As news continues to slowly make its way out of Haiti, local officials connected to development efforts there remain concerned.
Matthew Naylor, president Independence-based Outreach International, has been in touch a couple of times with Michel Rosier, director of the Outreach International schools program in Haiti.
Rosier is OK, but it’s extremely difficult to even get around and find out out what’s going on. The group has 20 schools, mostly in the Port-au-Prince area. Rosier has only been able to find out about 10 of those 20 in the aftermath of last Tuesday’s severe earthquake. All 10 have been destroyed or severely damaged.
At one, in Petionville, school had finished for the day last Tuesday when the quake struck, but many were still there. Only seven have been rescued, and many have died.
“It was not easy to get them out from the buildings when they collapsed. We still hear cries for help under the rubble. Some are trapped. Others dead,” Rosier wrote in an e-mail on Friday.
Naylor said Outreach hopes to communicate with Rosier today. Part of the problem is people have to wait hours in line to use a computer with e-mail.
Rosier and his wife and children are OK, although their house collapsed. They are sleeping at a church.
