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The Soulia family

Negine Azor, Gerda Soulia's 5 year-old daughter,  she is one of the Haitian kids sponsored by ActionAid Italy. © Moises Saman/ActionAidThe Soulia family

“I lay down on the ground I was so frightened. Another woman nearby fell over and broke her leg. I ran home to find the children and I saw all three of them running about, scared stiff...My husband’s a policeman and he’s helping out here. He can’t go to work because there’s no transport."

“Me and my daughter were in the market when the earthquake hit,” says 48 year old Gerda Soulia.

“I lay down on the ground I was so frightened. Another woman nearby fell over and broke her leg. I ran home to find the children and I saw all three of them running about holding hands, scared stiff."

All three children – Wilciana Noel, 5, Negine Azor, 5 (pictured) and Joe Azor, 3 are sponsored by ActionAid Italy.

“They must have been really frightened because another house fell on top of mine and completely crushed it.

A refugee camp in Mariani - a neighbourhood in Port-au-Prince, Haiti - where ActionAid distributed high protein food packs for children. ©Brian Mier/ActionAid“Joe’s body still hurts but there’s no doctor here. All the children are very scared. All of them have diarrhoea. People and animals have died in the water – it’s not good. We’ve also run out of chlorine. We’re sleeping on some land nearby.

“My husband’s a policeman and he’s helping out here. He can’t go to work because there’s no transport.

“We don’t feel safe. We can’t go into the house because it’s completely crushed – so we’re sleeping out in the open. We’ve no food or water and no clothes.”


  • Haiti is the poorest country in the Western world - 80% of the population live below the poverty line
  • GDP per capita in 2009 was just $2 a day
  • The earthquake is estimated to have affected over 3m people
  • ActionAid has been working in Haiti since 1996 - helping 30,000 poor people annually

 

Related articles: Haiti's earthquake survivors need help and they need it quickly


Image Note:

Negine Azor (pictured above) is Gerda Soulia's 5 year-old daughter, she is one of the Haitian children sponsored by ActionAid Italy that survived the earthquake. The Family live in the Mariane area of Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

Photo credit: January 17, 2009. © Moises Saman/ActionAid

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:

 

haiti Earthquake Crisis Response

Haiti Earthquake In Pictures

Haiti in Video

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