Pope Benedict ‘s prayer intentions for this January are that the victims of natural
disasters may receive the spiritual and material comfort they need to rebuild their
lives. Thursday, January 12, Haiti commemorates the two-year anniversary of a devastating
earthquake that killed roughly 300,000 people and left more than 1.5 million homeless.
The
Caribbean Island nation is still struggling to recover from the earthquake despite
billions of dollars pledged by donors to help the country rebuild. The recovery effort
is one of the world's biggest humanitarian and reconstruction operations involving
more than 12,000 aid groups. But almost exactly two years on from the earthquake hundreds
of thousands of Haitians are still homeless and the country is still struggling to
get back on its feet again.
Along with its local partners, the Catholic development
charity CAFOD that is part of the Caritas Confederation has been at the forefront
of helping the victims of Haiti’s earthquake to rebuild their shattered lives.
Mike Noyes is CAFOD’s Senior Humanitarian officer and has frequently visited Haiti
over the past year and saw at first hand a local re-housing project supported by the
charity. Listen: