Cassandra Nelson
Director, Multimedia Projects
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Five days after the earthquake the survivors of the quake are displaced from their homes and living in open public areas, such as parks, or in vacant lots and unused space around the city.
Photo: Cassandra Nelson/Mercy Corps
Today I am out visiting spontaneous camps of families displaced from their homes to determine their water situation — how much they're getting, where they're getting it, etc. — info that will be used to design our relief effort.
Driving through Port-au-Prince, everyone wears a handkerchiefs as a mask to block the smell of rotting bodies. On the radio name after name after name is recited — they are announcing the identified dead, but of course most of the dead here are just anonymous bodies being buried in mass graves.
We have four people here already with more on the way. We're assessing the most pressing needs and meeting with the UN and other humanitarian groups to ensure aid is distributed to most needy and we're not duplicating efforts.
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Filed under
- Countries: Haiti
- Tags: Water/Sanitation
- Topics: Emergency response
Comments
carol
January 23, 2010 10:57AM
Cassandra, thank you for so many wonderful things you do and believe in. The focus Mercy corp places on helping the people help themselves is very important. How wonderful to encourage a people the keep their pride and re-build for themselves.
Lisa Horn
January 17, 2010 1:10PM
Hello, thank you for all good work. Wondering if any refugee camps are being set up in Dominican Republic, on the same island as Haiti? Dominican Republic wasn't damaged by the quake, and it is right there, so wondering if that was happening? I am trying to learn world geography, but it would seem that could be possible couldn't it? Can anyone speak to this question?
thank you, help the suffering ones