Photo GalleryGonaives after the hurricane
Haiti / 23.10.08
Several weeks after a series of hurricanes struck Haiti, people in the city of Gonaïves are still deprived of essential services.© Andy Levin
While it has not rained in a while, many roads are still flooded. Mud is one metre deep in some parts of the city, making it extremely difficult to get around.© Andy Levin
A boy carries his brother over dried mud from the storms in Bigeaux near Gonaïves. Successive storms in August and September covered most of the city in a metre of mud.© Andy Levin
Many families are living on rooves, in tents or in fragile shacks made of wood debris and bed sheets.© Gregory Vandendaelen/MSF
Concrete measures for getting the victims of the cyclones back on their feet have been slow to materialise; there remains a lack of access to clean water, problems with sanitation, and a shortage of the most basic goods. In response, MSF is currently distributing water to over 100,000 people in the area.© Klavs Christensen
Our teams are also seeing an increase in the number of malnourished children. Haitians face chronic food crises and nutritional deficits to begin with. The recent hurricanes destroyed crops and killed significant numbers of livestock, making people all the more vulnerable. © Klavs Christensen
MSF has recently opened an 80-bed hospital in the north of Gonaïves in collaboration with the Health and Population Ministry. © Andy Levin
This structure is the only one in the whole region that can respond to emergencies, obstetric and pediatric services in this town of 300,000 inhabitants, devastated by the recent hurricanes and the tropical storms.© Andy Levin
During its first five days, the hospital had already received 108 patients in the emergency room and performed 19 deliveries, as well as eight minor surgeries and one major. © Andy Levin
Mamont, a set of villages southeast of Gonaïves in the Artibonite region. The village is still partially submerged with water spilling over from a lake formed by the tropical storms.© Benoit Degryse/MSF
The population in Mamont, about 17,000 people, has been totally isolated for the last four weeks, without clean water, sufficient food or medical care.© Federico Silvio Martoglio/MSF
Praville is just outside of Gonaives, partly elevated and so saved, in part, from the torrents of mud that have ravaged the fourth largest city in Haiti. Many families who have lost everything settled here on this rocky terrain. On October 16, they were nearly 2000 people living here.© Gregory Vandendaelen/MSF
Originally from Park Vincent, Viola Simeus is now 28 years old. She is alone here with her four children aged from one to 11 years. Following the hurricane, a friend had hosted her and her children but due to lack of space, she had to leave after a week. Unemployed, she does not know how she could pay for rent, even if minimal. Viola will not be able to send her children to school this year. But she is more concerned about their health as they are weak and feverish. On 23 September she received two pots of rice and two pots of beans but since then: nothing.© Gregory Vandendaelen/MSF
Regina Fatal is 67 years old and lives in a tent with her husband, children and grandchildren, a total of 15 people. Madam Fatal still remembers Hurricane Hazel in 1954 and Jeanne in 2004. But Hanna is the that took everything. Her house in the alley Roland, in the K-Sun area was totally destroyed, washed away by the mud.© Gregory Vandendaelen/MSF
Several weeks after a series of hurricanes struck Haiti, people in the city of Gonaïves are still deprived of essential services.
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