Although there have been concerted, spirited and laudable efforts by governments, aid agencies, corporate bodies and individuals from all over the world to help Haiti in this time of desperation and dire need, the need is still very great and the call for aid is still as urgent as it was over a month ago when the disaster occurred.

It was in response to this call that the Inner City Missions of Christ Embassy, an NGO that caters for underprivileged children and youths, organized a fund raising musical concert to provide relief for the Children of Haiti. The concert, aptly tagged ‘Hope Haiti Concert: Mission for the Children’, held on Sunday March 7^th at the LoveWorld Convocation Arena in Lagos, Nigeria.

The stage was uniquely designed to bring alive the situation in Haiti. It had beautifully designed three dimensional props with heart – rending pictures of Haitian children, casualties of the Earthquake which hit the Nation of Haiti on Tuesday, 12^th January 2010.

The concert was declared opened by the Man of God, Pastor Chris Oyakhilome. Pastor Chris started by stirring the hearts of the congregation on the need to help the children of Haiti; making it very clear that to help the children was to help the adults whose primary concern is their children.

Pastor Chris then led the congregation in an old favorite song, ‘Jesus loves the little children…’ with a unique twist, ‘…all the children of Haiti.’ The entire congregation sang along with Pastor Chris several times and the song suddenly took up a new life as the message on the reason for helping the Haitian Children became simply clear… Jesus loves them.

The concert began immediately afterwards with a poem accompanied by saxophone instrumentals. It was a star studded evening with LoveWorld Music Stars namely – Evangelist Kathy, Sinach, Isaiah, T – Sharp, Joe Praize, Buchi, Samsong, Temitope, Iyke Onka, Ada, Giro, Gold, Ruth and a host of others.

The 300 – Man LoveWorld Mass Choir, was a beautiful sight to behold. The mass choir was dressed for beauty and glory: the ladies in white long sleeved tops on red pants and a lovely cape designed in blue and red, the colors of the Haitian flag. The gentlemen wore sparkling white shirts on black pants, with red ties and a lovely blue and red striped sash, carrying the Haitian logo, draped across their torso.

The children were not left out. The concert featured a Children’s mass choir numbering 150 kids who thrilled the congregation with beautiful songs specially written for the children of Haiti.

The Hope Haiti Concert was a resounding success and every song brought home the need to reach out to a distressed world, particularly the children in the nation of Haiti.

Haiti became the world’s first black-led republic and the first independent Caribbean state when it threw off French colonial control and slavery in a series of wars in the early 19th century.

However, decades of poverty, environmental degradation, violence, instability and dictatorship have left it as the poorest nation in the Americas.

A mostly mountainous country with a tropical climate, Haiti’s location, history and culture – epitomized by voodoo – once made it a potential tourist hot spot, but instability and violence, especially since the 1980s, have severely dented that prospect.

Haiti’s most serious underlying social problem, the huge wealth gap between the impoverished Creole-speaking black majority and the French-speaking minority, 1% of whom own nearly half the country’s wealth, remains unaddressed.

Many Haitians seek work and a better life in the US or other Caribbean nations, including the neighboring Dominican Republic, which is home to hundreds of thousands of Haitian migrants.

Furthermore, the infrastructure has all but collapsed and drug trafficking has corrupted the judicial system and the police.

Haiti is also ill-equipped to deal with the aftermath of the tropical storms that frequently sweep across the island, with severe deforestation having left it vulnerable to flooding. It also lies in a region prone to earthquakes.

Natural disaster struck with full force in 2010, when the capital Port-au-Prince was hit by a magnitude 7.0 earthquake – the country’s worst in 200 years. Tens of thousands of people were killed and much of the capital and its wider area devastated, prompting a major international aid effort.

IMPACT OF THE JANUARY 2010 EARTHQUAKE ON THE HAITI CHILDREN:

Some of the most harrowing stories coming out of the devastation in Haiti are those of the children: alone, scared and severely injured.

Under-18s make up almost half of Haiti’s 10-million population and aid agencies are warning they are at great risk from ongoing physical and psychological trauma.

Already the country faces the highest rates of infant and child mortality in the Western hemisphere with diarrhea, respiratory infections, tuberculosis among the leading causes of death.

Many have been orphaned or are badly injured themselves and in urgent need of medical help.

It is also estimated that there are 19,000 children with HIV/Aids with few drugs available to treat them.

UNICEF, which suffered heavy damage to its own offices in Port-au-Prince, says children are “tremendously vulnerable”.

Thousands more will have lost all contact with their families and friends and are now struggling to survive alone in the rubble.

They are sleeping on their own, trying to cope with the trauma of seeing dead bodies, and will have no idea where to go for help.

Childhood Diseases

Childhood diseases which were already prevalent in the country will be greatly exacerbated by the devastation left by the earthquake.

