©InfoFritznel Flarissaint, 35, was on his motorbike coming back from work when the earthquake struck. His wife, 10-year-old daughter and two-year-old son were all at home and as Fritznel raced back to find them he feared the worst.
“The quake threw me to the ground and I hurt my knee. But I managed to get back on my bike and started heading home,” he said. “All the time I was thinking about my family and hoping everyone was alright. But I kept seeing dead bodies everywhere. The only thing on my mind was to get to my wife and kids but I thought they must also be dead.”
Fritznel is from Leogane, a coastal city at the epicentre of Haiti’s earthquake on 12 January, where 90 per cent of the buildings have been damaged or destroyed.
Fear of aftershocks
©Info“When I got back I saw our house had come crashing down, but, thank God, my family was in the yard – my wife had been washing clothes and my children had been playing,” Fritznel said. “I didn’t know what would happen next because there were lots of aftershocks and I was scared. We were so afraid to pass by any brick houses that were still standing.”
After losing his home, Fritznel has built a shelter from bits of scrap wood and metal and a tarpaulin that he bought. He has made this temporary home in a camp called Association des Jeunes Guerin, where about 55 families are now living.
Leogane is situated about 18 miles west of Port-au-Prince and, although it has been completely pulverised, it is more rural and there is space, unlike in the capital, where there are thousands upon thousands of people living side-by-side with just a bit of scrap wood or tarpaulin for privacy.
Lack of toilets
©Info“So far we have been going to the toilet in the bushes, as there was only one house left with a toilet,” said Fritznel.“These toilets the Red Cross is helping us build will make things better. We just need to make sure the pits are dug deep enough otherwise they will smell really bad.”
A large number of the camps have been established in places where there are insufficient drainage systems. They are in former sports fields or vacant lots and parks without sufficient sanitation, and the top soil is now contaminated with urine, faeces, and bacteria.
When rain is added to the mix the urine is immediately recharged, and the faecal matter separates from the clay itself creating puddles which will dramatically increase the chance of disease.
Danger for children
At the moment, not many schools have been re-opened and the children are left hanging around the camps. Even if parents know to stop them playing in the puddles, how they will do this, when there is nowhere for the children to go and nothing for them to do, is a major concern.
Fritznel is aware of the potential danger to his children and the rest of the community. He said: “These toilets are great, but now we need clean water – we need to be able to wash our hands after going to the toilet.”
So far, the Red Cross has built more than 1,300 latrines and water points in 118 camps. As the rainy season begins, adequate sanitation facilities are vital to prevent the outbreak of disease – particularly to protect children from potentially life-threatening cases of diarrhoea.
Read more stories from survivors of the earthquake
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