Stories from a broken island: An exhibition at the RSM in association with the Observer
1 - 30 September
Free entry
Open to the public Mon-Fri 9am-6pm
The earthquake which struck Haiti on 12 January 2010 left unimaginable devastation in its wake. It is estimated that 222,570 people died and 300,000 were injured. Hospitals and government buildings were destroyed, and 1.5 million people were displaced from 200,000 damaged homes.
Stories from a broken island
- Wilson Octaveus is 47. Before the earthquake he built and rented out homes, worked as a mason, an informal nurse and a farmer. He lost his wife, Gertrude-Jean, three of his 12 children – Cindy, Wistandelle and Milaura – and his house. One daughter, Shirley, 24, sustained a severely crushed ankle and Wilson carried her on his back when she couldn't walk. Doctors at Chaîne de L'Espoir hospital in Pétionville inserted rods and screws while the ankle mended. Now living in a leaky shack and growing a little food, Wilson tries to look after his remaining family. "The hardest thing for me since the earthquake has been trying to take care of the children."
- Claudine Souffrante is 17. She has four inches of bone missing from her arm after she raised it above her head to protect herself from falling masonry. Claudine had run from her classroom at the College Classique Antoine Dupré when the roof caved in during the earthquake. Because their house was completely destroyed, she and her family sleep in a tent, donated by the charity Merlin, erected in the ruins of their old home. Claudine wants to be a nurse and help lift the family out of poverty.
- Pierre-Louis Joliebois, 61, is a headmaster. For a few months he lived in a tent on the sunken football field, which flooded when the rains came. Now he lives in the basement of his old school. When The Observer's Peter Beaumont met him he had just been teaching a class of six and seven year olds. Joliebois had asked them who had not had something to eat that morning and six children raised their hands. Most of them are not living in their own homes but in tents or temporary accommodation in places like the football stadium at St Thérèse.
- Photographer Peter Beaumont is Foreign Affairs Editor at the The Observer. He has reported extensively from conflict zones including Africa, the Balkans and the Middle East, and has written widely on human rights issues and the impact of conflict on civilians. The winner of the George Orwell Prize for his reports from Iraq, he is the author of The Secret Life of War: Journeys Through Modern Conflict. Peter visited Haiti three times following the earthquake. This exhibition is based on the photographs he took during his trips and the people he met, including the extraordinary survivors above.
- Filmmaker Mustafa Khalili accompanied Peter Beaumont on each of his three visits to Haiti. A multimedia producer at the Guardian, he has throughout his career sought to "understand and emphasise the personal experience of individuals in unfamiliar, at times hostile, and often threatening environments". This film is a composite of six different films shot by Khalili portraying the people of Haiti trying to rebuild their lives and of the aid workers trying to help them do so. You can see all the films at: www.guardian.co.uk/world/series/haiti-six-months-on
The RSM working with Médecins Sans Frontières and United Haitians in the UK
Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders is an international medical humanitarian organisation created by doctors and journalists in France in 1971. Today, MSF provides aid in more than 60 countries to people whose survival is threatened by violence, neglect, or catastrophe, primarily due to armed conflict, epidemics, malnutrition, exclusion from healthcare, or natural disasters. MSF provides independent, impartial assistance to those most in need. The organisation speaks out to bring attention to neglected crises, to challenge inadequacies or abuse of the aid system, and to advocate for improved medical treatments and protocols.
The organisation relies on volunteers and in particular welcomes contact from members of the RSM who are midwives, nurses, medical doctors, epidemiologists, biomedical scientists, logisticians, anaesthetists, surgeons, pharmacists, mental health professionals and nutritionists. MSF are keen to recruit French-speaking volunteers in Haiti for all of the positions above. Of course, non-French speakers are still welcome to apply for all positions. If you wish to volunteer for MSF, visit: www.msf.org.uk/work_overseas.aspx.
United Haitians in the UK (UHUK) is a London-based charity established by a group of Haitians, Haitian descendants, and friends of Haiti, living in the United Kingdom. The charity is particularly concerned with providing Haitian children with an education in order that they receive the chance to become an asset not just in their homeland, but throughout the world. Few schools are free and many parents face the unenviable choice of providing either food or schooling for their children, but rarely both. The charity raises funds to support a primary school in Port-au-Prince but also focuses on educational projects throughout Haiti. Parents are supported by receiving help in paying for school fees, uniforms and supplies.
In addition, medicine and vital goods have been shipped to Haiti following donations made from individuals and the business sector across the UK. The charity works with carefully-selected non-governmental organisations in Haiti, encouraging ethical and responsible use of donated funds while discouraging a relationship of dependency. More information about UHUK can be found at: www.uhuk.org.
The Royal Society of Medicine is delighted to be a supporter of MSF and UHUK.
The Society will continue to work hard to find tangible ways in which the extraordinary work of MSF can be supported and to assist with the important contribution being made by United Haitians in the UK.
