Galway aid worker reveals scale of Haiti’s devastation

“Put out the child of Prague, it hasn’t stopped raining since I got here.” That was the first message from Galway woman Ailish O’Reilly, back to her family at home to let them know she had arrived safely at Les Cayes in Southern Haiti.

Her family have a good reason to be thinking of her – Les Cayes is along a peninsula that suffered a 7.2 magnitude earthquake on August 14.

By Elizabeth Garner and Jim Hynes

And the Woodford woman is based at an ophthalmology clinic, where the aftermath of this natural disaster are all too prevalent.

“We are all sleeping in tents on the hospital grounds. Some staff are sleeping in their cars since the earthquake,” she says.

“Down in the city, the residents close some roads at night and sleep out on the road where they feel safe. With the rain these past few days they have to find shelter somewhere but then they are too afraid to sleep.

Ailish O’Reilly showing the impact of the earthquake where the ten-block high back wall on her ophthalmology clinic fell inwards onto the garden at the Institute.

“There is still heavy rainfall and alongside the high humidity it makes for damp and difficult living conditions. Most of the hospital staff have suffered serious damage to their homes or seen them completely destroyed,” she adds.

The earthquake destroyed many homes and businesses; to date, 2,189 deaths have been recorded with the numbers still rising.

There has been 12,168 or more injured and at least 650,000 people (more than the population of Belfast) in need of humanitarian assistance.

The civil defence are only now reaching remote villages cut off by a combination of landslides and damaged roads.

The devastation never gets easier to witness, but Ailish is at least experienced in crisis management.

In 2016, she was working in Haiti with Irish charity Haven when Hurricane Mathew hit, and the current crisis is one of many for a tiny country with a turbulent past.

Originally from Loughatorick near Woodford, Ailish first visited Haiti in 2009 with Haven – and after the 2010 earthquake, she and many other volunteers made a long-term commitment to engage with Haiti.

In 2012, this saw Ailish relocating there to work in community and economic development – which meant she was part of the emergency response project in the wake of Hurricane Matthew, a Category 4 storm that almost completely decimated agriculture across the region.

Innumerable houses were severely damaged – including her own – and Ailish worked alongside the local community and government to distribute materials for the repair and rebuild of houses. Much of this material was bought through donations from Ireland.

Despite 6,500km between Haiti and Galway, Ailish is keen to point out the many similarities.

“In many ways Haiti reminds me of my community at home, the usual complexities of close-knit rural areas where everyone knows everyone,” she says.

“Young people leaving for work or if they are lucky to further their education. The older generation bridging the gap between cultural traditions and a modern society, wise enough to see that development is not always progress. And community is everything, just like in my home parish of Woodford.”

Ailish is currently based at an ophthalmology clinic in Les Cayes, tasked with re-opening the hospital to receive patients, restarting surgery and working with other health services to alleviate hospital overcrowding.

Institut Brenda Strafford has been in the region since 1982, with a mission to provide high quality, person-centred, professional Ophthalmology and Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT) services to the people in Haiti.

Ailish explains the present crisis.

“We are currently waiting on an engineer’s report to identify which parts of the buildings are safe to reopen. Until then we are using our external waiting room for all consultations and emergency surgery,” she says.

“No one wants to sleep indoors as there are aftershocks and everyone is very frightened.”

And the risks are ongoing – but she is inspired by the fortitude of others.

“Thankfully all the staff are safe, but they have all lost relatives and friends. It is a testament to their courage that they had emergency services working the day after the earthquake and have been working every day since. But then that courage is typical of Haiti.”

She is proud too of the fact that Ireland is also continuing its long support for Haiti. NPH-Ireland.org are equipped to provide essential services and provide a children’s clinic in the region.

Alongside these and other Haitian groups is Irish-based Haiti Orphanage Project ‘Espwa’ – which simply means hope. They ship containers of aid to Haiti, packing only what is asked for, to ensure their efforts are genuinely helping.

Items collected in Woodford over the weekend for dispatch to Haiti.

Response to an initial request for support has been so quick that Woodford Parish Development and the wider Woodford community organised a collection for Haiti, which tool place at the weekend.

People can support by making a donation to help pay for the shipping containers via www.4Haiti.ie.