Haiti Sit Rep 5. Life in Auto Mecca camp

Hi Finn, These are a couple of young girls I met at Auto Mecca. The sun was shining then, but that night it flooded and many homes were washed away, maybe theirs.

This is my last night in Haiti…as long as everything goes to plan that is. Tomorrow I fly from here to santa Domingo and from there to London, tho that’ll be very late in the evening and I won’t get to London until well in to the next day. I’ve got to then spend a day or two debriefing with the Red Cross, which is to say telling the all the things I’ve been telling you…and probably a few more, and then getting myself checked out to see if I have any dodgy diseases…there’s always a risk of that in places like this…beter safe than sorry!

So I thought I’d give you an insight in to life in one of the camps, Auto Mecca. If I get time I’ll try to tell you some things about the rest of haiti that I managed to see, and finally, though not right now, I’ll tell you about la Piste…but that will have to wait for all sorts of reasons.

Where people live.

As I have said Auto Mecca has approximately 15,000 inhabitants. They come from many different parts of Porte Au Prince and are of many different social classes. All are cramped together with little or no space between them and certainly no privacy.

An alleyway between homes.

If they are lucky, these people have received a cover of plastic sheeting. I say lucky as this gives them more chance of protecting themselves from their however several do not even have that and will struggle living beneath cardboard, bits of plastic and corregated iron sheeting.

The insides of their homes, as this is generally where thay are now having to call home, is a mangle of rags and bags. Pieces of torn material, a curtain here, or a length of clothe there. Things they have scavenged or saved from their destroyed homes. As yet they have no mosquito nets as these have not been distributed yet, even given the proximity of the rainy season.

A man’s home is his castle.
Given the damp and basic conditions of their living environment, I can only imagine that they are plagued at night with mosquitoes and we are of course expecting an epidemic of malaria and dengue fever. We know also that this will affect majoritively young children, killing many.

However having said this, don’t think for an instant that this means that people do not do their utmost to try to keep their homes and their local environment clean. There isn’t a house you go in where mothers or children aren’t washing, sweeping, cleaning and tidying. In short doing their utmost to retain cleanliness and dignity despite these simply attrocious conditions. Doors are formed out of whatever is available, pictures cut from magazines bedeck flimsey walls, shreds of materials provide a semblence of colour and homeliness.

People and work.

Women at work...this time washing. Can you see anything else they might be doing?

It’s surprising how much work and endevour goes on in a camp. Quite apart from the unending attempts to keep a home clean there are all sorts of activities that people are involved in, to try anywhich way to add a few additional gourd (that’s the loacl currency) to the house hold income.

Obviously women bear the brunt of this, especially around the home. They and children will collect water, wash clothes, cook and find food and charcole, care for the children and of course, keep the house clean.

You might wonder what men do…well that’s probably a good question!

Selling Food.

Obviously there is no social security here. People have to do whatever possible to make money. Some sell small containers of food like this guy, others offer other services, as you’ll see below.

It’s usual for us to have many, many people come up to us daily, asking for work. Recently though we’ve had more and more asking for food. My fear is that the scarce resources that have enabled people to survive to this point, that they have saved, borrowed or possibly stolen previously, are depleating. I suspect that people are beginning to go with fewer meals and that we may see the beginings of malnutrition very soon.

Special Pedicure.

I must admit that I’m always really impressed at the resourcefulness of refugees or displaced populations. No sooner have they settled somewhere, then they begin to find ways of generating an income. The lady who ran this manicurring business spoke near perfect French. I asked her if she got a lot of customers, given that this might seem very much a luxury, given the circumstances. She replied that she was doing the best that she could to make ends meet and that although she wasn’t terribly busy, you shouldn’t doubt peoples desire to let whatever beauty or special care in to their lives, even in a displaced peoples camp.

Snake Man.

I have to say though Finn, the most amazing income generating scheme I saw in this camp was the chap above, Snake Man (Arghhhhhhhhh…imagine a mask from him!). I turned up at the camp one morning and there he was, covered with snakes all over him, even putting them in his mouth. You can imagine he got a pretty large crowd.

Then, when he’d gotten his crowd he brought out his potions which were cures for skin problems and were, he claimed, made from the venom of the snake. You took the small ampule and rubbed it on the effected area.

As I discovered whilst working looking at health seeking behaviour in haiti, or where people people go if they are sick, traditional healers play a significant role in the health care of the population. We identified 3 in Auto Mecca, though I didn’t get to meet any..other than this chap.
Traditional beliefs are very strong, infact there is the Boco, who are traditional priests, Voodoo priests, who, for certain illnesses intern a person in the ground for 3 days!!

Umm, not sure I fancy that one myself!

