April 26, 2010
Jonathan M. Katz reports for the Associated Press on the glaring gap in services between two camps; Camp Corail and Camp Obama. Camp Corail is the recently opened camp which is housing those that have been relocated, primarily from the Petionville camp. Katz explains:
The organized relocation camp at Corail-Cesselesse has thousands of spacious, hurricane-resistant tents on groomed, graded mountain soil. The settlement three miles (four kilometers) down the road — named after the U.S. president in hopes of getting attention from foreigners — has leaky plastic tarps and wooden sticks pitched on a muddy slope.
Corail has a stocked U.N. World Food Program warehouse for its 3,000-and-counting residents; the more than 8,500 at Camp Obama are desperate for food and water. Corail’s entrance is guarded by U.N. peacekeepers and Haitian police. Camp Obama’s residents put up a Haitian flag to mark their empty security tent.
Camp Corail offers a glimpse at what relief efforts can achieve; sturdy tents, adequate food, sanitation, and security. However, despite the billions in aid that has been pledged, relief efforts have been uneven. Katz continues:
In one camp, which dignitaries and military commanders visit by helicopter, those billions are on display. A short hop down the road, they barely register.
“We’ve heard the foreigners have given a lot of aid money. But we’re still living the same way as before, and we’re still dying the same way as before,” said Duverny Nelmeus, a 52-year-old welder-turned Camp Obama resident-coordinator.
Haiti’s needs are still enormous, but more than 100 days after the quake, the plan for dealing with them is unclear.
To read the entire article, click here.
