Life as a survivor of the Haiti earthquake

Vanessa, a survivor of the earthquake that struck Haiti, on 12 January, killing an estimated 222,500 people and injuring more than 300,000 others, tells us of her experiences of the earthquake, and life six months on.

Imagine your house being totally ruined after a natural disaster. In less than a minute, you lost what you’ve been fighting for years to keep. The little things you possessed, the little money or business you had, even your loved ones. But as you look around, you realize you’re not the only victim, because hundreds of people surrounding you are in the same situation. Plus, everywhere else you know is ruined and everyone you know is in the same boat as you – so you have no refuge. Now what would you do?

Millions of people found themselves in that same situation on 12 January 2010 after Goudou Goudou (as we named the terrifying earthquake) struck Haiti. Most people were forced to live on the street, under the scorching sun, and in the heavy rains.

Coping with Goudou Goudou

Little by little, these people began to multiply and form their own little communities in the city. However, they were exposed to a lot of risks and lacked necessary things such as water, food, and shelter. These are things that organizations such as Oxfam are helping with.

The earthquake may have caused a lot of wreckage, but it also gave people like me a chance to help repair our country and build a better future. Not too long ago, I was hired by Oxfam in Port-au-Prince. I work in the area of water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH).

I focus on public health promotion, so I do stuff like going to camps and educating people on good health practices, teaching children hand washing songs, and speaking to mothers about not letting their children play with dirty water. This is another really important aspect of improving living conditions for people in the camps, and ensuring that people don’t get sick.

No bathroom in sight

Back to the illustration above: try to imagine what your next couple of days would be like. You wake up the next morning, happy you made it through the night. You hardly slept on the hard floor because of the aftershocks repeating throughout the night.

But you thank God you’re alive! You take a look at yourself and realize that you’re covered in dust from all the ruins, so you can’t wait to take a shower. But where are you going to take that shower? There are no public bathrooms or houses standing in sight. Abruptly, you feel this sudden urge to go to the bathroom. You see some people behind some bushes; you’re guessing that’s what they’re doing. Having nowhere else to go, you do the same.

Training the community

And that’s how it all started. More and more people start doing their needs out in the open where they sleep and eat, unaware that they are now even more vulnerable to diseases such as diarrhea and malaria. Now that’s where my job as Public Health Promoter (PHP) Assistant comes in.

First of all, my team and I get training sessions about hygiene promotion and sanitation. Then we train the community about how to prevent the spread of certain diseases. To make things more effective, we work with Public Health Engineers who set up latrines, water bladders, showers and rainwater catchments in the communities for people to use. Then the PHPs have to mobilize people to keep themselves and their environment clean, and keep a proper maintenance of the WASH facilities.

Proud to make a difference

I must say that I’m very proud to take part in this achievement because we have made such a difference. Even the public commends us on what we do. But we still have so much more to accomplish. It has been six months since the earthquake and people are still living in the camps.

In addition, damaged homes are still waiting to be demolished, and there are still ruins everywhere. This is dangerous for the people, especially during hurricane season. No matter what the government does, I think it would be great if we could do more to help people afford housing and clear their communities of rubble. This will really improve their situation.

Read more

Read Vanessa's first blog: Working with Oxfam in Haiti: a small but important contribution – and a little bit risky

Watch: Vanessa's video diary about how she experienced the earthquake

Map of Oxfam's response in Haiti

More about Oxfam's Haiti response