ARTICLE - 'CHOLERA VOODOO'

VOODOO ADDS TO THE HORRORS FACED BY HAITI'S FORGOTTEN STORM VICTIMS
(Irish Independent)- By Kevin Keane in Gonaives, Haiti.

WheN cholera killed Dieufort Joesph's neighbour last year, the 25-year-old feared for his young family's safety.

But the threat didn't come from the disease.

It came from the panic that spread through the narrow streets of Gonaives in north-western Haiti.

Within days the rumours began -- Mr Joesph had used voodoo to kill the girl.

The quietly spoken market porter explained that for some of his neighbours, this meant he and his family must themselves be killed.

"He doesn't feel secure being here because other people don't really like him, they are saying some lies. They accuse him of being not the right type of person, of doing bad things to others," an interpreter explains.

Mr Joesph is desperate to leave the tiny shack he built for his pregnant wife Rita (18) and their two-year-old daughter Dieuna after hurricane Hanna washed away their home in 2008.

"He wants to escape the faces here," the interpreter explains, adding that his neighbours have said they will set fire to Mr Joesph's house.

It would not take long to burn down. The one-room shack consists of sheets of aluminium, roughly nailed to a wooden frame. The floor is earth and gaps between it and the walls allow the wind blow through the shelter.

It lies just metres from a stagnant inlet where the people of Gonaives dump their waste. The inlet also serves as an open latrine, which has aided the outbreak of diseases, such as the cholera epidemic that claimed the lives of 3,500 people between October and December last year.

Workers from the Irish charity Haven say living conditions in Gonaives are as bad as any in Haiti -- 48,000 people were forced from their homes in the city during Hurricane Hanna alone and 495 were killed.

The Joesphs lost everything.

"When I first saw the water was getting high, I took my child and the woman away, I was scared," Mr Joesph said.

"We ran away to the mountains, we were gathering what we could but since then we have lost everything, I cannot even make enough money to buy clothes."

Haven's founder, Irish business consultant Leslie Buckley, describes families like the Joesphs as Haiti's forgotten victims.

"They're living in absolute squalor; Haiti has become the forgotten country and Gonaives has become the forgotten town by the Haitian people themselves," he told the Irish Independent.

"To think that there are hundreds of people in Gonaives living in conditions that we in Ireland wouldn't put our animals in. The smell is incredible, there are no toilets, there are no facilities, they wash themselves in a river. My God, the poverty is incredible. We cannot walk away from that."

Despite their current plight, the Joesph family are the lucky ones: in just over two months time, they and 80 other families from Gonaives will move in to new houses built by Haven on the outskirts of the city.

The two-room concrete dwellings were completed last week by 350 Irish bricklayers, painters and labourers, who each raised more than €4,500 for the chance to toil in blistering Haitian sun.

Back in Mr Joesph's shack, what little possessions the family have are neatly arranged on a small wooden table: a paraffin lamp, a narrow shard of glass, two metal cups.

Upon a wall hangs a poster in the local language of Creole -- "Election 2010, We Will Vote For Haiti to Become Beautiful".

Mr Joesph says it isn't safe to talk politics with anyone.

And he didn't vote in the recent elections that last week saw the entertainer Michel "Sweet Mickey" Martelly win the second round of voting that will see him confirmed as the country's new president on April 16.

Martelly has promised to restore law and order and streamline the delivery of aid.

But Mr Joesph's mind is on survival. At night he stays awake in order to protect his family from attack.

He prays they will survive long enough to move to their new house but is certain that, because of the voodoo he has been accused of, the shack will not last long after their departure.

"They (Mr Joesph's neighbours) will put fire to the house when we are gone. I am thankful for the chance to move from this place."