Sixth Anniversary of Haiti's Jan. 12, 2010 earthquake

ADD Video Comment

Here is a video for the commemoration of the Sixth Anniversary of Haiti's Jan. 12, 2010 earthquake

On January 12, 2016, President Michel Martelly commemorated the sixth anniversary of the tragic earthquake with a low-key wreath laying ceremony at the barren mountaintop at Parc Christophe on the outskirts of Port-au-Prince, which has been turned into an official memorial of the earthquake victims. The President placed a bouquet of white flowers at a mass burial site. Many Haitians were present at the prayer service to remember those who died.
The earthquake claimed more than 200,000 lives in Haiti and left 1.5 million people homeless, an estimated three million people were affected by the quake. Thirty percent of Haitian civil servants were lost in the earthquake. Structural damage caused by the earthquake was one among the major concerns. As per Chris Herlinger, a National Catholic Reporter, "removing all the earthquake debris from the country would require at least 1,000 trucks working 24 hours a day for up to five years." Throughout its history Haiti has never been known as a wealthy country, eighty percent of the population lives below the poverty line. However, since then, the country has successfully pulled itself through the humanitarian recovery phase and recorded significant socioeconomic gains. For the last one year, the country is working hard to complete a critical electoral process. Haiti is a tough, complex place where nothing good happens quickly; here heavy reliance on foreign aid, international supervision of the national police, penetration of the economy by foreign NGOs, have become the norm. We should never lose our sovereignty. We must find ways to become self-sufficient and self-sustaining.