"where poverty and earthquake collided"

The devastation in Haiti is appalling. Day by day the stories coming out are more horrific. The earthquake struck on 12 January, and more than 10 days later they are still trying to pull people out of the rubble.

The situation is worse because of the extreme poverty and lack of real infrastructure from long before the earthquake. One visitor to Haiti described it as the place where "... poverty and the earthquake have now collided. Part of this is simply the poverty they live in every day and the other part is the devastation of the earthquake." There are reports comparing the number of deaths to the 2004 Asian tsunami - which was spread across the whole Indian Ocean, affecting people in many countries.

Jean Claude Cerin, Tearfund Coordinator in Haiti says "The current situation is very critical. There is no organized relief assistance from the Government who seems to be paralyzed. Even the UN forces are very slow to react as they have had a lot of losses among themselves, .... Movement is quite difficult because there is no fuel being sold, no city power, no internal communication. Hospitals that were not destroyed have closed their doors because they are overwhelmed and the wounded population is remaining without care. There is a general feeling of fear across the population as people are scared of a rebound. Also there are many damaged buildings that could collapse any time soon. The bodies of dead people are accumulating and people don’t know how to dispose of them."