Originally Published: 2010-02-07

“Our history has been wiped out. I lost many friends. Many others have lost their children. But now we have the opportunity to build a better nation.”
Nadine Perrault’s words are both emotional and lucid – she speaks with a determined effort to struggle to go forward, to find a way through the rubble in the aftermath of the devastating Haiti earthquake that resulted in a loss of human lives and the destruction of buildings, cathedrals and a presidential palace that symbolized the history of a nation.
Perrault, a UNICEF official responsible for the protection of minors, but first and foremost one of the millions of Haitians to personally experience the quake, had just deplaned hours ago at Port-au-Prince – a place many have described as Dante-esque, which she calls home. Beyond the sorrow, she talks of her hopes for a better future.
“I hope things will improve,” she says, “I hope that funds raised end up in the right hands —that they get to the people. We have the opportunity to create something good from this tragedy – a new nation with new institutions.”
A new nation that can provide better security for minors as well – who in recent days were caught in the perfect storm that slammed into Haiti and who now run the danger of being snatched from their families and country.
“The trafficking of minors between Haiti and Santo Domingo is certainly not news, but the earthquake makes things easier,” warns Perrault. “Many will take advantage and get into this type of crime,” she explains, adding that there are already reports of abduction cases, although it is still impossible to obtain official numbers.
“The children,” she affirms, “disappear even from hospitals, where in some cases they’re apart from their parents and therefore can more easily become victims of trafficking.”
On this point, the Haitian government appears to be doing a great deal in recent hours, but Perrault does not mince words over the government’s crisis management.
“[The government] was criticized before the earthquake and it still is now,” she says, referring to the mood of Haitians. “It took a long time to act. No question, it’s true that it was hit hard by the quake, but the entire population was hit too.”

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