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Blog story from Diana Valcárcel, UNICEF communications specialist currently in Haiti.

LEOGANE,  Haiti,  25  February  – Marie France Exilien lives in Léogâne, an hour’s  drive  southwest from the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince. Seated next to a rustic wooden fence, in the town’s Gean Gean’s zone, Marie France wears a red dress as conspicuous as the crooked smile across her lips.

Just over six weeks ago, she was living in downtown Port-au-Prince, in the popular  Delmas’  neighbourhood.  She  had  a  good job, working within the Secretariat  of  State  for the Literacy. On 12 January, everything changed when  the  Haitian  earthquake  struck  and  levelled  her home. Alive, but seeking  shelter for her, her husband and their four children, Marie-France sought  refuge  here,  in the rural area where her family originates. Today she  is  one  of  a  total of almost 500,000 Haitians displaced amongst the country’s rural zones in the aftermath of the earthquake.

The displacements of the population have provoked the lack of access to all manner  of  services, including health care, education, nutrition and first and  foremost in many cases drinkable water. According to UNICEF before the earthquake only 17 % of the population had access to safe water sources. It is  the  reason  why  UNICEF  is working to implement a system of drinkable water nationwide.

In  rural  zones,  however, the distribution of safe drinking water remains particularly  challenging.  Many  of  the  roads are impassable and in many cases,  the  families arriving or returning to rural areas set up temporary shelter in the hillside. With the sudden influx, existing services, already weak, are under tremendous strain.

Until  now,  UNICEF and its partners have managed to distribute 4,000 water buckets  of water in Léôganes community’s homes. The aim is to reach 15,000 buckets by the end of April.

Marie  France  and  her immediate family sleep in a tent they’ve built from sheets  and sticks. The initially built their tent under the coco-palms for maximum shade, until the coconuts came down tumbling. Today they are out in the  open where the sun is hot like an oven during the day. “In the tent we only sleep,” she says.

During  the  day  she  cooks small pies, which she sells locally in a small shop  she’s  established.  They sit amongst other products she’s managed to secure,  such  as  candies,  mandarin  oranges and the popular French cream cheese  wedges.  La  Vache qui Rit. The small pittance of gourdes she earns daily  helps  to  provide  for  the  daily  needs of the seven people she’s supporting.

There  is  a  risk  that  if these communities are not supported, displaced people  will  return  in  search  of  assistance,  thereby  putting renewed pressure  on  damaged infrastructure and scare resources in Port au Prince.

UNICEF highlights the importance of early recovery action beginning now, to help stabilize the situation,  prevent further deterioration of local capacity, and shorten the need for humanitarian assistance.

While coming back yesterday evening to the MINUSTAH base camp, where we are living, I asked Mimi Tribie, UNICEF HIV specialist from Haiti, where she was during the earthquake. “That day I was coming back from my Christmas holidays. I was in the office trying to read all the emails I had receive. You know how it can become a nightmare! …” Mimi is a great person. She is one of these people that you know they are special the first time you meet them. She lived in the United States for 30 years. She came back to Haiti a couple of years ago to take care of her parents, since her mother is sick and she is the only child.

At UNICEF’s office, located in Debussy´s neighborhood, there were 55 people working. Fortunately nobody died. But the building was severely damaged. The new office is now based at the MINUSTAH base camp, and is made of two big brown tents. The team has increased up to 74 people, and, since there is a lot of work to do, it will keep growing.

“I called my husband at 4.48 to ask him at what time he was leaving the office. He told me at 5”, explains Mimi. That day, at her office, there were building works taking place. “After calling my husband somebody knocked my door. It was Jean Robert (another UNICEF colleague who is now working with us at the Communication Department). He asked me if I could move the car to let him get out”. She turned off her computer. She was joking with him and, just when she was getting out from the office, she was violently shacked. “The first thing I thought was that it was due to a machine from the building works. And then the whole building started to shake. Jean Robert’s eyes were wide open. I told him: “I think this is what they call an earthquake”. And we went underneath a table. At that moment one of my office’s walls collapsed. I told Jean Robert “Let’s try to get out of here”. We opened a door in our way to the reception. The floor was still shaking. To get out you have to push a green button that opens the door automatically, but it wasn’t working. At that moment she heard someone screaming “Oh my God, oh my God”. It was somebody in a remote office. Mimi stood up to hear where the voice was coming from. “That person saved my life because she prevented me from getting out from the building”. Then, we heard a tremendous noise: one of the walls which were being built collapsed. “If I had left the building at that moment it would have fallen on me”.

After the earthquake, the first thing Mimi did was to look at her husband’s building, to make sure it was still standing. She can see it from her office since it’s very high. “I was brave enough to look”. Fortunately it was still there.

Although Mimi is a peaceful person with a big sense of humor, at the end of the conversation she has a serious look on her face. “It was like the end of the world. I hope I’ll never be in a situation like that again.” Shehzad Noorani, UNICEF’s photographer, says “But Mimi, you are a calm person.” “No, Shehzad, I am not the same one since the 12th of January”.

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