Cedar Rapids native updates the conditions in Haiti

Cedar Rapids native Renee Dietrich told BBC Radio last weekend that supply trucks carrying food and water to stranded Haitians have not made it as far as to where she and 70 staff members and young residents have been staying in the wake of this month's earthquake.

“Where I am, we haven't seen anyone up here,” she told the radio. “You see some U.N. trucks around but they were here before. We haven't really seen much up here.”

Dietrich, 40, is communications coordinator for Hearts with Haiti, and works with three residential homes for boys in Petionville and Fermathe, about a half-hour from Port-au-Prince. One of the buildings, St. Joseph's Home for Boys, was destroyed in the Jan. 12 earthquake and residents there were forced to moved to Wings of Hope, one of the other homes.

Dietrich said the group was staying in an area “about the size of a two-car garage.”

That building, however, was damaged last week when an aftershock measuring about 6.0 on the Richter scale hit the area, so the group was again forced to move.

In a status update on the St. Joseph's Family page on Facebook, Dietrich said, “There is no internet signal at the new Wings building, so frequent updates and emails will be difficult. Things are okay and we are getting settled. (sic)”

Even with the move, she said, aid has yet to find them.

“In terms of governmental aid, we haven't seen much yet,” she said.

Dietrich said on Jan. 13 that the homes had a food and water supply “to last us a few weeks.”