Over 60,000 people still living in Haiti camps
The latest Displacement Tracking Matrix indicates that more than six years after the January 12, 2010 earthquake, an estimated 17,119 households, or 62,590 individuals, are still residing in 36 IDP, or internally displaced people, sites in the earthquake-affected communes.
The affected communes housing the IDP population are mostly located in the metropolitan area of Port-au-Prince. These are the communes of Carrefour, Port-au-Prince, Delmas, Cite Soleil, Petion-Ville, Tabarre and Croix-des-Bouquets, as well as the communes situated in the Palms Regions, such as Leogane (considered the epicenter of the earthquake) and Gressier.
Money runs out, Friday to be final ‘Big Night in Little Haiti’
For five years, Big Night In Little Haiti has been a free monthly event at the Little Haiti Cultural Center, bringing the community together with a celebration of food, arts and entertainment, the Miami Herald reported.
Friday, however, will be the last Big Night: The Rhythm Foundation, a South Florida nonprofit that produced the monthly festival, no longer has the money to keep it going.
“In a perfect world, we would have had a title sponsor. I don’t know why we didn’t get one — it seemed to me like the project was so fundable. I imagined at the beginning that Target or Bank of America would come in and sponsor it,” said foundation director Laura Quinlan. “It was such a quality production. It was so family friendly. So many people came every month with their extended families. We had activities for kids, and great institutional partners.”
Quinlan said the foundation asked for support from the community and the local businesses, but no one came forward with a reasonable amount to keep Big Night In Little Haiti alive.