Rebuilding connections to Haiti

It’s been one month and ten days since the seven point O earthquake ravaged Haiti, killing over two hundred thousand persons and leaving millions homeless.  The global response has been quick and we found out that Belizeans are still doing their share to help our regional neighbours to rebuild their lives.  Marion Ali caught up today with some Haitian nationals living in Belize and got an idea of how their families are doing weeks after the quake.

Marion Ali, Reporting

It’s been almost six weeks since the phenomenon hit Haiti, and it will be years before the country will be able to rebuild.  But help continues to pour in.  For Haitians in Belize like Bibiebson Cherleron, he was lucky to get his immediate family to migrate Belize where together they will restart their lives.

Bigiebson Cherleron, Haitian National

Bigiebson Cherleron

“I get my wife and my kids with me and right now I get my mom and my brothers and sisters.  I got one sister who the baby dead too, noh.  Up to now I can’t get she because she used to have a phone and the phone loss you know, so I can’t get contact from she right now.”

But while Cherleron is happy to have his family here, he is also sad that a sick relative passed away after the quake and he feels the stress of the phenomenon was partly to blame.

Bigiebson Cherleron

“Yesterday I get the news that my brother-in-law ih get dead, my sister husband, he get dead, after the quake.”

Marion Ali

“From an injury?”

Bigiebson Cherloron

“Yeah, he used to sick. You done know when deh people get problem and wah next problem come over dat wah be…”

Chrisnor Monde’s family suffered structural damage to their home, but their losses did not extend beyond the material.

Chrisnor Monde

Chrisnor Monde, Haitian National

“My mah call me and tell me how ih house bruk down.  I feel very bad but thank God, dem noh get hurt.  Dem still alive, so I’ll try fi goh visit dem and for help dem build di house back.”

And rebuilding their house will take some time Monde says because the disbursement of construction material in Haiti has been slow.

Chrisnor Monde

“When wah lee help come ih reach by the city, dat done.  Dat noh got time fi reach by the village.  Village people still noh got nothing, you know.  My people live dah village, the help noh reach dah village. Especially fi the house but for the food, no problem.  Especially my family, dem noh have problem for the food but for the house for build the house back, that’s the problem.”

As for the funds collected from Belize, Red Cross Director, Lilly Bowman says it’s been better than expected but a few pledges are still outstanding.

Lilly Bowman, Director, Belize Red Cross

Lilly Bowman

“We have made three transfers so far and in total it’s two hundred and forty-four US dollars that we have transferred or four hundred and eighty-eight thousand dollars Belize which is more than we had expected to reach although we did change, after we saw how good the donations were coming we extended to April and we set our target to five hundred thousand Belize dollars. So I can definitely see that we are going to—we will meet that target.”

Marion Ali

“How have the collections on pledges been going? I know that several organizations had held fundraisers and pledges were made. How have those been coming in?

Lilly Bowman

“Pledges are pledges so people promise to pay this amount or whatever but it’s hard sometimes to collect everything and although I would dare to say that we have collected the majority of the pledges that were out, it’s hard to say exactly because some people have been depositing their pledges directly to the bank and it’s not always that the bank would mark exactly who it came from so it’s hard for us to say well yes we got all these pledges. But we have been doing our very best to still chase up the ones that we can and some have come into the office right after the event. But I would like to say that we are receiving pledges still.”

Bowman says that by the time the Red Cross closes off its account at the end of April it should have raised over half a million dollars total for Haiti.  Marion Ali for News Five.

It has been one of the most successful local fund-raising drives which have surpassed the projected amount the Red Cross hoped to collect.