Haiti heroine back on quake-hit isle
NOTHING could have prepared one Milngavie woman for the scene when she arrived in Haiti just nine days after the massive earthquake hit in January.
The whole city was completely devastated and the people were shell shocked and traumatised.
Sharon Reader (30) was part of a British Red Logistics Emergency Response Unit in Haiti's capital, Port-au-Prince, providing emergency sanitation and promoting hygiene to prevent a major outbreak of disease in the crowded camps.
Her team worked there for a month and now, six months later, she has travelled back to the Indonesian island, but this time she will be there for six months, maybe even a year.
Her role is to set up community outreach projects to provide people with valuable information, as well as make sure their needs and concerns are listened to by establishing a community radio and TV show, using SMS, and a camp newspaper.
Sharon said: "We will provide lifesaving information such as preparing for hurricanes and preventing HIV. People will be informed on Red Cross progress in key areas of the recovery process, such as shelter and health.
Most importantly I'll be giving people in Haiti the chance to tell us what they think, want and need and feed this back to program managers so they can use this information to design their projects."
Sharon returned to the Auto-Meca camp where she spent a lot of time during her last visit, to record interviews and vox pops for the first Red Cross Radio Show, which was due to be broadcast last week.
She asked people what matters most to them over the next six months — health, education, shelter, work or food.
Sharon said: "It's really exciting work and will mean that what we do here is truly accountable to the people we're helping.
"It was good to see some familiar faces. The camp seems much more organised now, with a school and elected committee responsible for getting services into the camp. However people are still living in cramped conditions and recent heavy rain flooded many peoples' shelters."
Many people told Sharon they are worried about their tarpaulins wearing out, the harsh sun and heavy rain means nothing lasts very long in Haiti. Others said food was becoming an issue since distributions stopped — the Red Cross believes that distributing food stifles markets so the focus is now on helping people regain their livelihoods so they can buy their own food. One young woman said education was key for her, so she could make a positive change to her country.
The interviews will be played on the radio and the head of the international Red Cross and the head of the Haitian Red Cross will be asked to respond to people's comments.
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Weather for Milngavie
Wednesday 08 February 2012
Today
Light sleet showers
Temperature: 1 C to 3 C
Wind Speed: 13 mph
Wind direction: South
Tomorrow
Light rain
Temperature: 4 C to 6 C
Wind Speed: 8 mph
Wind direction: South
