This month marks six months since the magnitude 7.0 earthquake rocked Haiti. The first two months after the disaster millions of people from across the globe donated their time and money to help revive the poorest nation in the Western hemisphere. But with as every natural catastrophe, over time, the aid slowly diminished.
From the beginning musician/activist, Wyclef Jean worked tirelessly to give aide to his homeland. Jean, along with his wife, Claudinette raised money through Yele, their non-profit organization. Over the past few months he’s continued to visit Port au Prince and other ravage towns, to get an assessment of the damage and help accordingly. Recently he sat down with CNN to give an update of what’s been going on since January.
As reported by CNN:
“We’ve found that for the people in Haiti, who have so little, the smallest things bring them joy. In the care packages we distribute, for instance, the refugee women in tent camps are so happy to have the windup flashlights. Such a minor thing to us, but I’m sure you’ve read stories about the assaults the women in Haiti are suffering, the rapes and kidnappings. Some of the women in the camps we’re working with have told us those flashlights make them feel safer; they don’t have to walk in the dark anymore. So the flashlights actually make their faces light up, too!”
“Think of this: In the heat wave that’s hitting the U.S. East Coast this month, temperatures are reaching more than 100 degrees Fahrenheit. It regularly gets that hot in the summer in Haiti, where 1.2 million people are still displaced, still living in tent camps, without enough food or water, or barely any shelter from the sun—and certainly no air-conditioning. Considering the awful conditions in which they live, maybe it’s not so hard to understand why the people are so joyous to accept things that most of us take for granted: care packages with basic items such as clothing, first-aid materials, shoes, canned foods. And water.”
Read more here.
