World News
People in camp at Catholic parish wonder if aid will ever arrive
Published:
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (CNS) -- Nerlande Majeur is beginning to wonder when the help will arrive. Among an estimated 2,000 people crowded into a field on the grounds of Our Lady of Lourdes Parish in the Cite Militaire neighborhood, Majeur said no aid -- except a few dozen tents the church's pastor was able to get as a donation -- has arrived at the ramshackle camp. "I'm not feeling good about not getting help," she said. While a clinic staffed by volunteers from Youth With a Mission, an international, interdenominational volunteer organization, provides basic medical care for camp residents, not much else in the way of assistance has made its way to Our Lady of Lourdes, several residents told Catholic News Service. Since they took up residence in the field hours after the Jan. 12 earthquake, Majeur and numerous neighbors regularly see military helicopters flying overhead and hear the planes flying into and out of the Port-au-Prince airport, a little more than a mile away. At times, several camp residents said, U.N. trucks and four-wheel drive vehicles carrying logos of various aid agencies pass by. But not one, people said time and again, has turned into the long driveway leading to the church. Not even the large black spray-painted messages adorning the concrete block walls on both sides of the driveway identifying the grounds as "Temporary Shelter #31" have helped.
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