prior to the Americans’ arrest, every day, an average of 15 injured Haitian children were getting airlifted out of Haiti onto U.S.-bound flights. Since Silsby & co. bobbed onto the scene, though, only three children have been evacuated for treatment in the U.S. on private flights….

Chen joins a growing list of people, including some very well known names, who are asking whether is it an act of kindness to remove Haiti’s children from the country in search of better life. Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson has criticized the missionaries for the brash attempt, saying that “True charity would have been to help those families care for their children — not to put them in a bus and drive them away. “

Marc Herman at a previous post in Global Voices noted that surprisingly the voice of Haitian themselves has been muted on the orphans issue. He also highlights a sudden rise of interest on Haitian children after the earthquake.

Late Wednesday evening, a Haitian judge ruled that 8 of the 10 missionaries be release immediately. They will soon be flown back to the United States, leaving behind Laura Silsby and Charisa Coulter. Sisby is the group’s leader.

The already fractured public opinion in the blogosphere is sure to get more intense over the surprise release of the 8 missionaries. There will also be speculation over why 2 missionaries-Laura Silsby and Charisa Coulter are still being held, beyond the official explanation that the judge wants to investigate why the pair had traveled to Haiti before the devastating earthquake last month. It seems that Haiti’s children will once again be on the spotlight.

This post was originally published on Global Voices on February 18, 2010.

A month after a seven-point earthquake destroyed much of southern Haiti, the fate of children, and particularly orphans, has become the main story in many corners. But Haitian voices on the topic have been few.

Different reactions from orphanges

In this long video report posted at Telegraph21, recorded in the days immediately following the quake, managers of two Haitian orphanages speak to the issue in two drastically different ways. At minute 2:30, the manager of an orphanage in an unnamed location in Haiti expresses frustration at the sudden interest in Haitian children, where before there was less concern. Inquiries from foreign families seeking to adopt have become daily. “I don’t even reply,” she says. “Everybody listen, I don’t want to receive post-catastrophe requests.”

A counterpart identified as Ledice, however, who cares for sixty children in a different facility, calls for relocating kids faster, and cites a lack of government services to approve adoptions, even those underway before the disaster. “Now it’s a humanitarian cause,”  she says. “Let’s take the kids. We’ll see the papers later.”

Debating international adoption

Much of the recent focus on kids, both mainstream and not, comes from the widely-publicized case of an American church group arrested last week while trying to bring thirty-three kids from Haiti to the Dominican Republic. But a broader debate  is also underway.

Conducive, a group blog that frequently debates international adoption, notes that previous rushes to adopt children out of crisis went awry:

Removing children during times of disaster is not new. We saw this with Operation Babylift after the Vietnam War, where the American government hurriedly removed almost 3,000 children from their homeland during the Fall of Saigon in 1975. Lawsuits between birth parents and adopted parents tied up U.S. courts for years. Birth parents claimed they never consented to the adoption, and adoptive parents claimed the adoption was legitimate. Critical adoption theorists are seeing parallels with the current rushed adoption of Haitian children.

In a post titled Orphans, Orphans, Orphans!, ResistRacism is more specific:

How many prospective adoptive parents have been trained in cross cultural and transracial adoption issues?  (The same parent referenced above [in the post] wonders about black hair care.  Now that she’s receiving the child.  Do you think she thought about other issues of race and culture?)  (Don’t even get me started about trauma issues.  That’s too big to even cover.  But I’m of the opinion that the average individual isn’t equipped to handle extensive trauma in a child.)

Why aren’t agencies soliciting prospective parents of Haitian descent?  Folks with experience treating trauma?

The same post suggests a more creative solution.

Here’s a radical thought:  If some of those “orphans” were relinquished for adoption because their parents could not keep them, how about we airlift entire families from Haiti to the U.S.?  If you’re seriously talking about the welfare of the child, isn’t it best for the family to remain together? But that wouldn’t serve the needs of those other families. You know, those good families who wish to save the orphans.

The restavec system

Renewed attention to Haiti’s Restavec (sometimes Restavek) system has also become an issue. In a post from before the quake, Repeating Islands says the system, “through which parents unable to support their children send them to live with more affluent relatives or strangers for whom they receive food, shelter and education in return for work” has become tantamount to slavery. She quotes a United Nations investigator who visited Haiti last year to investigate the Restivek issue, saying

…Although placement with children with other family members has long been a practice in Haiti, nowadays ‘paid recruiters scour the country looking for children to traffic both within and outside Haiti. This practice is a severe violation of the most fundamental rights of the child.’

