A TRIBUTE TO UNICEF

HAITI EARTHQUAKE STORY: FINDING THEIR FAMILY

Adapted from Helping Haiti’s Orphaned and Separated Children Find their Families by Guy Hubbard

Rodrigue wipes away his tears and carries on talking. It’s an amazing act of courage for the 12-year-old boy, who saw his parents die in the 12 January earthquake in Haiti. He’s telling UNICEF aid workers how he lived through the earthquake and ended up alone.

“I was playing football outside with two of my friends,” says Rodrigue, “and then I heard the earthquake and I felt the ground shaking. I ran back to my house and found it ruined, and my parents were dead.”

UNICEF is working in more than 60 orphanages throughout Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince. Teams are helping children like Rodrigue who can’t find their families after the quake.

Rodrigue has three older sisters. He thinks they are alive and wants to see them again. To help him and other children, UNICEF and its partners have to work hard to find not only their parents but other family members, too.

While helping families find one another sometimes seems a very difficult task, there have been happy endings.

Sindy, 11, was reunited with her mother and father at their home in rural Haiti after being separated from relatives with whom she was living in the capital, Port-au-Prince. Sindy had left her family home in a rural area to attend school in Port-au-Prince. She lived with her aunt and uncle but couldn’t find them after the quake. Hurt and alone, she made her way to a hospital.

When her parents learned of the quake the next day, they rushed to the capital to find their daughter. “But when we couldn’t find her, I was upset, I didn’t know what to do,” explains Sindy’s father.

The hospital contacted UNICEF, which found her uncle and then her parents, and the family was together again. For Sindy, the relief was great. “They called my uncle and then took me to my parents,” she recalls. “I was so happy to see them. I hugged them, and they were so happy to see me again.”

In the midst of tragedy, the joy of being with parents and other family members is helping many Haitian children heal their sadness. UNICEF will continue working with separated and orphaned children to ensure that many more have the same opportunity.