I don't mean to downplay the efforts that have been made to rebuild Haiti, there has been progress. So many people have volunteered their time and money to help Haiti, but after such a huge disaster it is difficult to fix everything in a timely matter. The girl in my class was telling us that Haiti's government was unstable before the earthquake, and since then it hasn't gotten much better. Just to give a brief background on how unstable their government is/was: In 1991 the first democratically elected President was removed in a military coup, this was repeated in 2004. Haitians then had an election this past November in which there are a claims that fraud took place. People also became frustrated and refused to vote when the authorities refused to let the countries most popular party run (The Utopianist, January 11, 2011). How can Haiti rebuild if the government can't even sort itself out?
Crime rates have also gone up, which is definitely something that we could have all predicted; nonetheless it's really heartbreaking. Rape especially has increased in the past year (The Utopianist, January 11, 2011). The reason for this increase in crime is that people are still living in tents and makeshift wooden homes; there is poor, if any lighting at night, making it that much easier for criminals to commit crimes (USA Today, January 12, 2011).
 |
| A tent city in Haiti (The New York Times, April 4, 2011) |
A problem that people are facing in Haiti are facing when trying to rebuild their city is rubble. There is still a great deal that needs to be removed before real rebuilding can take place (The New York Times, April 4, 2011). The reason it has taken so long to remove this rubble is the cost. Haiti is in severe poverty and they simply don't have enough money to pay for it. Even with the donations that poured in. See, what I think is that the donations were used more for short term things, like medical care, food, and water. Now while all those things were desperately needed, it was also extremely important to save a large sum of money for the rebuilding of Haiti.
 |
| Orphans in Haiti still need help (The New York Times, 2011) |
I know that this has been a pretty depressing post thus far, so now I want to highlight some of the good that has been done! There were/are many organizations that contributed to helping Haiti, and one of them is World Vision Canada. They alone provided food aid to 220,000 families following the quake, and made sure there was clean water for people to drink. To be exact, 189 million litres of water and 132,000 people (World Vision Canada, 2011). Save the Children, another amazing organization, reached out to 870,000 Haitians and provided them with shelter, food, water, sanitation, and much more (Save the Children, January 7, 2011).
It is amazing what we can accomplish when disaster strikes; it is just sad that it takes such a horrendous disaster to make people reach out to others in such a large way. Haiti needed help long before the earthquake, but it took nearly 300,000 people dying to get us to notice. There is work that needs to be done in Haiti, that fact cannot be disputed. Yet people should not ignore what has already been done, because what has been done is amazing.
(Progress Report for Haiti Earthquake - Feb. 19, 2010, youtube)