Services Provided in the Camp.

Camp Clinic.

As you can imagine, even given that there are only 15,000 people living in this camp, there is a need for extensive public services if we are to succeed in making an existance there not only bearable but liveable.

In developing countries, illness is a real issue. It’s amazing, but even though I worked for child focussed agencies (SCF) before, I didn’t really consider the very special needs of very young children before you came along. But now I can’t imagine how young children and their parents cope.

Disease and illness is everywhere, no matter how hard we try to prevent it and the distress it causes is terrible. I was in a hospital in this camp just the other day and saw a young child screaming in pain, doctors, nurses and his mother doing their best to comfort him. But he kept screaming and curling his body. I couldn’t help it, I just started crying thinking of you in a similar position. I hope it never comes to that.

Latrine Cleaner.
Which is why we’re involved in public health, we’re trying to prevent illness, though with the onset of the rains and the mess there is in so many camps, I think we’re fighting a losing battle.This lady is part of the fight. She’s a latrine cleaner and a very important person, as you’ll have gathered if you read the other blog about latrines and hygiene promotion.

In a camp of 15,000 her and her teams ensure that the toilets are spotless and she does an excellent job. I only wish we could have gotten so far in la Piste.

One of our clean up teams.

Another means by which we try to help prevent disease, notably malaria, Denge fever, Scabies, diarrhoea and typhoid, is through the employment of camp clean up teams. These guys collect litter, clean up waste (which can be anything from plastic cups to poo..yuk..but a very important job) and empty the bins we put throughout the camp.

Oh and by the way, in the background you can see a school put up by UNICEF. Of course it’s essential to not only keep you young kids educated, but also off the streets…there are thousands of you in the camps, certainly more of you than there are adults.

Lots of rubbish.

If we don’t get this job done well, things can get to look like this, or worse. Imagine living next to this? No way, Jose! By doing our utmost with the community to keep the camp clean, we can help to prevent flies and mosquitoes and those are the real bad guys.

water Collection.


As I said before, collecting water is usually the job of women and children and as the saying goes, without water there is no life. The same is true in the camps. One of the first things we have to out in are water points. These are essential for washing, cooking, cleaning and of course drinking. Depending on the camps water can be accessed at specific times, to avoid congestion all day, or it can be available 24/7.

Whatever happens, you have to get water to populations. This can be through filling huge bladders or tanks, or by trucking it in daily…often it’s a mix of the two. And of course you have to treat it and ensure it doesn’t get contaminated at any point before it’s used…that’s really difficult.

Living and Passtimes.

Guys Playing Cards.

For adults there’s not much in the way of leisure time in a camp, tho people do do the best they can. Obviously there’s lots of work to do, a lot of it by women or children. I caught these chaps sharing a game of cards. They seemed to be enjoying themselves.

Other than that people who can read, or if they can’t, listen to stories, books, the bible or the news paper. There’s always music, beit from a radio or a set of tin drums or a crackly cd player.

Children.

Children playing football.

But for children, well there are all sorts of passtimes, everywhere kids have their imaginations and find fun in the strangest of places. Of course there is always football, even if that football is a muddle of sheets of paper and cloth bound with sticky tape or string..and it’s always the boys who are playing this. Can you spot the ball Finn? Now there’s an old game.

Children washing.

The thing is for children in the camp, there isn’t the time to just play all the time, they’ve got responsibilities. Younger children are looked over by older children who will ensure that their siblings are fed, groomed, dressed and washed. Often there are large families, so it’s important that kids look after kids to leave as much time for their mother to do all the things she has to…though often, kids will also do cleaning the house and cooking…you’ve already seen how they carry water, and that’s heavy.

Mother and daughter building a house.

This young girl I met with her mother one hot afternoon. The sun was blazing down and I was gulping water just to keep standing. But even in the heat of the day, this young girl was busy helping her mum build their house. She was banging nails in to wood, covering it with sheeting and collecting other materials. It seems awfully young to start building houses, imagine that.

Girls on a bike.

Fortunately Finn, whilst the lot of everyone in the camp is very, very difficult and I honestly do not know what I would do if I found myself in such a situation, there are times when people and kids manage to find the time for play, to laugh and have fun, often with little things or big things like this bike.

I’ve finished my work in Auto Mecca now, and to be honest, I’d say the lot of the population is very, very precarious. The rains will come and there will be rivers of mud. Mosquitoes will take their toll and people will slip deeper and deeper in to poverty and possibly despair. We’ve tried to do our best, it’s yet to be seen if it will be any where near enough. Somehow I doubt it myself.

Yup, my boy, we are certainly lucky.

Can’t wait to see you!

Big Kiss xxxxx