Haiti Now: Volunteers share their memories

A young Haitian girl in a relief camp looks up at the sky. (Submitted by Derek Sciba/World Concern)

It's been one year since a 7.0-magnitude earthquake struck Haiti, killing more than 220,000 people and leaving more than a million homeless.

Aid agencies rushed to the impoverished Caribbean nation -- saving lives, doing emergency surgery and handing out food and water to millions. But since then, many groups, including the United Nations, have been criticized for not doing enough to help Haitians rebuild their shattered country.

Other challenges, including a cholera epidemic, tropical storms, and political uncertainty, have made rebuilding and recovery even more difficult.

The CBCNews.ca Community team contacted several volunteers who have been on the ground in Haiti. We wanted to know, 12 months after the earthquake, what strides aid workers have made, what obstacles remain, and what they've experienced in Haiti that they'll remember for the rest of their lives. You can read their Citizen Bytes here:

In his post, paramedic Sean Large shares his most enduring memories of his time in Haiti and describes some of the emergency medical situations there.




International aid worker Julian Donald spent seven months in Haiti helping to distribute relief supplies and build temporary shelters for the country's many homeless.



Police officer and volunteer Brienna Ross helped to train a team of Haitians to use water purification units and lent her support to medical teams scrambling to attend to the injured and ill.

Paramedic and volunteer Sarah Caloccia said she was humbled by the many children she met, especially a group of young boys who found happiness in simple toys made of plastic juice bottles and lollipop sticks. See her photo essay here.

Derek Sciba, marketing and communications director for World Concern, has travelled to Haiti three times in the past year to help document the earthquake relief efforts. You can see images from his latest trip in this photo essay.

More CBCNews.ca Community content

During the first weeks of the disaster, the team pulled tweets and photos from the scene, hosted live chats about the recovery situation, and posted blog entries from individuals in Haiti who were helping with the rescue effort or searching for loved ones. Three months after the earthquake, CBC News worked with families who had lost loved ones to create the Haiti Legacy Project, honouring their memories.

• Photo gallery: Haiti missing persons
• Haiti Legacy project
• Live chat replay: Haiti earthquake
• Citizen Bytes: Stories from Haiti
  

Do you have stories to share about Haiti? Email us at yournews@cbc.ca. If you wish to contribute a Citizen Byte, you can find out how to get in touch here.