Six months after the earthquake, the head of an Argyll-based Scottish charity has returned to Haiti to find the most notable progress is being made by ordinary people working on a small scale.
Magnus MacFarlane-Barrow, the founder of Mary’s Meals, whose HQ is in Dalmally, was in Port-au-Prince, where his organisation provides daily school meals for thousands of hungry children.
‘Life in Port au Prince is very much as it was in January’, he says. ‘It is going on almost normally – except in the midst of ruins and rubble there are clusters of tents everywhere – between buildings, in the central reservations on the roads and underneath petrol station canopies.
‘It has been raining heavily, so in amongst the tents there is mud and squalor. In some places it is incredibly dangerous, with bits of masonry hanging off and rubble on the pavements. People are still very frightened – even in places where the buildings haven’t fallen down, they are choosing not to go in’.
While Magnus reports little evidence of rebuilding on a large scale in the capital, in the heart of Cite Soleil – a giant slum known before the earthquake for deprivation and lawlessness – he met teams of local people who were working by hand to rebuild their communities and the schools where Mary’s Meals operates.
‘Our projects in Cite Soleil are a hive of activity’, he says. ‘At one school there was a team of local people filling cement mixers. The quake had caused protrusions in the playground, so the team had had to hack them away and make a smooth new playground area. There are barefoot kids everywhere, walking around like inspectors, looking at everything that is going on’.
The schools in Cite Soleil have reopened, with some classes taking place in makeshift buildings while the main structures are repaired. Groups of Haitian women work together to prepare a daily meal of rice and stew for the children – in some cases their only guaranteed source of nutrition.
‘The meal that is being provided for these children ensures that they get something to eat every day, and enables and encourages them to come to school’, explains Magnus. ‘That gives them a sense of routine and stability amid the chaos, and we know that education is their best chance of escaping the poverty trap’.
While Mary’s Meals’ main focus remains school feeding, in the aftermath of the earthquake it has extended its programme to provide meals for additional vulnerable people, in particularly the elderly, who can find it difficult to access other aid.
‘Mary’s Meals is providing a daily sit-down meal for elderly people in school during the week and take home rations at the weekend’, explained Magnus. ‘I joined them one day and it was something of an occasion with lots of singing and dancing.
‘A lot of elderly people have been left unsupported because their families have moved away since the earthquake – they really need this support and we intend to continue to give it for the foreseeable future. If it wasn’t for Mary’s Meals, I don’t think the children, or the elderly people would be getting fed’.
The Mary’s Meals Appeal
Six months on does not mean that the need in Haiti is any less than it was earlier on. Mary’s Meals’ Haiti appeal is ongoing, it has to be.
Anything you can give will make a genuine difference. Mary’s Meals gets food aid direct – through schools - to those in Haiti who need it most, the young and the old.
The charity has worked in Cote Soleil for over six years now and so, with an established presence before the earthquake, it has been in a well informed and embedded position to help.
Donations to its Haiti Appeal can be made:
- online at the Mary’s Meals website
- or by phone: 0800 6981212
To date and across all of the charities concerned, Scots have contributed £8 million to Haiti appeals. The work to be done is enormous and Argyll is at the hear of the effort in a variety of ways.
Mary’s Meals is working at the Cite Soleil slum and has also been working at Hinche on the central plateau.
John McAslan, the Dunoon-born architect has seen his international practice called in by Bill Clinton to play a central role in the rebuilding of Haiti.
There is a massive amount to be done. Donating to Mary’s Meals is a certain way to get food aid direct to those who most need it.
The photographs accompanying this article are all by copyright holder Chris Leslie They show:
- Magnus Macfarlane-Barrow with children at a school in Port au Prince’s Cite Soleil slum, fed by Marys Meals
- The remains of the cathedral in Port au Prince
- Haitian women preparing a school meal in Cite Soleil
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