“I would like to go back home but I know that it’s impossible now"
Tens of thousands are dead or have lost their homes because of the earthquake that struck Haiti on January 12. Those that survived, have set up make-shift camps and within them, Save the Children is implementing Child-Friendly Spaces so that children can play again. Angelo will be one of them.
Angelo's story
Angelo Sideron Maillard, 8, lost his home and all of belongings in the January 12 earthquake in Port-au-Prince. He and his sister were just outside their house when the earthquake hit.
“I was looking for my mum and I was really scared,” he says. “Now we don’t even have a tent to sleep in. I don’t have anything, not even clothes.”
Today, he and his seven brothers and sisters are living with their mother in a crowded temporary encampment on the grounds of a church. The family survived with only the clothes on their backs. The little food they have received has been thanks to friends. “I eat a bit of cheese and candies that my mom gives me”, he explains.
Angelo, who would like to be a football player when he grows up, says he misses his home, his classmates and his school.
“I would like to go back home but I know that it’s impossible now. I’m not going to school anymore. It’s a shame because I like school,” he says.
A third-grader, Angelo’s favorite class is grammar. Instead of being in class since the disaster, he says he spends his time playing with friends. “Even if I don’t have many here” he confesses.
Save the Children is establishing a child-friendly space so that children in the encampment where Angelo is staying have a supervised place to play.
Angelo’s mother, Maria Josette, said their house had been paid for — but now they will have to start over.
“The situation is not good for us,” she says. ““We don’t have water for drinking or washing. I have nothing left.”
