Christmas misery in Haiti camp
2012-12-24 09:06
Petionville - While people around the world celebrate the
arrival of Christmas, residents of a refugee camp in Haiti say hunger and want
will mark the holiday, like every other day of the year.
"There are no wreaths, no Christmas trees," said
Titelma Cherival, 54, still living in a makeshift refugee camp almost three
years after an earthquake leveled much of this impoverished nation.
"The best Christmas we could hope for is to get out
here and have nice life in a normal home," Cherival said somberly.
"But I see little hope of that."
The faded tent where Cherival shelters with her three
children is torn and covered with a tarp to keep out the rain. The camp,
located in the Canape Vert neighbourhood outside Port-au-Prince, houses nearly
2 000 people.
Residents are compelled to get by as best they can without
electricity or running water and - adding insult to injury - in the shadow of a
complex of luxury hotels.
The poverty is no greater at Christmas time, but the pain
and humiliation of doing without comes into sharp contrast during a season
dedicated to gift-giving and merriment in this predominantly Catholic country.
"There will be no gifts for the children and probably
not even a Christmas meal," said Jocelyne, who sells bric-a-brac to make
ends meet.
"Look at my three children, they do not even know what
Christmas is."
The massive earthquake struck in January 2010, reducing much
of the Haitian capital to a pile of rubble and killing more than 200 000
people.
Grinding poverty
Of the more than one million people left homeless, more than
a third -just over 360 000 - are still living in tents, according to
International Organisation for Migration data.
Endless days of grinding poverty and idleness add to the
despair, camp inhabitants said.
"Nobody works here. There is abject poverty. People
have been brought down to the lowest place in their lives," said Fritzner
Dossous, 32.
"We are dead. All we are waiting for now is to be
buried."
Making matters even more dire for residents of the camp, the
owner of the land where it is located wants to reclaim the property and evict
the camp inhabitants, who have no place else to go.
"We are on private land. The owner wants to reclaim the
space," said Dossous, who helps organize security for the camp, which from
time to time has been attacked by unknown assailants.
Thieves long ago made away with solar street lights
installed in the camp, along with many of the inhabitants' meagre possessions.
Camp dwellers also feel abandoned by political leaders who,
in flowery campaign pledges, promised to lift them out their destitution.
"We are on the path that leads to the presidential
palace. But once they take that road, they don't make the return trip,"
said one man who recalled that President Michel Martelly visited the camp
during his election campaign.
"We haven't seen him since... We deplore this attitude,
although we love him all the same," the man added, as he proudly showed
off a pink bracelet stamped with Martelly's name that he says the Haitian
leader gave him.
Dramatic situation
In the camp, many children, half naked and weak from poor
nutrition, scamper among the tents, their feet encased in mud.
Instead of toys, they play with empty bottles and other
random objects strewn across the camp.
"These kids don't go to school. Some of them were born
here and don't know any other way of life. They don't know any other way to
observe Christmas," said Neila Honarat, 20.
Honorat, a student, noted that many teenage classmates have
become mothers, when they ought to have been getting an education instead.
"There is a dramatic situation in this camp. The girls
become pregnant, no one knows who the fathers are. Some girls sleep around in
order to get food," she said.
Christella is one such girl. At the age of 15, she is
already eight months pregnant. Her baby is due next month, around the same time
as the third anniversary of the quake that has defined life in Haiti and
probably will for the foreseeable future.
"I do not know what will happen during the birth,"
she said. "My mother is taking care of me because my boyfriend left, he
abandoned me," Christella said of the unborn child's father.
It is a sad Christmas story, but one without gifts or
provisions born by Wise Men.
"I have no clothes for him," said Christella,
slightly embarrassed.
"Nothing to care for him with. Nothing at all."
- SAPA
