“Outside help is necessary for us. I need you to tell my story.”
I sat with Claudette Auxin under a mango tree to escape the searing heat at the edge of Place St. Pierre in the heart of Petionville, a suburb of Port-au-Prince. Claudette now calls this town square home.
Port-au-Prince is a city transformed by the devastation unleashed at 4:53 p.m. on January 12th, 2010. In Haiti, I quickly learned that the specific hour and terrifying 40 seconds of convulsing earth, collapsing buildings and lost lives is seared into the minds of absolutely everyone left to talk about it.
As a Presbyterian World Service and Development program coordinator, I visited Claudette early on a Saturday morning as part of a nine-member international team tasked with taking stock of what the Action by Churches Together Alliance has accomplished in Haiti since the earthquake, and to make recommendations on future steps. The team and I were very impressed by the work of our Haitian partner organizations and their success in helping to meet the essential needs of people affected. But despite five months of work, it’s obvious everywhere you look that many people are still living in crisis.
Claudette is 51 years old, living under a plastic tarp wrapped around wooden poles erected by her son. She is one of hundreds of people packed into the town square in a makeshift tent city. There are a few latrines on the road beside the plaza, as well as some shower stalls. Everyone living in the camp fears the uncertainty of their future — rumours of forced eviction mean not knowing where their future homes may lie.
A select few, including Claudette, are better able to meet some of their basic needs through support from PWS&D and the ACT Alliance. She has received two months’ cash assistance (US$65 a month), and will receive four more. The money is helping her restart her business buying and selling candies, batteries and snacks, though she’s now reduced to selling from her tent.
When the earthquake hit, Claudette was at home with her daughter, chatting in the living room and playing with her granddaughter. Her son was soon to arrive from work. The house began to shake violently, and terror paralyzed them. Claudette’s daughter grabbed the child as the two-story house next door collapsed, crashing into their living room, burying them both under concrete and iron. A pole smashed into Claudette’s shoulder, breaking it, before continuing on to destroy her left knee. But Claudette was the lucky one. Her daughter and granddaughter were killed by the falling rubble.
Wracked with pain, dulled only by shock and disorientation, Claudette was pulled out from the rubble by her son, who was in the street when the earth trembled. He managed to carry her to a hospital. Thousands of people clamoured for help and care, but eventually, she received surgery that reconstructed her shoulder and knee by inserting pins to hold the bones together. The ACT Alliance provided her with a walking aid.
Despite the loss of family, property and livelihood, Claudette, along with hundreds of people living with disabilities in the Port-au-Prince area, are thankful for support and solidarity in these uncertain and terrifying times.
With the cash assistance and her profits, she is able to purchase food for herself and her son. She is slowly accumulating funds to keep her business stocked. Life is beginning to re-emerge, and the long road to recovery has begun.