Adoption a last resort?

Most international agencies involved in crisis childcare have, in the past two weeks, stated opposition to rapid adoptions in Haiti. The International Committee of the Red Cross, in a statement presented as an interview with one of its child protection officers, said it believed efforts to connect children with family members in Haiti should receive priority, and adoption a last resort.

…In situations where a child is evacuated, there are clear procedures to follow: the child should be accompanied by a relative or someone who knows them, if possible; the details of the child must be registered and their family must know where the child is taken to and by whom. Unfortunately some children were evacuated in haste without all their details being recorded.

Aid groups including Save the Children, World Vision and the Red Cross Disaster Fund (which is separate from the International Committee), issued a joint statement also opposing evacuations and adoptions. So did UNICEF.

So what’s the controversy? The case of the children stopped at the border involved a Protestant church adoption group, some of which have advocated international adoption as a means of spreading their own religious views. Other evangelist Christian blogs are more careful. Christianity Today, “A Magazine of Evangelical Conviction” opposed quick international adoptions:

In the initial months after an incident like this, we don’t want to move children away from the area where family members are searching for them. After the Southeast Asian tsunami in 2004, there were many small kids virtually unidentifiable, and yet a very high percentage of those children, thanks to DNA testing and other methods, were eventually returned to family members.

This blog post was originally published at Global Voices on February 11, 2010.

Régine Zamor is a Haitian-American based in New Rochelle, New York, but raised in Brooklyn. Her Haitian family is from Martissant. She decided to come to Haiti after the 12 January earthquake and volunteer on her own, without signing up with a major NGO. She had contacts in Haiti and the Dominican Republic before arriving, having volunteered with Haitian indentured laborers in Batey Ocho, Barahona, in the Dominican Republic last summer. Her family and friends in the United States were supportive of her decision.

Régine is a film producer and writer who just finished a documentary film on street children in Cap Haïtien, titled Bagay Dwòl. She has been blogging about the film and about her first-response volunteering at her blog, Bagay Dwol Journal.

When she initially arrived in Haiti, a couple of days after the quake, she researched where her help was needed and wound up volunteering in food distribution, information sharing — both in person and through her blog — and in medical supplies distribution through various contacts at smaller NGOs such as SOIL, Wynn Farm, and COHEF.

Georgia Popplewell and I met with her at the Hotel Oloffson a couple of afternoons ago.

“I didn’t want to wait”

When I told other Haitians living in the United States that I was traveling to Haiti with Global Voices, many who were on waiting lists with large well-known NGOs and US government agencies expressed dismay. For example, my friend Alex — who holds a masters degree in public health administration and has been working in the healthcare industry in the United States for years — was itching to be picked from a volunteer list. When Régine explained to Georgia and me how she made it to Haiti shortly after the quake, I immediately thought of Alex and all the others waiting in the U.S.

Régine decided not to wait, and in this video she explains how she connected with the work she wound up doing:

(A version of this video with French subtitles is also available on dotSUB.)

Régine and other first-responders took food distribution in their own hands and at their own cost

I have only spotted one UN-run food distribution line since my arrival here a week ago. It was near the National Palace, and proved so chaotic that either tear gas or pepper spray was allegedly used on the crowd. A handful of UN officers seemed to be handling a crowd of thousands. A system for the distribution of the global influx of aid by either the UN or the Haitian government has yet to materialize. But in speaking to Régine, it became clear that many Haitians and others willing to help took matters into their own hands during the first-response period.

Here Régine explains how she coordinated with an NGO contact in the Dominican Republic to buy food, have it sent to Port-au-Prince, and distribute it to Orphelinat l’Amour du Bon Berger.

Volunteering with the Parc Antoine Izméry Clinic in Delmas 33

When we met Régine at the Oloffson, an American buddy from her hometown of New Rochelle, NY, interrupted our meeting to introduce some doctors to her. Régine left Georgia and me to go and meet them, and eventually introduced us to one of them, an American doctor who has served Haitian patients in the Bahamas for the past 11 years. She turned to us and said: “He just agreed to come to the Sité Solèy Clinic with me tomorrow morning.”

