Haiti One Year After/Cholera & Health

Independent Films, Women, Web Series, Health

The people of Haiti continue to battle one disaster after another. Cholera now is the most prominent legacy of the earthquake, storms and poverty.
One year after the horrific earthquake that killed hundreds of thousands, all are eager to see life improve for the millions of Haitians. The Haitian people are obviously even more anxious, and from health to rebuilding to jobs - despite a history of deprivation and the continued dysfunctional political environment- Haitians are showing themselves best able to contribute to their own situation.

Transcripts / Production notes / Scripts

Creole) Deliverance “Tite Souer” Boislo, Earthquake Survivor:
“After the January 12th earthquake life is getting harder every day. I have 7 children and our family is living in misery. We were sleeping out in the street, until a friend let us stay here. My husband used to support us but now that he’s gone there’s no-one to help us.

(Creole) Deliverance “Tite Souer” Boislo, Earthquake Survivor:
“We don’t have a toilet, we use a bucket and throw it out into the open sewer. We don’t even have a proper place to wash. We just use a basin and throw that water away too.”

STORYLINE:

Despite the inspiring name, Cité l’Eternel is one of the poorest and most densely populated neighbourhoods in Haiti’s capital Port-au-Prince.

Home to tens of thousands of families, its residents struggle each day to carry on with the semblance of a normal life, a life that was irrevocably changed last on 12 January 2010.

Deliverance “Tite Souer” Rosilaure, who lost her husband in the earthquake, is one of them.

SOUNDBITE (Creole) Deliverance “Tite Souer” Boislo, Earthquake Survivor:
“After the January 12th earthquake life is getting harder every day. I have 7 children and our family is living in misery. We were sleeping out in the street, until a friend let us stay here. My husband used to support us but now that he’s gone there’s no-one to help us. We can sometimes go for 2 weeks without having a proper cooked meal.”

For the past ten months, Deliverance has been living with her four children in this unfinished concrete shell.

SOUNDBITE (Creole) Deliverance “Tite Souer” Boislo, Earthquake Survivor:
“We don’t have a toilet, we use a bucket and throw it out into the open sewer. We don’t even have a proper place to wash. We just use a basin and throw that water away too.”

Like much of the capital, Cité l’Eternel has no running water or sanitation facilities. These are conditions that are of great concern given Haiti’s the current cholera epidemic now ravaging Haiti.

Like all residents here, Deliverance has to buy purified water from community water points.

But today with her water she is also receiving free aquatab water purification tablets supplied by UNICEF, part of a concerted effort to prevent the spread of cholera and protect families in Haiti.

One fifteen litre bucket will have to serve their family’s drinking, cooking, and washing needs for two days.

The challenges facing Haiti remain enormous. But helping Haitians take precautions to protect against cholera, such as using aquatabs, will bring some small relief to Deliverance and her family and others like them.

Tags

• haiti
• earthquake
• Cholera
• Children
• health

Directors:

• Muhamed Sacirbey, UNTV

Producers:

• Susan Sacirbey