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Britain had barely risen from its post-Christmas slumber when news of the Haitian earthquake thundered into the headlines.

“Thousands feared dead as huge earthquake destroys Haiti”, screamed The Times newspaper. “Earthquake devastation unimaginable”, shrieked The Guardian. “Island of tragedy”, squealed The Sun.

And suddenly, after years of scant reporting on the poorest nation in the Western hemisphere, the people of Britain woke up to Haiti’s plight as never before.

Haitian communities must be nurtured now and supported long into the future if the country is to secure a new reality for its people and build resilience to natural and man-made shocks, international development agency Progressio says one month after a devastating earthquake rocked the impoverished Caribbean nation killing more than 200,000 people and leaving hundreds of thousands injured.