That is precisely what Régine means by her role in “information sharing”. Via word of mouth and using all means available, she has connected tens of people to whatever service needs she has identified or become aware of.

Here Régine shares a bit about the work she has been doing at the medical clinic at Park Antoine Izméry in Delmas 33:

On her blog, she explains how she delivered needed medical supplies to Kenscoff.

Régine’s journey is far from over. Like many of the Haitian-Americans I have met in Port-au-Prince, she is planning on installing herself permanently here in the next few weeks. Here are her “Helpful Resources for Volunteering in NYC.”

This blog post was originally published on Global Voices Online on January 31, 2010.

Although the coverage of the aftermath of the 7.3 earthquake which has left Haiti’s capital partly devastated, has been massive, one group of Haitian bloggers has been overlooked – teenagers. Here is a look at what young people have to say about this catastrophe, which foreshadows a new era in their lives.

You might not wanna know what happened to me. You might only be interested to what happened to you aunt or your grandpa that are in haiti and that you can’t reach by phone. I can’t blame you for that, though you can’t blame me for wanting to write all this, since there’s no one else but my blog that can sit and listen to it.

These are the first words of female blogger Krizkadiak in her January 15th post entitled “From 16 year old eyes” and they reveal her need to speak, to be heard and to have her pain acknowledged. This echoes a post by Frantz Duval [in French] published by Espas Ayisien, entitled “On oublie que les enfants aussi ont mal” (We are oblivious that children suffer too), in which testimonies of Haitian teenagers are compiled.

Both posts inform us about the first signs of the massive earthquake. In the words of Krizkadiak:

We felt the ground shaking, but we didn’t pay attention, because none of us had experienced that before, so we continued walking. but then it started shaking a lot more and we could hear the PE teacher screaming for us to lay on the ground.

This experience is echoed by 15 year-old Nathalie quoted in Espas Ayisien’s post [in French]:

Nous étions en cours de danse chez Joëlle Donatien Belot, dans la salle du bas quand nous avons ressentis une forte vibration. Personne ne s’en est inquiété. […] Le temps pour nous de sortir, il y a une nouvelle secousse.

We were at a dance class at Joëlle Donatien Belot’s in the room downstairs, when we felt a strong vibration. But no one got worried. […] We had hardly had enough time to rush out, when there was another shake.

Both girls’ testimonies highlight the lack of preparedness for an earthquake of this magnitude, but they also share a common theme, which is the need to connect with family – especially their fathers. Krizkadiak says:

Then everyone got up and ran to go get their phones and try to call their parents… I tried to call my dad; the only thing i could hear was the « beep beep » it does when it’s busy. and disconnected.. i got extremely worried about him. worried.

While Nathalie adds [in French]:

J’ai arrêté d’avoir peur quand mon père est venu me chercher.

Words of wisdom are shared by these teenagers who acknowledge that they have been lucky. Here is Nathalie’s statement [in French]:

Aujourd’hui, quand je pense à tout cela, à mon école, l’ Institution du Sacré-Coeur qui s’est effondrée, je me dis que nous avons eu de la chance.

Now when I think about all this, about my school, Institution du Sacré-Coeur which collapsed, I think to myself that we have been lucky.

In the same post, after witnessing scenes of horror on her way back home, she continues:

I saw my school fall in front of me.

I saw people running covered in dust, hearing that their houses fell… sometimes with people in them.

I saw a refugee camp, as they are on tv… people praying, people alive but not really…

I saw a baby half dead, covered in bandaids…

I saw almost 150 people in three little tents… and thousands on the ground outside.

I saw a friend at the cemetery burying his little cousin.

I saw the oldest and prettiest houses of jacmel reduced to nothing.

I saw pickup truck filled with corpses…

I saw my teacher walking to the cemetery behind the car where his wife’s dead body was…

I saw kids from my school, people i KNOW, at the refugee camp….

Krizkadiak concludes:

When we got back to the beach, my neighbor’s hotel had huge crack all over it, the sea was still not at it’s place, my house didnt have much damage, there were broken bottles and glasses on the floor, but nothing very important…

However, these testimonies cannot hide the fact that other teenagers have also been affected by the earthquake. In Espas Ayisien’s post, we learn about 16 year-old Fanorah who did not experience the tremors herself, but saw her life turning into a nightmare on the following day [Fr]:

[…] je ne comprenais rien à cette affaire de tremblement de terre car Pétion-Ville et le haut de Delmas ne sont pas très affectés. Tout au plus, cela avait provoqué un grand embouteillage et gâché ma soirée, raconte-t-elle.

