Just over a year ago, I had the privelage of flying the UK Fire Service rescue team to Haiti, after the Earthquake tragedy. I spent a few weeks waiting down in the Dominican Republic, and we operated a couple of flights into Port Au Prince. We had then waited long enough to be asked to fly the UKFS team home again, and on the way back I did a few short interviews with them, that ended up on youtube .
So it was with some joy that met one of the team recently when I went for my annual fire training excercise. He talked again about their time and Haiti, and their ” Highs and Lows” The saddest part of the meeting was , during our discussion, realising that Port Au Prince was still a disaster area. Despite all the aid and assistance that was sent their, a significant number of the residents are still living in camps, have no running water…and have been ” bequethed” a cholera epidemic by some of the soldiers sent in to help.
The situation in Haiti was summed up recently by the a UN official.. ” “The world has moved on, but the situation in Haiti is not getting better,” said UN Executive Director Michel Sidibe. “It is even getting worse.”
