Haiti elderly suffer with help just a mile away

[Turborama]

Source: AP

By ALFRED de MONTESQUIOU - Associated Press Writer



PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti -- More than a week after their nursing home collapsed, dozens of elderly Haitians are still begging for food and medicine in a downtown Port-au-Prince slum barely a mile from the international airport where tons of aid are pouring in.

"It's as if everybody has forgotten us, nobody cares," said Phileas Julien, 78, a sometimes delirious blind man in a wheelchair who has appointed himself spokesman for the 84 surviving residents. "Or maybe they really do just want us to starve to death."

The Jan. 12 earthquake killed six residents and two more have since died of hunger and exhaustion. Several more were barely clinging to life Wednesday evening. They struggle to survive in the midst of a squalid camp that was created in the hospice's garden by people who fled the quake's destruction.

=snip=

"We're hungry, we're so, so hungry," lamented 77-year-old Felicie Colin, one of those who still had enough energy to speak intelligibly at sunset Wednesday.

Read more: http://www.mercedsunstar.com/haiti/story/1279259.html

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This is unbelievable! The BBC reported on this on Monday and they're still starving to death! This needs as much attention as possible, please pass it on to anyone you know who might be able to do something.

Haiti elderly in need of aid (VIDEO)

Page last updated at 03:02 GMT, Monday, 18 January 2010

An old people's home on the outskirts of Port-au-Prince is becoming a prime example of what can happen when aid cannot be delivered.
Only one mile from the airport, where vital supplies are waiting to be distributed, its residents are suffering from starvation and disease.

Kate McGeown reports: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8464715.stm


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[tabatha]

1. Why don't the people who report this do something about it?

[Turborama]

2. I've been thinking the same thing.

Maybe they've tried but haven't been taken notice of?

[RantinRavin]

3. No time

They have to make that deadline ya know

[jennied]

6. Exactly. I could not just stand there and do nothing. You know the reporters are gonna turn around

eat their lunch somewhere.

[freeplessinseattle]

13. it's insane, why can't a couple people just walk

some relatives were able to get there, I don't know if by car or what. why can't they be allowed to go to the airport and get a few boxes of food and water? just something, anything they would be so grateful. It shouldn't be that hard, especially with the amount of attention this particular story has gotten.

[Raschel]

4. Still doesn't make any sense to me.

Call me keyboard critic, whatever. Mass amputations have to take place due to injuries not being treated. Many will die due to not having amputations, supplies sitting at the airport.

Doctors saying they don't understand, and they are there on site.

I don't understand either. I voted for Obama. I am not criticizing him.

I believe this is being mishandled terribly.

[tabatha]

7. The people who are there are working as hard as possible

and a lot of good stuff is being done.

It is just the sheer numbers of injured that is overwhelming and the bottleneck at the airport - which they have tried to fix by re-opening the port in record time.

One has to realize that the people being put on the ground have to be supported as well --- they have to be on their toes to do the right thing under enormous pressure. That is a huge logistics problem.

If all the camera crews and reporters instead of reporting the news would provide intelligence to the people at the airport it would be a better service.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dpVBYxjIjZg&feature=channel

[Turborama]

9. The "bottle neck" is more about aid getting out of the airport, not in

Aid For Haiti Earthquake Victims Finally Getting Through

Jan 21 2010 10:46 AM EST
By Gil Kaufman

Confusion on the ground has led to a bottleneck of lifesaving supplies.

More than a week after a massive 7.0 earthquake struck Haiti, nearly leveling the capital of Port-au-Prince, desperately needed aid shipments are finally speeding up and getting to the victims of the disaster.

http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/americas/01/21/haiti.earthquake/index.html?hpt=T1">According to CNN, U.S. officials have begun taking steps to alleviate the bottleneck that has slowed down the flow of food, water and medical aid to the thousands of wounded and dying living on the streets of the ruined port city.

An unnamed senior administration official acknowledged on Wednesday that the food and medical supplies were not getting to victims fast enough, explaining that military personnel on the ground were sometimes confused about what was on the dozens of planes flying into Port-au-Prince airport carrying supplies in the week since the quake struck on January 12.

To alleviate that problem, the U.S. military has stationed aid officials in the airport control tower to assess and log the contents of each flight to speed up the flow of aid. Additionally, a Web-based system has been set up that will allow aid groups and donor countries to track when flights are scheduled to land and what supplies are onboard. One of the challenges is that the single-runway airport has been struggling to handle the crush of air traffic of up to 180 flights a day.

Full article :http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1630137/20100121/story.jhtml

[tabatha]

10. Looks like the US is taking over was messed up.

Edit: also 180 flights a day for an airport ill-equipped to handle that, is also a bottleneck.

[tabatha]

8. Please also remember the flights that are allowed to land

are being decided by Haiti and the UN.

The Israelis are said to have started without waiting for orders or anything (after they landed) - why were they not told about the elderly. Haiti is paying for people to be moved by sea to other areas. Why is the Haitian govt not directing relief to the elderly?

[AllTooEasy]

11. Mishandled Terribly by whom?

This relief effort is NOT the sole responsibility of the U.S. Not even close. One major question is "Who's responsibility is it to repair a country that's been devestated so much that it can't help itself". The closest answer I can give is the UN., but I'm not so sure if that's in their official charter. Somebody, help me out with that.

We have to remember that Haiti is not a US territory like New Orleans. New Orleans was our responsibility. Haiti? Any other country? I think folks are having a hard time trying to figure that out and still respect Haiti's sovereignty.

[Turborama]

5. MSNBC have recently added it to their site: "Haiti’s dying elderly say ‘nobody cares’"

Dozens beg for food, medicine while relief teams are less than a mile away
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34969140/ns/world_news-haiti_earthquake/

[AllTooEasy]

12. Everyone down there who can help, is already stretched to the max.

I know help is a mile away, but between that help and the dying seniors are 10,000 other people who are sick and dying. Rescue workers down there have a choice:

Help the person in front of you
or, step over that person and help the next person.