L’horreur, elle ne la découvre que 24 heures plus tard, quand le décompte des morts commence. Sa marraine, et trois de ses amies sont mortes et aussi plein de gens qu’elle connaisse. « Je ne comprends pas, je ne comprends toujours pas ce qui s’est passé », répond-t-elle à chaque fois qu’on lui pose une question sur le tremblement de terre du 12 janvier.

In her following post entitled “it’s not a dream… face it: it’s real“, Krizkadiak explains how this horrible event has altered their perspective about everyday teenaged concerns, which now seem so superficial:

… it’s good cause then you realize, none of all these stupidities everyone here wants, really mattered. partying never mattered, fancy clothes, making a big deal about how your hair is done, huge & expensive armored cars, summers at the beach in Miami, having a beautiful body, nice hair… you realize all this was BULLSHIT; that all this was going nowhere, a big nasty pile of POINTLESS time-wasting crap! Now you have to open up your eyes and face reality with all it’s details and find a way to compress years of growing up into these 35 seconds, that changed everything

She also talks about cherishing family and the gift of being alive:

You can’t think the same way you used to, you’re not allowed to have the same priorities as you did before… Now you know what really counts in life… loving your brother more than anything, having the people you care about close to you… or simply being alive, being able to eat, sleep,… nothing else.

These awareness and sensiblity make new fears and doubts even more tangible for a 16 year-old:

to have doubts on how tomorrow’s gonna be, to feel the ground shaking at anytime (the shaking even woke you up once.), to hear about dead people everyday,… banks that are closed, schools also… This is driving you crazy right?! You’re becoming paranoïd, you can’t go in the dark alone, you cry for no reasons.
[…]
The more time passes, the more i have to deal with the fact that this reality won’t go away… yup. it’s not a dream

Comments on Krizkadiak’s posts show the great impact her testimonies have had on readers outside of Haiti, in countries like Italy, Ghana and the Caribbean, to name a few. Here are some of the most telling:

34 GreyOne
janvier 18, 2010 à 3:45
Your words are important. You are a voice for many who cannot speak at present.
The things you have seen and endured are more than most will ever have to know.
Let it give you strength , let your strength give comfort and voice to your fellow citizens.
Thank you for helping us to understand what has happened, as if it were our sister telling us about it.

37 Michele (Italy)
janvier 18, 2010 à 6:26
You go on this way.
You Speak. You Tell. You Make the History.
You Reconstruct. You Keep on living.
Ciao Yael

44 Kate
janvier 22, 2010 à 7:10
Your words say it all so much more eloquently than all the journalists in all the world have tried for over a week to say it.

Bless you and your family, Yael. My prayers are with you and with Haiti.

If you want to know more about the Haitian people’s day-to-day reality through 16 year-old eyes, you can also follow blogger Krizkadiak on Twitter @yatalley.

This blog post was originally posted on Global Voices on January 23, 2010.

Though the situation in Haiti is still critical, young people both in Haiti and outside are responding to the crisis by documenting the aftermath of the earthquake, blogging about it, and raising money and awareness.
As Haiti’s government raised the confirmed earthquake death toll to 150,000 earlier this week, warning that figure could double, there is particular concern for the well-being of the country’s most vulnerable — its young people.

Up to 3 million people are estimated to need aid following the January 12 earthquake. The situation is particularly critical for youth, says UNICEF, since nearly half of all Haitians are under 18 years old and almost 40 percent are under 14. Of the survivors, many thousands of children have been orphaned, lost or separated from their families, leaving them open to health risks, abuse and exploitation. However, young people aren’t passively watching the catastrophe unfold. Those within and outside of Haiti are contributing to efforts to raise aid and awareness.

In Jacmel, on Haiti’s southern coast, the film school Ciné Institute continues to provide Haitian youth with film education and technical skills training. Despite losing film equipment and having their school reduced to rubble, the students have been documenting the quake’s aftermath through photos, Twitter and eyewitness accounts. Here’s an account from student Marie Lucie Dubreuse:

This is the first time I am seeing the damages of an earthquake. I was at Ciné Institute when everything started rolling under our feet. Thank God I wasn’t alone on this unforgettable day. One of my classmates took my hand and ran to the streets with me. That’s when I understood what happened.

I ran home to get my daughter that was home at the time. This has traumatized everyone. We are all alive at Ciné Institute and we are doing our best to inform you of the situation in Jacmel.

The students are also posting videos. The blog Barking Robot, by Derek E. Baird, calls the captured stories and images “heartbreaking and hard to watch.” This video, for example, compiles the students’ earthquake coverage:

After the Earthquake: A Compilation of Ciné Institute Coverage from Ciné Institute on Vimeo.

The blog Go Green Toolshed discusses another initiative called Nouvelle Vie *Haiti,* an ongoing project of the International Association of Human Values. The project plans to mobilize 50 Haitian youth who will commit to serving their country for two years. During this time, they will develop skills in trauma relief, food and water security, as well as technology and construction. Meanwhile, Rick Perera, blogging for the humanitarian group CARE, shares stories of how the Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts and Girl Guides have been helping in the city of Léogane. In this post, he talks about a 22-year-old named Joanie Estin:

Joanie was enjoying the early evening socializing with neighbors outside, as was the custom on the Rue de la Liberté in Léogane, when the unthinkable happened.

Her father was the only one inside the house when it collapsed. They never saw him again. The surviving family members – Joanie, her mother, and six siblings – have been living at a local school, the Écôle des Frères, ever since.

“I was so overwhelmed at first. My mother and I stood still in the middle of the road for about 15 minutes, until the earth calmed. Then we went home, and our house had been completely destroyed.”

Joanie coped the way she always has: by getting down to work. As soon as she could, she found her way back to Ste. Rose de Lima and, with some 50 boys and girls who had survived the earthquake, started rallying.

As many of the local Scouts and Girl Guides who could find each other in the aftermath – 94 in all – began volunteering their services to humanitarian groups, including CARE, that bring critical supplies to survivors in central Léogane.

Outside of Haiti, youth are also taking steps to help raise money and awareness. In Los Angeles, “Youth Run 4 Haiti” brought together around 3,000 people, youth organizations have posted tips on how to help, youth are being encouraged to send text messages to raise funds, and numerous multimedia initiatives are connecting young people with ongoing relief efforts. Another example: venezuelanalysis.com says that the youth wing of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela is showing solidarity:

The youth wing of Chavez’s United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) has set up a collection point in central Caracas, for donations of food, medicine, clothing and shoes to send to the people of Haiti.

Heryck Rangel from the PSUV youth said, “We young people want to deepen the internationalist character of the Bolivarian Revolution and highlight solidarity as a socialist value. The Venezuelans have to understand that Haiti is a country that has suffered much and now needs our urgent support.”

Even fashion is playing a role in helping Haitians. The Teens for Jeans drive in the U.S. and Canada is expanding its mission to help homeless Haitian teens. Once the jeans arrive in Haiti, the YMCA Haiti in Port-au-Prince will distribute them, as well as provide other services. The blog Fashion Fling elaborates:

“Want an easy way to help out the teen victims of the Haiti earthquake? Aéropostale and Do Something are teaming up to donate jeans, and you can join them! For every pair of gently worn jeans you donate to the Teens for Jeans program, Aéropostale will donate a brand new pair of jeans to Haiti victims (up to 100,000 pairs). This initiative is part of Do Something’s “Teens for Jeans” campaign that’s going on now, which raises awareness about the youth homelessness epidemic.”

Various writers and bloggers caution, though, that while short-term relief efforts are important, there must also be an eye towards long-term solutions and rebuilding efforts. Still, Steven Culbertson, blogging on The Huffington Post, says that youth should be acknowledged for their efforts so far:

Students in schools and universities immediately planned fundraisers in order to send money and supplies to charities providing aid to the earthquake victims. They became a wealth of knowledge, helping to spread the word about ways to provide support through social networking sites. They helped set a new record for money raised by mobile phones…

…We sometimes forget when planning our professional lives around engaging and supporting youth in service that, when the moment comes, children and youth are already poised for action. Thank you to all of the amazing youth out there, around the world, who continue to answer the call to serve.

Photo of Girl Surveys the Damage by newbeatphoto on Flickr, Creative Commons.