Haiti : People are supporting each other

Humanity & Inclusion (HI)’s inclusion project manager in Haiti, Jean Fredely, recalls the day the earthquake struck and tells us more about what life is like on the ground.

People search through the rubble of what was the Manguier Hotel after the August 14, 2021 earthquake in Les Cayes, southwest Haiti. | © Stanley LOUIS / AFP

People are coming together to deal with the consequences of the earthquake that happened on August 14. 2,000 people were killed and nearly 10,000 injured in the disaster. Humanity & Inclusion (HI)'s Inclusion project manager Jean Fredely tells us about his experience and the situation for people on the ground :

“On Saturday morning, I was playing with my 10-year-old daughter when my wife, who had felt the earthquake, came running in. All three of us ran out, taking our two-month-old daughter with us, and we sat on wasteland, away from the buildings. And actually, the tremors began to build, and in the distance, we saw the houses were swaying."

"Since Saturday we’ve been sleeping on the “gallery” - the roof terrace. We don’t really feel like staying indoors. We always stay near an exit and we don’t let our daughter play at the back of the house where she’d find it hard to get out if the tremors started again."

"The earthquake on Saturday obviously brought back a lot of bad memories from 2010[1]. In some families in Haiti, we organise a party every month for newborns and we were meant to celebrate our two-month old daughter with the rest of the family, but we weren’t in the right state of mind."

"I’m originally from Grand Sud and I have a lot of relatives there. Fortunately, everyone’s fine. The first day, the phone network was saturated, and we couldn’t get any news, but we managed to talk to them on Sunday."

"We’re all very impressed by how people have come together. It’s been one disaster after another in recent years and we live in a state of constant uncertainty and anxiety, especially about the future. But it’s brought people together."

"In Nippes and Les Cayes, solidarity is the rule, because we share food, water and clothing. The earthquake has made it impossible to have markets in the Grand Sud, and over the last few days it’s been harder to find food and basic products. Prices had already risen sharply in recent months because of the insecurity and because gangs have blocked the roads linking the region to Port-au-Prince. So, people share what they can."

"An earthquake like this makes you think about life and death. You want to spend more time with the people you love."

HAITI EARTHQUAKE APPEAL: DONATE NOW

[1] More than 200,000 people died in the earthquake of January 2010.

Date published: 19/08/21

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