Haiti: Carmen's Story

Before the earthquake, Carmen Charles had a successful job in a communications company. Now she shares a tent made from bedsheets and branches with fourteen other people.

Thanks to you, she and her family have food, clean water and somewhere to sleep tonight.

“I was at home when the earthquake came.” she said. “The whole house was falling and starting to lean. I grabbed the children and ran. All around there was crying. There were so many people injured. There were people dead. I saw things I don’t want to talk about.”

With their home in ruins, Carmen and her family made their way to Petionville, one of the largest of the temporary camps which have formed across Port-au-Prince. Three months ago, the Petionville Club was a golf course. Now 50,000 people live here during the day, and at night up to 100,000 crowd together in tents and makeshift huts.

SCIAF is working with Caritas Internationalis – a global network of Catholic aid agencies – to help people in Haiti get back on their feet. Since January, your donations have helped to provide:

• Tents and shelter kits for 900,000 people
• Health care for over one million people
• Regular food rations or hot meals for over 1.5 million people
• Access to clean water or hygiene kits for over 280,000 people
• Specialist facilities for 13,000 children, and elderly or disabled people where they can meet to play, learn or feel protected.

“We need the supplies we are given here,” Carmen said: “It is so important. We are so happy to get it. As long as you are alive, you always have hope. Haiti will live again.”

It will take years for Haiti to recover from this disaster, but with your support, SCIAF will be there to help communities rebuild their shattered homes, schools and hospitals.

Make a regular gift to support SCIAF's work around the world.