By Eric Bradley • ebradley@enquirer.com • July 18, 2010
MONTGOMERY - Six months later, Haiti and the devastation from January's catastrophic earthquake have been pushed out of the headlines, supplanted by news about such topics as health care reform and the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
But Haitians are still suffering, said two Ohio missionaries visiting Cincinnati to gather support for relief efforts, with hundreds of thousands of homeless living in more than 1,300 documented tent cities while the ruins of buildings sit uncollected in the streets.
The missionaries, husband and wife Tim and Toby Banks, spoke Sunday at Church of the Savior in Montgomery, and St. Paul United Methodist Church in Madeira.
"It was just bad to begin with, before the earthquake," said Tim Banks, a 44-year-old Mansfield man who runs the HOPE Center for Orphaned Girls with his wife, Toby, 43, in Croix-des-Bouquets near Haiti's capital city, Port-au-Prince. "You can't even make a dent in six months."
The Bankses, two of their children who live in Haiti and the 20 girls who live at their Christian orphanage escaped the 7.0-magnitude earthquake without serious injury on Jan. 12.
"It was 27 seconds, but if you asked us afterward it was a good 15- to 20-minute shake," Banks said of the quake.
The orphanage was heavily damaged, forcing the Bankses, the orphaned girls and support staff to live in a one-bedroom apartment for three months while the building was repaired.
The couple, who have lived in Haiti for 5½ years, described life there as hard to contemplate for Americans accustomed to abundant food and dependable government services.
In Haiti, Toby Banks said, generations of families living together often have to choose between sustenance for either the young or the old. "You have to decide, am I going to feed the kid or feed the grandma?"
"Haitians make decisions like that every day," said Tim Banks.
An overtaxed and under-prepared government in Haiti is still trying to get the country back to its pre-earthquake status, which Tim Banks said was difficult enough because many Haitians live on $2 per day.
"Everything in Haiti costs what it costs here," he said.
Through all the continuing squalor, the Banks said the strength and resilience of Haitians who are familiar with suffering is inspiring.
"'I lost everything, but I'm just so happy to be alive,' " Tim Banks said. "We hear that all the time."
To see ways to help the HOPE Center for Orphaned Girls, go to www.haitihope.org or Christian Service International Ministries, www.csiministries.org.