ADRA-UK News Update

Gregory Bien-Aimé, 13, is among many Haitian orphans who have become increasingly vulnerable since the quake.(Photo Credit: Hearly G. Mayr, ADRA International)

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti—“We’re not asking for food. We’re begging for food,” says John Dubois, a man who spends his days looking for food to give to hundreds of orphans living in Port-au-Prince.

While humanitarian assistance has reached an increasing number of survivors of the devastating January 12 earthquake, many orphans have not been so fortunate, as the thrust of the international aid that has arrived in the country has gone to displaced populations in and around the affected areas of the Haitian capital.

At the Centre d’Accueil de Carrefour, an orphanage caring for 650 young boys in the Port-au-Prince neighborhood of Carrefour, the need for food, water, sanitation and shelter has become critical, if not desperate. Since the earthquake, food supplies have decreased dramatically and water access has become unreliable. Children now sleep outdoors in the open, fearful that another earthquake will bring down their dormitories. Meanwhile, access to sanitation is dismal; there are only two functioning toilets for all the children and orphanage staff.

Food in particular remains the biggest concern for Dubois who, on this day, receives a shipment of food at the Adventist and Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) warehouse and delivers it to the orphanage. Since the quake, the staff has been forced to reduce the number of meals from three to two—breakfast and lunch—although the quantity served has not changed, according to the staff.

“We try to keep the children busy playing games so they don’t think about the food,” says Henri Bernard, 50, a staff member of the orphanage whose responsibilities include procuring food and materials.

The situation at the orphanage has never been worse, says Bernard. The few food supplies they have, namely rice, maize, wheat, legumes, and flour, will run out in a few days. Fuel to power a water pump is also nearly exhausted.

“There are only five gallons left,” says Bernard.

On a normal day, the pump, which provides water to the orphanage, can use as much as 10 gallons a day.

“It’s not clean water, but it’s all that is available,” adds Bernard.

Before the quake, the orphanage received public subsidies to cover the cost of day-to-day operations, including fuel. However, those stopped after the disaster. Now, Bernard says, they have to depend on organizations such as ADRA to receive food and other assistance to care for the children. The staff works to make the best out of the current situation.

In an open school courtyard, kitchen staff prepares a meal. A woman stirs a bean stew in a large pot that sits on a bed of hot coals. Others sitting around a table knead a large lump of dough made with maize flour into long single strings. The dough is then tossed into the boiling stew.

“They are making a meal like this, because they don’t have rice,” says Dubois. “Other places don’t even have this much.”

Eleven-year-old Eddy Pierre-Louis came to the orphanage from Léogâne, west of Port-au-Prince, two years ago. His mother died and he was living with an aunt. His father works in a sugar cane plantation, but they haven’t seen each other in years. He speaks in a shy, almost inaudible voice.

“The aftershocks worry him the most,” says Dubois who translates Eddy’s words from Creole.

Since the quake, his prospects, and those of other children like him, look increasingly bleak. While aftershocks continue to instill fear among Haitians, it is the lack of food and water that are likely to make life miserable for Eddy and thousands of orphans.

Meanwhile, devoted volunteers like Dubois will continue to ensure that Haiti’s orphans are not forgotten.

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Source: ADRA International