"I'm dying," said her mom as Maielle picked up the phone late at night, London time, on Tuesday 12 January. In Haiti it was 5 p.m. and a 7.0-magnitude earthquake had just shaken the island leaving shambles and casualities behind.
The phone call with her mother lasted just around 30 seconds before the line was cut off. However, Maielle Chilosi, a 33-year-old Haitian currently in London, managed to understand that despite the initial gush of fright both her parents were fine. They had escaped from their flat on the fourth floor of a building in Petion Ville, a wealthy suburb of Port-au-Prince, Haiti's capital, to spend the night in their car.
Panic was Maielle's first reaction, as she turned on the TV to understand what was going on. She could not get through to talk to her family, so she opted for the Internet. Facebook networking was the first contact she managed to establish, which got her in touch firstly with the International Haitian Community, rather than with people living on the island itself. Finally, she managed to reach her 16-year-old cousin and a friend, Christina Schutt, resident in Petion Ville, who posted on her Facebook this text:
We need Morphine IV’s Ketamine – Antibiotics – Seringes - Central lines - Propothol And any other medical supplies Please call 917 334 2939 you can also call 305 336 1616 or e.mail s.merovepierre@me.com jennagreen7@gmail.com mmp@nassagroup.com thank you
Despite the sense of powerless that pervades her, Maielle feels the only thing she can do now is to spread information and hope that someone on the ground might help. Her face is radiant, but her hands are shaky. "I feel blessed that my family is safe. It's like a ray of sunshine among despair," she said. However, she had trouble sleeping in the past couple of days.
Water supplies remain a priority problem, according to Maielle, since structures providing running water were already scarce before the catastrophe hit the island. People are collecting rainwater. Electricity is lacking, supermarkets are looted, the bodies of people lying around might lead to a spread of epidemic disease. The medical emergency is not new to the country. "We already had a problem with cholera in the past," Maielle said. "And the country is devasted by AIDS." Maielle's mother is a doctor and is already helping out, despite two days of rough sleep in her car.
Fear that authorities will lose control of the situation in the country is high. However, Maielle marvelled at the prompt response of the International Community and the aids mobilization from all over the world.
However, the reliance on major newspapers and broadcasters to have information of their loved ones causes anguish. "We see the same images over and over again," she said. "The death toll is constantly shifting. They have been talking about a fallen hospital and a fallen hotel, but I haven't seen any images of them." Watching images, she explained, would help her understand what is really going on in her homecountry.
As we walked out of the bar heading back to our offices, Maielle told me she has been spending the last two days on the internet and on Facebook, instead of being productive in her newly appointed role as product and development assistant at Eurostar. Understandably, news from her family and friends have been priority over duty in such a distressful moment that, as President Obama said in a statement yesterday, reminds us all of our common humanity.
No comments:
Post a Comment