Over a year ago, Haiti was struck with one of the worst natural disasters in recent history. At least 20,000 Haitians died, and 2,000,000 were left homeless. Today, the vast majority of the damage from the earthquake still remains. Some Haitian bodies were pulled out of the rubble just this month. And more then half the population survives under $1.25 per day, according to Gabrielle Apollon, a Sion alumni and Haitian advocate who works for the United Nations.
Experts estimate only two to 20 percent of all the buildings and debris have been cleared, and most of the national monuments are not rebuilt. Structures that took years to build have now been lying on the ground for over a year. In the mean time, makeshift “tent cities” have spread across the country.
And now, to top it all off, a new, quieter catastrophe is claiming lives in the third world country: cholera. Cholera is a bacterial disease that comes from contaminated water. It is virtually non-existent in developed counties, but it has come back to Haiti for the first time in 100 years.
Apollon said, “Because Haiti has very poor water and sanitation systems, cholera has spread rapidly. The recent outbreak has brought even more death and devastation to a country still reeling from over 300,000 of its citizens having died.”
The Global Orphan Project (GO), a Kansas City non-profit organization, gives people the opportunity to travel to Haiti to help the homeless children.
Savannah Bicknell, senior, traveled to Haiti with GO last September and is returning in April. She spent everyday at a different orphanage playing with children who had lost their families in the earthquake. The children and stories she encountered are still fresh in her memory today.
“There was one kid there who looked like he was two years-old, but he was actually like eight years- old. He was found in a pile of trash before the lady in charge took him in. His dad had thrown him there because they didn’t have any food or shelter,” Bicknell said.
Despite the aid that has come from people like Bicknell and Apollon, the challenges facing the Haitian people are enormous. One of the major challenges includes the fact that only 30-40% of the money pledged has actually been disbursed, Apollon said.
So what can Sion do? Apollon said that students can help collect soap, water purification tablets, and water filters as soon as possible. She has arranged a discount with one of the distributors for the tablets, to be able to purchase tablets for one third of the retail price. Monetary donations of course are always welcome. Apollon recommends Partners in Health and World Vision for contributions.
She said, “If Sion girls put the energy behind a drive for Haiti, which is in such desperate need, I know they could move mountains. I’m asking, as a Haitian and a Sion alum, that they commit to doing so. The awesome thing is they will save lives.”