rare reprieve for haiti's disabled slated to end - solar powered street lights

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP)—
When the doctor cut off her right arm in Haiti's 2010-magnitude earthquake, Marjorie Benoit joined Haiti's abandonment: the blind, the deaf, and those lost limbs.
But then something unexpected happened on the 33 th. year-
The four-year-old mother faces personal and financial losses.
She found a warm home. While the 1.
3 million people were displaced after the earthquakeapocalyptic-
Like the tent city, a small number of homeless people, including Benoit, landed near the model community.
They moved into neat plywood sheds along neat gravel lanes, a settlement designed specifically for them.
They made up a close one.
Colonial woven with abandoned pool furniture and wheelchair ramps made of solar energy
A power light that helps deaf people communicate in sign language.
Estimated rare respite for 500 people
However, with the government taking back the land, plus the people who live here will end soon, just like Haiti's piecemeal reconstruction efforts, there is no plan to accommodate them once they leave.
Maybe some rent and some extra cash.
Alternative sites for some deaf and dumb residents of the settlement have not yet been completed.
Benoit said: "I am very powerful to live with other disabled people . " She says she is still learning how to use her left hand so she can resume her work as a street merchant.
"No matter where we go, I want everyone to act together.
"In one of the poorest countries in the world, it is never easy for people with disabilities to live.
For a long time, the blind, deaf and amputees have been burdened with social stigma, their disability is considered a product of the hexadecimal system, and few people have access to physical therapy or social services.
It is no accident that the disabled in Haiti are the poorest part of the Haitian population.
Within the closed chain of settlements
Residents say they no longer endure prolonged staring because they lose sight, hearing or body.
Claudius Joseph, 25, blindyear-
His teacher thinks he can't learn because he can't see.
The children did not dare to touch him, he said.
One night, Joseph said: "I feel normal here because there are other people who are as disabled as I am . " His crutch struck the gravel in front of him.
Camp near Portau-
Prince international airport is called "La Piste" because of the abandoned military aircraft runway across the street ".
It was established by the International Federation of the Red Cross, which has built 368 shelters for hearing and language barriers and other people with disabilities.
The first families were moved in January.
2011 days before the earthquake, each received $150 to help settle.
Its current residents are those who are disabled by trauma or infection caused by the earthquake, as well as those before.
The Red Cross says it has signed an agreement with the government of former president René Preval to use the land by January 2013.
Officials in President Michel Martelly's government say they want the land back and residents need to leave.
"This land is not theirs, and the owner wants to come back," said Gerald o'rio . "
State Secretary for the integration of persons with disabilities.
He declined to disclose who owns the land and asked questions to foreign charity workers who helped deaf residents.
"They should move out in six to nine months.
"When two AP reporters talked with about a dozen lapis residents about what they would do if they were forced to leave the settlement, some people didn't hear the news and some started screaming.
Alex Battier 37year-
The old dumb man took the arm of the lone interpreter and approached the reporter.
He asked the translator to say: "We will protest because we don't have anywhere else to go. "Two U. S.
Religious groups are building a new site of about 18 miles. 30 kilometers)northwest Port-au-
The Prince will place some of the inhabitants of pisti, but a large part of them will be left behind and many do not want to leave the camp.
Mission of Fort Myers, Florida and bridge 410
In the next two years, the city of Alpha Retta, Georgia, will build 500 houses in the town of leffk.
Austin Holmes, Haiti's Hope Mission, said that hundreds and sixty of these families were reserved for deaf families in La Piste.
50 families have already moved in.
But the fate of those left behind is still uncertain.
"This is a big question mark," said Kyle reschk, director of the Haitian 410 Bridge project.
"We are trying our best to get rid of that question mark.
"Even for those who have housing in La Piste, many people will ask, if they are expelled a few months before the completion of their new home in La Piste, where will they go, like 58-year-
Old Felicia Joseph, if he took them to Lefke, he would "go with the Wind ".
But others don't want to leave.
That's because they sew clothes in a factory on the street, or take classes at the port in the city center --au-Prince.
Their social network is in the capital of Haiti.
Red Cross housing coordinator James Bellamy said residents would be eligible for a $500 rental subsidy and a $500 rental subsidy if the government occupied the land by January.
They can also enroll in classes to learn carpentry, sewing and masonry techniques.
"We will talk to the government and the families there to see if we can advocate for a long time --
"The solution," Bellamy said.
"They have no plans to go anywhere.
"In recent months, the Martelly government and foreign aid organizations have cleared several camps and moved residents into their homes by paying a year's rent.
But it's just 5% people trapped in the dark flood. prone camps.
Most recently, in La Piste, earthquake amputee crutches played football on a dusty field with crutches.
Residents said they thanked the site despite concerns that it would be closed.
Thank God, we live very well.
We're not fighting, "said Mason Aikin, 63. year-
The old man with his right leg.
"We have all kinds of problems, but we don't get wet in the rain.