Anniversaries are usually something to be celebrated. For the tiny island nation of Haiti the one-year anniversary of the devastating earthquake on Jan. 12, 2010, is hard enough to remember, much less celebrate.
News in the aftermath of the quake has grown quiet during the last 12 months. The damaged infrastructure still lies mostly in ruin, the economy remains sluggish, aid is running low and, in October, the island took a major blow with a widespread outbreak of cholera that has already claimed the lives of thousands in just a few short months.
For Nisswa residents Frank and Jeanette McLaughlin, the quake that shook the tiny island hits a little closer to home.
The McLaughlins operate Haiti Mercy Mission in the village of Pignon and were on the island the day the earthquake struck. “It’s something we’ll never forget for the rest of our lives,” Jeanette said.
A year later, the McLaughlins are preparing to return to Pignon to assess the progress made since their last trip in June.
Initially, the couple planned to return with a team of 12, but political unrest and the spread of cholera has forced the couple to cancel the group trip. In just a few weeks, Frank and Jeanette will head back to Haiti on their own to help address to the needs of their medical clinic and the continued effort to rebuild from the rubble.
“Never once did we think it would turn into the disaster it has,” Frank said. “This all blind-sided us.”
“It’s far from over,” Jeanette added.
The cholera outbreak complicated the cleanup effort throughout Haiti. The World Health Organization estimates the disease is under-reported by about 40-percent. With the death toll nearing 3,000 since October, United Nations health experts predict the total affected could reach 400,000 before the outbreak is contained.
The cholera outbreak has yet to take off through the tent camps in Port-au-Prince and Frank said he credits medical non-governmental organizations for help in preventing the spread through the highly concentrated capital city.
For Haiti Mercy Mission, the outbreak created a surge of patients in need of treatment for the disease. Jeanette said the clinic, which the mission was reluctant to open before the earthquake, now sees 50 or more cholera cases everyday. “The clinic we never wanted has been a godsend,” Jeanette said. “We never knew how important it would be.”
The clinic is now operating 24 hours a day and cholera victims typically stay for up to three days while they are treated with intravenous fluids and antibiotics when appropriate. “We’ve lost a few, but have saved way more than we thought we would,” Jeanette said.
Frank and Jeanette said in addition to treating cholera victims, the mission’s staff of 17 is working tirelessly to help the community rebuild. “Just because cholera comes doesn’t mean everything else ends,” Jeanette said. “There’s still work to be done.”
For the last year, the Haiti Mercy Mission has supported quake victims who settled in Pignon after fleeing Port-au-Prince. The Mission divided donations given between 12 area churches to be distributed to families in need. The funding helped subsidize income lost after the disaster and contributed to basic needs and rebuilding efforts. This month marked the last distribution of payment.
Frank said he has seen quake victims take initiative in creating their sources of income without relying completely on emergency aid. “We’re proud of the ways they’ve come up with a way to make a nickel,” he said.
Following the quake, a woman who walked out of Port-au-Prince to connect with family in Pignon found 12 children orphaned by the quake and took them to Haiti Mercy Mission. After months of searching, 10 of the 12 have been placed with surviving family members. Only one was reunited with his parents. Two still live at the orphanage.
Jeanette said one of the biggest obstacles faced by earthquake survivors is overcoming the emotional trauma they have endured. Saisette Joseph, 26, an orphan who grew up at Haiti Mercy Mission was a nursing student finishing up her final semester of college when the earthquake rocked the island. A year later, Saisette has returned to Port-au-Prince to complete her degree. “Port-au-Prince is a crushed city,” Jeanette said. “She’s scared to go back.”
“(Saisette) would have been done a year ago if the earthquake hadn’t happened. She wants that piece of paper, and she deserves that.”
While the McLaughlins will return to Haiti without their team, they will go with lots of support from back home. The McLaughlins’ next door neighbor, Lea Worthington, 94, has provided a great deal of support during the years and Frank and Jeanette credit Worthington with the idea of starting Haiti Mercy Mission. “She’s responsible for the whole thing,” Frank said.
“It’s my fault,” Worthington added.
Worthington met the McLaughlins, her next-door neighbors in Nisswa, in 2000. She said after her husband died in 2003 she wanted something to invest in.
“I was 86 and needed something to do with the rest of my life,” she said. After discussing the idea of the mission in Haiti, Worthington knew she had a purpose. “I thought, ‘yeah, this is what I can do.’”
Frank said in addition to helping with day-to-day operations at home, Worthington provides a great deal of advice to the operations abroad. “She’s our sounding board,” he said.
“You need someone with white hair to bounce stuff off of,” Worthington added. “That’s my job.”
The McLaughlins know the journey ahead is going to be a long one. They said people often ask them if everything is back to normal. “Normal wasn’t that great to begin with,” Frank said of the poverty and corruption that existed before the earthquake. “You just wish the world community would empower the Haitian people.”
“There will be a thousand other problems in the world,” Jeanette said. “People will forget about Haiti. But these people are our friends. We’re just continuing to do what God has asked us to do, and there’s a lot to be done.”
SARAH NELSON may be reached at sarah.nelson@brainerddispatch.com
