Overview:
Haiti commemorated the fifteenth anniversary of the 2010 earthquake with a particular mass on the authorities’s Villa d’Accueil over the weekend, remembering the lives misplaced whereas the ache of this tragedy has not light within the slightest. The dearth of progress, particularly in reconstruction efforts, continues to hang-out Haitians. On the event, transition Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aimé urged Haitians to rework their ache into collective energy.
PORT-AU-PRINCE — Haiti paused on Sunday to recollect the devastating Jan. 12, 2010, earthquake, which claimed over 300,000 lives and injured greater than 1,000,000. Fifteen years later, the Transitional Presidential Council (CPT) and the federal government gathered for a particular commemorative Mass on the Villa d’Accueil in Port-au-Prince to honor those that perished within the 7.3-magnitude catastrophe.
Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aimé acknowledged the persevering with impression of the catastrophe, calling on Haitians to rework their collective ache into energy.
“We supply the burden of recollections, however we additionally carry the sunshine of hope,” Fils-Aimé wrote in a press release issued by the Prime Minister’s Workplace. “Our departed family members dwell in us, and it’s by our actions that we are going to give them essentially the most lovely tribute.”
The ceremony featured white-clothed authorities officers, members of the CPT, and international diplomats. Attendees sang hymns, prayed, and positioned wreaths to commemorate the victims. Reverend Father Jean-Robert Louis, who led the Mass, emphasised hope and everlasting life for these misplaced within the tragedy.
“God didn’t create man to undergo and die. Our compatriots who perished within the earthquake will probably be granted everlasting life,” Rev. Father Louis mentioned in his homily.
In distinction to earlier remembrance commemorations, the place lots have been held in church buildings and officers visited mass grave websites in Titanyan, an space north of downtown Port-au-Prince, this yr’s service passed off in a small area on the authorities’s visitor home in Musseau, Port-au-Prince. The setting was organized with a desk lined by a white material adorned with floral wreaths. In entrance of it, roughly twenty chairs have been arrange for high-ranking authorities officers and accredited ambassadors.
Reconstruction has stalled; questions in regards to the diversion of funds persist
Regardless of Haiti receiving $13.5 billion for restoration by the Interim Haiti Reconstruction Fee (CIRH) from an array of organizations, nations and particular person donors, no vital rebuilding has materialized so far. This has left most individuals puzzled.
Public buildings just like the Nationwide Palace stay in despair, underscoring the continued challenges in Haiti’s restoration.
How the funds have been squandered isn’t any thriller. The funds have been misused, in keeping with consultants. Haiti’s elected officers have lengthy been related to embezzlement, and their lack of ability to work collectively has considerably hindered restoration. Moreover, the continued sociopolitical instability has not aided progress.
“Haiti’s path of restoration from the 2010 earthquake was interrupted by political instability and different disasters,” mentioned Paul Weisenfeld, govt vp of worldwide improvement at RTI International, throughout an interview in 2022. “Pure disasters are all the time a tragedy layered on high of already current tragedies, like excessive poverty.”
The commemorative mass served as a reminder that, 15 years later, the scars of the earthquake stay seen. But, it additionally highlighted the resilience of the Haitian folks, who proceed to endure and push ahead, hoping for a future constructed on collective energy and motion.
Following are some photographs and movies of the particular Mass in tribute to the victims of the 2010, earthquake, taken by Dieugo André for The Haitian Instances:
