Mandy Micallef Grimaud and Olwyn Jo Saliba from the Xarabank team visited Haiti and found out that the earthquake, killing over 250,000 people, was a major blow for a country whose people were already living in misery. A special Xarabank programme on the Haiti earthquake will be broadcast on TVM on Friday at 8.40pm

On 12 January, 10 minutes to 5pm, a strong tremor was felt by the people of Haiti. At that moment, many locals didn’t even realise what was happening. A group of homeless children speaking to Mandy Micallef Grimaud, who together with Olwyn Jo Saliba from the Xarabank team visited Haiti a few days later, described the earthquake as if someone had tried to shake the place. One elder survivor said “We held to anything we could grab. Some had the time to rush out of their homes onto the streets while others didn’t manage and lost their life in those 40 seconds from hell.”

When Mandy and Olwyn arrived in Port-au-Prince airport they immediately got in touch with the tragedy. “The airport was severely damaged, so much so that it was closed. Nonetheless they managed to open part of it for a limited number of operations, mostly rescue operations. Despite all that damage, we were greeted by a typical Haitian band playing local music.”

Mandy and Olwyn found out that the earthquake was a big blow, but Haiti’s problems didn’t start with this natural disaster. “Haiti is a very poor country. We were more amazed by the poverty these people live in, rather than by the huge natural disaster that hit them. We couldn’t believe that in 2010 people are still living in those circumstances.”

When the earthquake struck, people recall shouting in the streets while the injured ran covered in blood. Olwyn said that some managed to survive because they had their cell phone on them. “Some survivors told us that from underneath the rubble they managed to call someone to inform the rescuers of their exact location.” It is estimated that the earthquake killed about 250,000 people. However locals think there could be as twice as many, because lots of people are still trapped under the rubble.

A lady told Mandy and Olwyn that she has lost everything, her house, her family, everything. The only thing she managed to save from her home was the Bible. “Another woman told us that she lost her husband, but when we asked her if she had buried him, she told us that she only knows that he was missing and that he was inside a building when the earthquake occurred.” Many other people lost their loved ones without having the chance to say goodbye.

In the streets of Haiti, Mandy and Olwyn noticed thousands of stranded children, all alone. “Most of them have lost their parents and now no one is taking care of them. Children are bare footed, always on the look to find something to eat. The streets were always full of people, some of them selling anything that one can imagine, from underwear to broken TV sets, from drinking water in plastic bags to shoes.

“We even met women who offered to give us their newly born babies. They pleaded us to take them with us as they have no money to feed them. They are so desperate.” Because of the earthquake, pregnant women don’t have any hospitals to help them give birth. “Women end up giving birth in an unhygienic place, on the floor, and even alone.”

In Haiti the Xarabank team was received by the Salvation Army, a community that settled there to help the locals. They have just converted a school into a place where they can treat injured people. There they made clinics and organised some sort of schooling for children.

At the back of the school there is a soccer ground. Due to the large number of dead people, human bodies just became something to get rid of in order to clean up and avoid diseases. Cranes were collecting the piled up bodies from canals and some of them were dumped in this soccer field. Today people live in tents on top of this soccer field.

There are now about 20,000 people living in this soccer field. There are no sewage systems or garbage collection, so these places are pretty dirty and filthy. The smell is so bad that not all the volunteers who are there to help are able to go to the compound.”

Most of the buildings in Haiti are destroyed. People are now living either on the streets or in tents. Even those whose houses didn’t fall completely are now afraid to live inside their homes. Mandy and Olwyn visited some of the tents. “A family of four would have to live in a small two by two metres tent, with no security, privacy or lavatory.”

In Haiti the Xarabank team met Johnny, one of the locals living in a tent. Johnny walked Mandy and Olwyn through the slums to his former home. He spoke highly of his home and was really sad that it has been destroyed by the earthquake. “We had to go through dangerous paths and broken staircases to find his home through the rubble. When we arrived we could see that it was almost intact. However the earth underneath it had moved and all the buildings next to it had been destroyed. Johnny’s home was the size of a small lavatory room. Three bunk beds and a table as a kitchen. It was evident that the people there were already poor before the tragedy.”

The earthquake brought about further suffering. Michael, a 22-year-old who lost his mother and is now living in a tent with his brothers, took Mandy and Olwyn to his damaged house. “There were only two small rooms full of rubble and broken stuff. He told us that this is his home, that he loves it, and that he can’t wait to come and live there again. We were so moved by his words.”

In Haiti, Mandy and Olwyn met lots of people who have had amputations, most of them without any form of anaesthetic. “We spoke to a person who had his leg amputated without any form of anaesthetic, using primitive resources to cut his leg. Apparently this was quite common due to the high amount of injured people and to the chaos and lack of doctors.”

For Mandy and Olwyn this experience was truly a culture shock. “In our hectic life we forget that there are people that live without what we classify as ‘basic human needs’, like water and shelter. In our stay there we had limited use of the basic needs we are used to in our comfortable lives, like sanitary needs. We had to be careful what to eat and what to drink due to the high risk of diseases like malaria. We waste so much food and resources and don’t realise that simultaneously people are dying of hunger and thirst.”

In Haiti, Mandy and Olwyn also followed how the Maltese humanitarian aid collected by SOS Malta is going to be used. David Grech from SOS Malta was in Haiti overseeing that the Maltese aid is spent where it is more needed. Donations in aid of the people of Haiti may be made in SOS Malta Bank Accounts at APS, BOV and HSBC.

All the interviews and footage filmed in Haiti by Mandy and Olwyn will be shown on Xarabank, on Good Friday, at 8.40 on TVM.