Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Port-au-Prince (Agenzia Fides) – The volunteers of the Movement for the Struggle Against World Hunger (in Italian, MLFM) are working with the local community of Les Cayes to gather essential items, water and gasoline. According to the latest communication, MLFM volunteers on site in Haiti, following the water development project in Les Cayes, 100 miles from the capital. The local community has started trying to obtaining basic necessities, water, and gasoline. The statement reads: "The days to come will be the hardest. We must come to terms with what we have. Roads and bridges are collapsed. Any links with the capital is unthinkable. For the time being, we communicate with Skype...We want to avoid being isolated.” The team of laborers, technicians, and colleagues who work at the aqueduct are in shock. Each of them has lost at least one loved one. The fear is the spread of epidemics, if the dead are not properly buried soon. After 12 hours of the earthquake, the only hospital serving a population of at least 200,000 people stopped working. There was one nurse inside, left to herself, without any material, without a doctor. In the courtyard of the hospital, those with serious injuries, along with many dead bodies have been left on the asphalt, in the sun. There are children, sometimes without a limb or with injuries so horrific that their face is unidentifiable. Doctors Without Borders is opening doors, working together with the collaboration of other NGOs in the city to bring medical assistance needed. (AP) (Agenzia Fides 15/1/2010)
