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Haiti earthquake: Two years later
Last Updated: January 2012
CBC's David Common returns to Haiti nearly two years after a 7.0-magnitude quake devastated the country. He learns many Haitians still suffer from the catastrophe — but also discovers signs of hope amid the rubble.
[Interactive by David Common, Ruby Buiza, Manmeet Ahluwalia/CBC]
SCHOOL
École République des États-Unis collapsed during the earthquake, trapping the school's principal. She survived and reopened the school. Classes are held in rooms with plywood roofs and only two walls. The school itself has no budget.
'HOPE'
In total, 1,400 attend École République des États-Unis, one of Haiti's rare public schools. [In the video, 800 children are present during one shift.] Despite a pledge from the new government to have a place for every child, public schools serve fewer than 10 per cent of kids. The rest either pay for private school or don't go at all.
HYGIENE
Perhaps the most important part of the school's daily curriculum is handwashing. With a cholera epidemic still rampant, simple hygiene can help control its spread.
MEALS
School meal programs, administered by the World Food Program, provide what is often a child's only daily meal. The rice at this school was purchased from Haitian farmers using Canadian aid money. Though it is more expensive to buy locally, it means that kids get a meal in their belly and farmers have an income.
The World Food Program feeds 1.1 million Haitian children a day, more than before the earthquake. Parents often send their children to school because of the meal.
CAMPS
Two years after the earthquake, 500,000 Haitians still live in makeshift tent cities, often with poor sanitary conditions and no clean drinking water. Women and girls in the camps are at risk of rape.
WATER
Inside the vast tent cities that sprung up after the earthquake, open canals of water drift through piles of rotting waste. But they are the only source of water, so people use them for drinking, cooking, bathing and as a toilet. It is through this combination that cholera continues its deadly spread.
NEW COMMUNITIES
Haitians in the camps are gradually being moved to semi-permanent accommodations. The one-room wooden structures are basic, but the community has showers, individual sanitary latrines behind each house and security fencing. This camp is primarily for the deaf and was built by the Canadian Red Cross.
The new communities have clean drinking water available at centralized taps. During our visit, the children – even the smallest toddlers – were very careful not to waste.
DEBRIS
Dozens of families once lived on this slope. Everything collapsed during the quake. Crews were unable to get heavy equipment into such difficult terrain so debris is removed by hand.
CHOLERA
Inside this cholera clinic, a young woman's fluids are replenished by intravenous lines [pictured right]. As public information campaigns have subsided, fewer Haitians recognize the symptoms of cholera. If they arrive at a clinic after they've lost too much fluid, it can be too late. This woman will survive.
This seven-month old baby boy was diagnosed with cholera and put on antibiotics. Doctors are preparing for the spring rainy season when storm waters cause an overflow of human waste from latrines and canals, causing widespread contamination.