Anjali Kwatra in Port au Prince

Wednesday 3rd Febuary

Everyone I have met in Haiti in the past few days knows someone who died in the earthquake. Many lost several family members.

But some of the hardest stories to hear are those of children who have lost one or both parents. Today at a camp in Mariani where ActionAid has been distributing food supplies I met a family who is looking after a six-month-old baby who lost his mother.

Jhonnley Joseph was in his mother’s arms when she died after a wall of their house fell onto her. Miraculously the baby was completely unhurt and was rescued from the collapsed building by his father. However his father, overcome by grief and trauma, has been unable to look after his child.

Jhonnley is being looked after by his mother’s sisters and of course they were happy to take him in and care for him like one of their own children. In the case of two-month-old Neita Jean, who is living in the same camp, it was a neighbour who took her in after her mother died. Her father is alive but was injured and has gone to the Dominican Republic for treatment.

People in the camp told me that both children were orphans, but in fact they both have one parent alive. Even though they can’t look after them at the moment they may come back for them one day. It shows how important it is that if orphans are to be adopted, proper checks are made to make sure that they really have lost both parents.

But it also shows that extended families and even neighbours will step in to look after children and bring them up as their own. Community ties are extremely strong in Haiti and it is rare for a child here to be completely alone in the world.

• More blogs from Haiti
• More Real Lives: Stories from the survivors of the earthquake
• Haiti Crisis Relief Homepage

We urgently need your help to stop this terrible disaster from turning into a long-term catastrophe. We have set up Emergency Appeal pages where you can help the thousands of Haitians who desperately need your support:

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