A Firsthand Account of Haiti’s Crisis  

Haiti finds itself amidst one of its most severe crises in decades. The collapse of the central government has left the prime minister stranded abroad, while gangs rampage through Port-au-Prince, to prevent the establishment of a new transitional government. However, in certain regions of Haiti, the memory of living in a functional state has faded. Tonight, we bring you a firsthand experience from a Haitian whose life has been turned upside down. Her name is Alexandra Pierre. She is twenty-five years old and says that this is the first time she has experienced such a crisis.

 

Alexandra Pierre, Haitian

“I’m 25 years old, I’ve never lived that situation in Haiti since I was born. So I’m used to, and somehow I’m used to the instability of the country. I’m used to regular strikes, mobilization in the streets. But we’ve never been in a situation where you cannot go out anymore. Usually you have the mobilization during the day. And at night you can spend some time outside. Even though you don’t have mobilization, everybody’s so afraid. So the streets are empty. And even during the day, everybody is afraid  when you don’t have mobilization, you’re so scared that you don’t go in the street in just in case there is mobilization and everything is closed right now in Haiti, the main infrastructure schools are  closed, they are online. Hospitals are closed. So the pharmacy are closed. So you’re afraid if you have any kind of injuries.  If you are in any way injured, though, you don’t have the basic support to for your health. So that’s, that’s the situation right now in Haiti. And every time you’re here shooting, you’re so afraid. And it’s so regular right now. So even though sometimes a person is testing his gun just in case to be able to preserve itself in case of any attack and then when you have to go to the bank, I was telling I was telling you yesterday that I couldn’t have the meeting because Monday is when you go to the bank. You spent five hours in the line and then you cannot even have the amount that you requested to make every time you go. You can only have 100 US dollars due to the instability of the currency, the Haitian currency. Most of us going in and out of Haiti, we keep our savings in US dollars. It’s a more stable money and then you can change it to buy your groceries. So that’s why I have my savings in US dollars and you can only have 100 US dollars. So each week you spend five weeks five hours in the line to get 100 US dollars when the bank is open.”