Jeden Tag zieht Manes Barthelemy ein sauberes weisses T-Shirt an und mit seinem ordentlich gedruckten Lebenslauf zum Campbüro um nach einem Job zu suchen. Bisher hat der hochgebildete, drei Sprachen sprechende mann nichts gefunden."Ich war Direktor eins Collage, Prediger in der lokalen Kirche und betrieb eine eigene NGO für arme Kinder" erklärt er. "Nun weiss ich nicht was Gott für mich im Dalon hat."
Like hundreds of thousands of Haitians, 38-year-old Barthelemy lost not only his home and livelihood in the earthquake, but all his points of reference. He was a man of standing in his community, but now finds he is just one amongst nearly 2,000 other displaced people at Tabarre Issa camp, on the outskirts of the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince.
He has swapped his family house in Carrefour, one of the worst hit areas in the earthquake, for tent number 1C80. He shares the 12 square metres with his pregnant wife, Lociana, and their two children, seven-year-old Max Andrew and four-year-old Kennerhise Ange. The tent is bare apart from an electronic organ rescued from the rubble of his church, a few clothes, some cooking utensils and a clutch of highly prized photos of his former life.
“These were my pupils,” he says with a sigh, pointing to rows of neatly dressed pupils with beaming smiles.
“Here we have lost all our bearings. We know nobody and don’t know who to turn to.”
He lost his three-month-old son, Alain, in the earthquake and immediately sought safety for his grieving wife and children in a makeshift settlement in Vallée de Bourdon where the Turkish Red Crescent had set up a small tented encampment for particularly vulnerable families. But when offered the chance to relocate to Tabarre Issa, a 5.25-acre site, he took it as it is less prone to flooding.
“We have shelter, lots of clean water and schools for our children, but what everyone here really wants are jobs.”
“I don’t want to live on handouts. I am subsisting on money borrowed from friends. Every day, I spend the few gourds I have at a nearby internet café, sending out my CV to anyone who can offer me a job, any small job.”
Manes Barthelemy’s CV is immaculate, with three neatly typed pages and an elegantly written cover note that requests the recipient to kindly consider him for work. So far, Manes hasn’t been able to find work, but every day he gets up and tries again, never losing hope.
Quelle: IFRC
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