"My home is a piece of cloth and four wooden sticks"
On February 6, about 500 families in Bassin, near the town of Leogane, received a hygiene kit, a blanket, a tarpaulin and a set of poles. A total of 3,000 people — half of them children — benefited from this distribution of non-food items.
The rainy season usually begins in mid- to late March. Over the coming weeks, Save the Children will provide shelter materials to about 70,000 Haitian families. A distribution mechanism, set up in collaboration with the local community leaders, allows the organization to reach the most vulnerable people, especially families with children. Families—with a priority on female-headed households—receive a token that allows access to a distribution site and is redeemed for relief supplies. One of them is Marie Anne's.
Marie Anne's story
Since the January 12 earthquake hit the village of Bassin near the town of Leogane, west of Port-au-Prince, Marie Anne Auguste Hortensia has been living in a rudimentary shelter made of a single bed sheet strung between four wooden poles.
But tonight the 66-year-old woman will sleep with her seven children and grandchildren under a tarpaulin that was donated by the UK Department for International Development (DFID) and distributed by Save the Children.
“When it struck, I was cooking inside the kitchen. I kept falling, falling again and again,” says Marie Anne Auguste. She considers herself lucky. Although she managed to escape and no one was hurt, her house collapsed, like 90 percent of all buildings in the nearest town of Leogane.
“I settled down in the yard where I arranged a place for my family the best I could. My home is now a piece of cloth and four wooden sticks. I am almost sleeping under the stars. When it rains, everything gets wet. When it becomes windy, everything falls down. And I keep coughing,” she says with a hoarse voice .
After Save the Children staff gave Marie Anne Auguste her token, she could not sleep. The next day she left her house at 4 a.m. to make sure she would not be late for the distribution. “My feet hurt a little bit. I am tired by the journey. But it was worth it,” she says.
Marie Anne did not know what to expect from the process. She was delighted to receive a tarpaulin, blanket and a box full of hygiene items such as soap, detergent, towels, tooth paste and brushes.
“This is what I needed,” she says. “I have lost everything under the rubble. For the past three weeks, I have only relied on my neighbors to survive.”
