Port-au-Prince is in ruins. Dust everywhere. Seven and a half weeks after the tragedy, it seems the earthquake happened only yesterday. The emptiness is like a silence within a silence. Hollow. Close your eyes and you can feel it. Words fail. Port-au-Prince University General Hospital is a medical compound in the centre of the city. It was almost completely destroyed. A nurses school on the campus collapsed. With 120 nurses inside. Today there are bodies that were never recovered. The smell of the dead comes and goes, depending on the wind. It is an inescapable reminder that, under the rubble, are people. It is beyond the merely tragic. The paediatrics faculty is no more. The Haitian medical system has had support from the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) and other international organizations to keep going. Right in front of the destroyed buildings tents serve as surgical, obstetric and orthopaedic wards. This afternoon I arrived at the hospital with a TV crew to follow up on how this work is helping the people of Port-au-Prince. The first thing I see is the people in the outdoor waiting area – they seem indifferent, tired, fed up with[...]

[Published in AidNews - Read the original article]