A Year After Quake, Challenges Remain for Haiti by Jason Beaubien January 8, 2011

David Gilkey/NPR Cabaret is a hillside community just north of Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince. Thousands of squatters have staked out plots here over the last six months.

Next week marks the one year anniversary of the devastating Haitian earthquake that killed more than 200,000 people, left a million and a half homeless and destroyed the capital of what was already the poorest country in the hemisphere. Huge challenges still face the Caribbean nation and the international relief agencies trying to help.

Where Do You Start? Rubble removal? Housing? Water? Toilets? Jobs? A government?

David Gilkey/NPR A crew of four men are constructing the frames for improvised classrooms to replace a Port-au-Prince school that collapsed after the Haitian earthquake.

Haiti's needs are so great right now that pondering them can be overwhelming. One year after the quake and months after billions of dollars in assistance have been pledged to help rebuild, Gregory Bateau says he's tired of waiting for someone, some agency, or some aid group to rebuild his school in Port-au-Prince. "The students need to go back to school, so we are building a structure for the kids to come and receive instruction," Bateau says.

David Gilkey/NPR The crew is using rough-hewn sticks to serve as frames for the new classrooms. The Port-au-Prince school was a three-story, concrete building with 4,000 students it collapsed in earthquake.

But they aren't constructing another three-story concrete building. Bateau and a crew of four other men are hammering together rough-hewn sticks that will serve as frames for improvised classrooms. The school used to have 4,000 students attending classes in three different shifts. When the quake hit on Jan. 12 just after 5 p.m., much of the school was empty — not because classes were over, but because most of the students hadn't paid their tuition for the New Year. The teachers had been sent home early everyone who was behind on their school fees. "Thanks to God we had sent them out because of the money," says Bateau. "If we hadn't, more than six children would have died." Three teachers also perished in the collapse. Bateau says a Japanese aid agency tore down the building and hauled off the debris. He says several other international groups promised to rebuild the school, but never did. He hopes in 2001 he'll find a way to completely rebuild the school. But for now, Bateau says he simply wants a place for students to gather. The Pace of Recovery "I think Haiti is still waiting of a new future, "says Stefano Zaninni, the head of Doctors Without Borders in Haiti. He says the slow pace of the recovery is itself a problem for Haitians.

"The problem is not to live in a tent," Zaninni says. "The problem is to feel not involved in these decisions. It is not being aware about what our future will be in the next years." At the time of the disaster, Doctors Without Borders had a major operation in Haiti. But since the quake they've more than quadrupled their staff and now run 10 hospitals mainly in Port-au-Prince. Access to health care was so bad in Haiti before the earthquake that Zaninni says Haitians actually have better health care now than they did a year ago. But he says the response of international aid groups at times failed to address fundamental problems. Doctors Without Borders, for instance, is now involved in cleaning drainage canals and chlorinating water as part of their effort to suppress cholera in Cite Soleil. There are more than 10,000 relief agencies working in Haiti and Zananni says it puzzles him that this task is left for a group of doctors. He says the international response was generous but at times lacked coordination.

David Gilkey/NPR

In the Cabaret community, north of Port au Prince, Haitians can grab a piece of land and build a temporary home. "Sometimes different actors and NGOs were fighting to put a flag in the same area or the same spot. And I think this is something we should reflect about," says Zananni.

Haiti Wants Human Resources, Not Food The deputy mayor of the Delmas section of Port-au-Prince, Jean Gael, has also been reflecting about what has and hasn't been accomplished since the quake. Gael is walking through a market in Delmas near where the mayor's office recently rebuilt an important bridge with their own funds. He says that at times the international community doesn't understand what Haiti needs. He says the impoverished country doesn't need food and care packages to hand out to the people living in the camps.

"What we need here is human resources. Like skills. We need tractors, loaders to make the roads for all people to live," says Gael. "We have great vision in this community, but we have no means. We lack means to implement our vision. Amen." "What we need here is human resources. Like skills. We need tractors [and] loaders to make the roads for all people to live." - Jean Gael, deputy mayor of the Delmas seciton of Port-au-Prince When he thinks back over the last year, Gael says he is proud and frustrated at the same time. He shows off a new playground that's just opened. But then he points out a retaining wall along a river that desperately needs to be replaced, bridges that have to be rebuilt and thousands of destroyed houses waiting to be demolished. Annie Foster, the senior emergency adviser for Save the Children, agrees that what Haiti needs right now are human resources and skills. "I got here about 36 hours after the earthquake and I was here for the first three months," says Foster. "And then I left and now I'm back for cholera response. Not a happy reason to be back here but I'm back." Foster says things have improved a lot since the months right after the earthquake. People are no longer sleeping in the streets, and many kids have been able to go back to school. Water is also getting delivered regularly at the camps. "But still as you can see there's a long way for us to go. It's really a struggle here in Haiti," says Foster. "I've worked in a lot of different emergencies and this one really is, I think, the most challenging." Foster says this has fueled many late night debates at the Save the Children compound.

Haitian Professionals Rebuild Elsewhere Before the earthquake, Haiti was a highly centralized country. Political, economic and social power were all concentrated in the capital. The earthquake then struck the heart of the nation. But Foster brings up the same issue as Gael when pondering the slow pace of the recovery. She says it's hard for Save the Children to find skilled Haitian professionals to run their aid programs. "There's a big draw to the United States for professional people in Haiti. If they have a good education and the opportunity then they often leave. So that's a struggle for us," says Foster. It's just one of the many struggles playing out in Haiti, as the country enters its second year of recovery from the earthquake