On air: WHYS at Dixie's orphanage in Haiti
Post categories: Haiti
| 16:55 UK time, Wednesday, 28 April 2010
When the Haitian struck on the 12th of January I was in Florida for . The sense of grief and agnst was everywhere as there is such a large Haitian community in Florida, who were desperate to know what was happening back home to their loved ones. Mobile phone lines were down, so it was very difficult to contact people in Haiti, but we did manage to connect Haitians in Fort Myers, Haitians in 'Little Haiti' in Miami with people in Port au Prince.
One of those people we spoke to was Dixie Bickel, who runs an just outside Port au Prince. When Dixie came on the line I will never forget the atmosphere in the studio at WGCU where we were broadcasting from, everyone was silent taking in every word she was saying, it was very moving.
She was telling us how bad the city looked, the fact that whole neighbourhoods had collapsed, this was the first time many Haitians in our audience were able ask someone in Haiti about the earthquake, about specific places in Port au Prince and get more of an idea of how big and devastating the earthquake had been. Since that day we have been speaking to Dixie on many occasions and she has given us updates about her orphanage and the situation in Port au Prince.
Dixie has kindly offered us her orphanage for our first broadcast on the 28th of April. Since the earthquake she is now looking after 60 children, some she has taken in from from other orphanages which were destroyed by the quake and from families who are living in camps and currently can't look after their children but she will be handing them back once these families have sorted their homes and living conditions. Other children are up for adoption.
We will also be talking to Haitians guests who were with us at WGCU in Florida. Jean Larose who will be on the show on the 28th said to me he hasn't forgotten Dixie and what she told them on the 13th of January, he also says that he lost 5 members of his family who lived in Port au Prince.
On the 29th of April we will be broadcasting from a camp in Port au Prince which is currently housing 5000 displaced people. We will be talking to residents in the camp, people who work there and members of the Haitian government.
What questions you would like to ask Dixie? and the staff who work with her? What questions would you like to ask the people in the camp? Who else would you like to hear from?