There will be a lot of dust around so the air quality will be poor which can aggravate things which are already high risk in children, such as pneumonia.

The other things that are high risk are hepatitis A and E, typhoid fever and diarrhea; diseases which are made worse by lack of water.

And food or water borne diseases will be a major problem because there is probably no drainage and sewage system.

The initial days after the earthquake have been all about survival. People were dug out of the rubble and crush injuries were dealt with but that isn’t all, there are also ongoing dangers of injury from collapsing and broken buildings.

In three or four weeks, the wet season will be starting and that is a cause for worry as really the environment becomes susceptible to malaria.

Psychological damage

Physical wounds are of course not the only issue; there will also be psychological scars.

Most children are experiencing fear, anxiety, guilt, disorientation, hopelessness and other related feelings within the first few days of a disaster.

There is a long term risk of depression and anxiety as well as post-traumatic stress disorder.

Children are particularly vulnerable because they depend on adults to care for them.

If they have lost contact with familiar adults there will be the additional burden of grief and bereavement.

The psychological “first aid” that is needed is practical help and that includes food, water and shelter.

After that, it is about re-establishing normality and relationships and routine – reconnecting children with their families and getting them back to school.

Over a month after the 7.0 quake that devastated Port-au-Prince and the surrounding region, the initial phase of “search and rescue” is clearly over. That is not to say that the occasional “miracle survivor” will not be pulled from the rubble, but those situations will be rare and random. Reports are that the medical situation for the children remains horrendous, in spite of large numbers of physicians now in country.
The major immediate concerns are:

1. The extraction of bodies and clearance of rubble would need to proceed rapidly. “Rescue” from the rubble is now over. Every effort to identify victims must be made and clearance of rubble will help open roadways and establish venues for survivors to get care and support. These venues may be in or near the Capital or even in neighboring Dominican Republic.
2. Establishment of safe, temporary locations for survivors who are now “internally displaced persons” within Haiti. These locations will need to focus on security, nutrition, safe water, sanitation, health care, day care, mental health support and resumption of education for children.
3. Supply and distribution logistics need to be better coordinated and managed. Materials headed to Haiti via ship, air transport and overland from the Dominican Republic are now in abundance from a massive multi-national, international effort. Backlogs of needed supplies at the airport and other staging centers must be rapidly and effectively distributed to wherever needed.
4. Coordination of international relief efforts remains challenging at every level, though maximizing role of Haitian government is essential, even as it is still trying to regain its footing and control. Physical destruction of the Capital adds to a sense of social and political uncertainty which must be addressed rapidly, while understanding that getting vital supplies to survivors is of paramount importance.
5. Appropriate medical care will mean the difference between life and death for hundreds of thousands of Haitian survivors going forward. The immediate death toll from earthquake trauma is still unknown, though estimates range from 150,000 to 300,000 early fatalities. Almost all survivors will need medical attention, including care for on-going chronic conditions, emotional trauma, vaccinations and so forth. At the more serious end of the medical care spectrum will be care of non-fatal injuries sustained during the initial days of the disaster, including persistent wound infections, poorly managed or unmanaged orthopedic injuries or other surgical or advanced medical conditions.
6. Appropriate sheltering of survivors is one of the most daunting challenges to be faced in the coming weeks. Providing safe shelter for 1 million displaced individuals in a disaster devastated country that had already been among the poorest in the world is an overwhelming challenge. Temporary camps must be developed that are able to withstand persistent aftershocks, provide a sense of general stability, access to vital services, security, school and social service access and other basic staples. Significant rains are possible in Haiti from late April through July, ending coincident with the onset of “hurricane season”. Flooding, mudslides and substantial storms are therefore serious threats to earthquake survivors in the spring and summer. Rapid development of sufficient numbers of appropriate shelters or safe permanent housing is an extremely high priority for Haiti and the international relief community.
7. Distribution of ministry materials that would bring about relief not just for the body and soul, but also for the spiritual nourishment and rejuvenation of the people. Given the enormous amount of work being done on all fronts, and our understanding that the word of God has the answer to all human problems, there is event need for the effective propagation of the gospel to dominate strategies, short- and long-term as Haiti people gradually develop a functional and resilient society in the committee of nations.

SOME FACTS ABOUT HAITI:

• Full name: Republic of Haiti
• Population: 10 million (UN, 2009)
• Capital: Port-au-Prince
• Area: 27,750 sq km (10,714 sq miles)
• Major languages: Creole, French
• Major religion: Christianity (mainly Catholicism), although roughly half of the population also practice Voodoo.
• Life expectancy: 59 years (men), 63 years (women) (UN)
• Monetary unit: 1 gourde = 100 centimes
• Main exports: Light manufactures, coffee, oils, mangoes
• GNI per capita: US $660 (World Bank, 2008)
• Internet domain: .ht
• International dialing code: +509