Thursday, September 1, 2011

ARTICLE - REFUGEES OF CITE TOLE

THE REFUGEES OF CITE TOLE THREATEN TO TAKE TO THE STREETS
(Hait Libre) -

Last Tuesday, at around 12:30pm, the inhabitants of Cité Tôle, one of the refuge camps on Avenue Simmond's, a popular neighborhood of Petit-Goâve, which was damaged by the earthquake of January 2010, walked under a blazing sun to "Radio Preference FM" to express their claims of and explain their poor living conditions.

Visibly shocked and angry, they claim a need for housing, while denouncing the unfair manner in which NGO workers are distributing shelters in the area. According to them, NGO workers who had registered their names on a list, would favor their own families and would neglect the "real homeless and the real victims [...] We who are poor, do not have a shelter, while those who already have significant privileges, contrary to us, receive a shelter... These people do not live in the shelters... Most of these shelters offered are rented..."

The Refugees of Cité Tôle complain about their fate... they face all the hardships: no shelter, no food, no toilets, no drinking water... Their situation is deteriorating day by day... Each night they are attacked by snakes... They pray to God, so that the rain does not fall. When it rains, they sleep in the water because they have nowhere to go. They are now threatening to take to the streets if the NGOs and local officials refuse to give to each of them a shelter.

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