[THS] Bill Quigley: Haiti - Still Starving 23 Days Later

[Peter Webster]

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article24601.htm

Haiti - Still Starving 23 Days Later

By Bill Quigley

February 06, 2010 -- You can walk down many of the streets of Port au Prince and
see absolutely no evidence that the world community has helped Haiti.

Twenty three days after the earthquake jolted Haiti and killed over 200,000 people,
as many as a million people have still not received any international food assistance.

On February 4, the UN World Food Program reported they had given at least some
food, mostly 55 pound bags of rice, to over a million people. The UN acknowledges
that it still needs to reach another one million people. The 55 pounds of rice are
expected to provide a two week food ration for a family. Beans and cooking oil are
scheduled to come later.

The Associated Press reported that people in Haiti at small protests were holding up
banners reading "Help us, we're starving."

Over a million people are displaced. About 10,000 families are in tents, the rest are
living under sheets, blankets and tarps.

One of the people living under a sheet is a brand new mother with her one day old
baby. The New York Times reports that Rosalie Antoine, 33, and her one day old
baby were living in a neighbor's yard with puppies and chickens under a sheet in the
Bel-Air neighborhood of Port au Prince.

Haiti and the United Nations estimate 250,000 children under the age of 7 are living
in temporary housing. Most need vaccinations.

Flavia Cherry, of the Caribbean Association for Feminist Research and Action, this
week witnessed a pregnant double amputee give birth on the ground in one of the
tent camps without any medical assistance at all. "This poor mother had nothing, no
milk, no clothing for the baby, nothing!"

Even people who can afford to purchase food are having a difficult time. A 55 pound
bag of rice costs 40 percent more today than it did before the earthquake. Dr. Louise
Ivers, a Partners in Health physician in Port au Prince, reports a 25 kg (55 pounds)
bag of rice that sold for $30 US dollars (1,207 Haitian Gourdes) before the quake,
now costs $42 US dollars (1,690 Haitian Gourdes).

The World Food Program reports prices are still rising and people outside the
earthquake zone are having difficulty meeting their basic food needs.

Twenty three days after the quake.

Bill Quigley just returned from Haiti. He is Legal Director at the Center for
Constitutional Rights. His email is Quigley77 at gmail.com