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Haiti rising out of the ashes: 2 years after the quake
Haitians gathered in makeshift churches and even a United Nations supply base Thursday to mark the second anniversary of the devastating 2010 earthquake, holding ceremonies that mixed remembrance with hope for a new beginning.
The disaster killed 316,000 people and displaced 1.5 million in this impoverished country of 10 million people. More than 500,000 are still in temporary settlement camps as Haiti struggles with a reconstruction effort that has been thwarted by a messy election, political paralysis and absence of aid coordination.
“We need to keep telling future generations about this so that we can help the country build better,” said Eddy Jean-Baptiste, 46, wearing a dark gray suit and carrying a Bible on his way to a church in the mountains that surround Port-au-Prince.
For its part, officials in President Michel Martelly‘s government emphasized the need for education by inaugurating a new university in the north and announcing plans to rebuild a college specializing in science.
“It’s a day when we remember and then we make the decision to move on, which is very, very Haitian,” Prime Minster Gary Conille told The Associated Press. “We bury the dead and go back to work immediately.”
Services on the national holiday ranged from roadside affairs to a government-organized observance near a mass grave north of the capital led by Martelly and attended by Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier. Duvalier, the former despot who made a surprise return to Haiti nearly a year ago, was flanked by his longtime partner, Veronique Roy, and former President Prosper Avril.
Churchgoers in Port-au-Prince donned dark suits and white dresses and, with Bibles in hand, walked to religious services throughout the capital of 3 million.
In the hillside city of Petionville, the congregation filled up a church and spilled onto the street as they sang hymns that asked God for security and courage.
