Abban from Haiti

ABBAN FROM HAITI

My name is Abban and I come from Port-au-Prince in Haiti. Haiti means mountainous country. Haiti is the second largest country in the Caribbean. Our island is next to Cuba, Jamaica and Puerto Rico. Three quarters of my country is covered in mountains. A tectonic fault line runs through my country, which sometimes causes deathly earthquakes.

HAITI EARTHQUAKE

On January 12th 2010, just before five p.m, I had just arrived home from school. Suddenly the ground started shaking and it felt like a volcano was erupting right under me. The next day the city was in chaos. There was no electricity or phone service. Our house was completely destroyed. There was no food and no water. We were told we had to leave Port-au-Prince and live in a refugee camp.

LIFE AS A REFUGEE

We are living in the Automeca Refugee Camp in Puerto-au-Prince. Instead of living in a home, we need to live in a tiny tent that contains seven people. We only have two beds and a small stove to cook on. It's impossible to sleep at night because there is so much noise and it is too hot. There are no schools and we have nothing to do. None of us have any shoes to wear, so we have to walk everywhere barefoot in the mud. We need more food and more water because I am starving. I want my home back.

PUSH FACTORS

We are in our tent and talking about the rumours that have been spreading. They say that some people have left the country. Nothing has happened for many months. No school yet, not much food or water, no money or jobs. We don't like the people we have to share our tent with and there is not much medicine, so people are getting sick. Diseases are spreading, so we are thinking of moving to Florida because it is the closest and nicest place we could go to that is near to here.

PULL FACTORS

We believe that when we live in Florida, we will find a nice home to live in and hopefully my parents can find jobs so we can earn some money. I can also find a school for me to go to. In Florida, there will be enough food and water and we will not have to live in a dirty area like we do in the refugee camp. There will also be medicine so when we are sick, we can help ourselves. We really hope that we can find some new friends so we can have some good times. I hope I will like my new school and my classmates and teachers.

FLORIDA

Miami has lots of different nationalities living there, so we may be able to find some friends from Haiti that can help us settle in. It has a tropical climate which is the same as in Haiti, so we won't the temperature difficult to live in.