Four Years After Haiti’s Earthquake, Still Waiting for a Roof

Mimose Gérard, 57, washes clothes and collects plastic bottles from the trash in order to survive. She is still living in a tent camp four years after Haiti's earthquake. Credit: Milo Milfort/IPSBy Jane Regan and Milo MilfortCarrefour, HAITI, Jan 20 2014 (IPS) Mimose Gérard sits in her tent at Gaston Margron camp, surrounded by large bags filled with plastic bottles. She earns just pennies for each, but that’s better than nothing. “I’ve lived in the camp since Jan. 13, 2010, when I was set up with a tent. It’s been a painful existence,” she tells IPS. “I’m just a regular person on this piece of land. I have nowhere to go.”"It’s repugnant to see how authorities treat people because of the simple fact that they are poor." -- Sanon Renel Collecting bottles to recycle is the livelihood of at least a dozen people in this camp that about 800 families call home, located in Carrefour, on the southern edge of Port-au-Prince. Four years after the earthquake, there are still about 300 internally displaced person (IDP) camps mostly scattered around the capital region, and in a large new slum on desertic slopes outside the city. Gérard is 57 years old, and has 11 children. She also does laundry to earn a few more pennies. Her hands are rough and chapped. “The conditions are inhumane, but we have nowhere to go. Those whose families helped them have gotten out. But I don’t have anything like that, so I am staying,” she says. Gérard added that res...
Source: IPS Inter Press Service - Health - Category: Global & Universal Authors: Tags: Aid Editors' Choice Featured Headlines Health Human Rights Humanitarian Emergencies Latin America & the Caribbean Poverty & MDGs TerraViva United Nations Earthquake Haiti Housing Inequality Internally Displaced People (IDPs) Source Type: news