Haiti, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, has been hit by its worst earthquake since 1770. Its capital, Port-au-Prince and its surroundings, where almost a quarter of Haiti’s population lives has been devastated.
Thankfully, many countries and relief organizations have mobilized their resources to help this battered country. The speed of telecommunications and transportation has made relief work so much more efficient and effective. I am thankful and amazed at the speed, organizational abilities, resources and skills of these relief teams. They seem to improve with each natural catastrophe. The speed with they reacted this time seems better than after the Sichuan (China) earthquake in 2008, which seemed better than they did after the Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004.
While the quality of emergency relief work is improving rapidly, the quality of the follow-up work does not seem to have improved much. In fact, in most such cases the vast majority of resources are used in the immediate relief work. After that, the poor country is usually forgotten – until the next major catastrophe.
The majority of Haiti’s population is illiterate. I am sure that far more Haitians have died from effects of poverty than from all its earthquakes. I am thankful for all the dear people who are doing their best to help Haiti in this hour of great need. But I hope that more people will also remember to help Haitians to achieve a better life after the horrors of this earthquake are over.
I’ve personally seen the effects of natural catastrophes in Asia – typhoons, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes. But all these pale in comparison to the on-going effect of poverty and hopelessness on millions of poor Asians.
Emergency relief work is needful.
But the less glamorous, on-going work of helping a poor child to learn to read and write is just as important – if not more important!