17 February 2010
Robert Moliere is not a rich man, but he did have some money set aside in the bank. But no banks are open in Petit Goave, weeks after the earthquake, and he doesn’t know whether he will ever see that money again.
Before the earthquake he worked as a mason and is hoping that he will find work again once reconstruction begins. In the meantime he and his family were relying on hand outs from neighbours and friends to survive.
Earlier this month he was given a $75 (£54) cash grant from Christian Aid partner RNDDH to help make ends meet. He is one of just over 1,000 families who will be receiving a monthly stipend over the next three months.
Fito Lesperance is coordinating the cash payments for RNDDH, the national network for the defence of human rights. He explains that they chose to distribute cash rather than food because in Petit Goave there was plenty of food available in the markets, but most people did not have enough money to buy it.
‘This way we do not have to use money from the appeal to transport the food from Port-au-Prince and then pay for a warehouse to store it until it is distributed. The money transfer offices have opened ahead of the banks and they are providing the security and the record-keeping for us,’ he said.
Many people in Haiti already receive cash payments from relatives living in the US, so there is no stigma attached to visiting a money transfer office.
Since the earthquake most people in Petit Goave are sleeping in the open air, exposed to the elements. ‘People are living like animals,’ said Lesperance, ‘Exposed to the sun and the rain. The dust from the streets is bad for their health. People are having to bathe in the open air.’
Marie Therese Mayard, 65, described how it rained twice in the week following the earthquake. ‘We all had to get up in the middle of the night and stand under an awning waiting for the rain to stop. It went on for over an hour,’ she said.
She was sleeping in the front courtyard of a nunnery in town along with her friend Madelene Fontaine, 55, who used to teach in the school run by the nuns.
The United Nations troops have brought in boxes of food rations from the US. Things like lentil soup and beef barley stew.
‘We have been eating it because we have nothing else. But it is not the sort of food we are used to eating.’
With the stipend from RNDDH she will be able to buy more traditional food like rice, beans, corn and millet.
