Espwa Fè Viv

The year 2010 was not kind to Haiti. Tragedy struck on January 12th. Just before 5 pm, a 7.0 earthquake centered 10 miles west of Port-au-Prince devastated PAP and its surrounding area of Haiti. By midnight there were 17 aftershocks of at least a 4.5 magnitude (and 7 of them over 5.0). It took months to tally but the final estimates had the death toll as high as 300,000 with over one million people being homeless. Tent cities have sprung up throughout Port-au-Prince and its surrounding areas as people struggled for life’s most basic necessities – shelter, food, water and medical care. Later in the summer and early fall, several hurricanes and tropical storms caused further havoc to the already suffering masses. Then during the last quarter of the year, a cholera epidemic spread rapidly – presumably originating in the central plateau area from UN soldiers coming from Nepal. Over 2,000 deaths were recorded throughout the country from this disease – which had not been seen in Haiti for over 50 years.

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