PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – Eight years ago, a magnitude-7 earthquake upended life in Haiti, killing more than 300,000 people by some estimates and destroying hundreds of thousands of homes. For many of those left homeless, life hasn’t yet returned to normal.
In the Delmas district in the north of the capital, Port-au-Prince, Camp Caradeux sprang up as a temporary home for 20,000 displaced people. Promises of new permanent homes have failed to materialize and Haiti’s economy remains weak, leaving camp residents with nowhere to go.
As a result, the camp is transforming into a village as people build cinderblock homes and try to create more normal lives.
Photographer Chery Dieu-Nalio visited Caradeux on the approach of the quake anniversary to document the life of its residents, who are selling charcoal, cutting hair and pursuing other jobs so they can slowly accumulate the money to build houses.
For many, the anniversary of the quake was made more painful by President Donald Trump’s reported remarks questioning why the US would accept more people from Haiti.
“If I were the government officials, I’d shut down the United States embassy because Trump doesn’t respect my nation,” said priest Brinor Monajean.
The camp includes about 3,000 temporary shelters and tents and about 50 concrete houses, with 100 more under construction. There is a school, police station, church and temple, and the camp is supplied with electricity and potable water.
Etienne Acine, a 38-year-old television and radio repairman with six children, says he has been living in the camp for eight years and the wooden walls of his makeshift home are rotting.
“Living in the shelter makes me stressed because the shelter means January 12, 2010 to me,” he says. “I want to live in a normal house like other people in the country.”
