Coq's story

Portrait of Coq Michelet Stael in Haiti
Coq Michelet Stael at the St Louis Gonzague tent camp in Port-au-Prince (photo © Natasha Fillion/Progressio)

Six months after a devastating earthquake hit Haiti, hundreds of thousands of people are still living in makeshift camps, both in the capital city, Port-au-Prince, and in many rural areas outside the capital and beyond.
 
In the St Louis Gonzague camp in central Port-au-Prince, which is home to some 7,000 people, Coq Michelet Stael, aged 34, says conditions are hard for those who have lost everything.

“My house was completely destroyed in the earthquake,” he says. “I have been living here ever since. It’s extremely difficult living in the camp and there are lots of problems: the hygiene, the toilets, no showers. We haven’t had much aid. There are days when we find food and water, but other days we don’t.”
 
Lack of work is a major issue, too. Before the quake struck, unemployment was already running at 70% but prospects of finding a stable job are now at an all time low. In St Louis Gonzague, Coq says that if people are lucky they “find a little job here and there”. But when times are hard, which is most of the time, many camp dwellers are forced to share what few resources they have – food, water, shelter and medicine.
 
To tackle the very many problems of camp life, Haitians have taken on the job of organising themselves. “We have set up a comité – a group of people who are in charge of organising different aspects of the camp,” says Coq. In St Louis Gonzague they have named different zones of the camp after countries, districts of distant cities and local heroes. Canada, Manhattan, Boston and Michael Jackson all co-exist in this sea of tents.
 
Prospects of returning home soon are slim. The Haitian government estimates that it will cost $250m alone to fund transitional housing for all of the displaced people. Coq says tempers are already wearing thin: “We don’t know when we will leave. If it’s this afternoon or tomorrow we would go – everyone wants to leave but there are many people who have nowhere to return to.”