Photo Essay, Haiti: After The Quake
Words by JR Valrey, YO! Youth Outlook Multimedia
Photos by JR Valrey and Siraj
March 3, 2010
Going to Haiti was an eye opening experience when I travelled to that part of the world in the aftermath of the earthquake. We did not go to be tourist or go to be on a resort, we were there to help the relief effort, medically and journalistically.
We had a doctor, two nurses, and three journalists with us. We traveled through Port Au Prince with some Haitians from the area, documenting the devastation, passing out water, as well as setting up makeshift clinics like what we did in Cite Sole, where our medical team saw 100-150 people in a two day period. Contrary to U.S. government propaganda, there seems to be no orchestrated government relief effort, although the U.S., French, Canadian, and the Italian government can be seen riding down the streets with gun ports on the back of trucks on a everyday basis.
We traveled to the Delmas and the Cite Sole districts of the capital of the country and saw everything from malnutrition children to amputees with infested stumps to name a few of the afflictions. We smelled dead bodies in rubble along the city streets, as well as helped to hand out water to people in Cite Sole who were in desperate need of clean water. We hope to be able to return again to play a part in the relief effort.
"This library is still burning a month after the earthquake."
"Who knows how many people are trapped beneath this collapsed audio store."
"Many children suffered severe injuries during the earthquake."
"Many buildings have been turned into disaster zones that can collapse at any moment."
"There is no business as usual for this local bank that was destroyed."
"The road to reconstruction will be long and hard."
"Even places of worship received substantial structural damage."
"Many families resort to living in tents as a result of their homes being devastated by the quake."
"The Haitian capital palace in ruins. How would we feel if this happened to the White House?"
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