The debris from his collapsed apartment building is still lying there. United States rescue workers painted ‘17 January 2010’ on the damaged walls. That was the day they searched for survivors, in vain.

"Now the world knows where we are, which is in any event a positive sign. However the time has come to demonstrate whether anything is really going to happen in Haiti,” says Joleil Vilcevan, who lost his father, sister and three-year-old daughter in the earthquake.

Today the international community met to raise the funds that Haiti still desperately needs after the earthquake of 12 January.

As the United Nations donor conference opened in New York, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton pledged 1.15 billion dollars of the approximate four billion the Haitian government requested in reconstruction aid.

Waiting
The people in Haiti itself have no choice but to wait and see what happens now. Mr Vilcevan has not witnessed any signs that the international community is helping. He still sleeps on the street, in front of the remains of the house of a friend who managed to pull two damaged cars from the ruins. They sleep in the cars when it rains.

No relief workers have been by to offer them shelter. Other people in the devastated neighbourhood have bought tents or built huts in their front gardens. The scepticism over the international relief effort grows by the day, although some people are still hopeful about today’s donor conference in New York, where Haiti will ask for billions of euros to rebuild the country.
 
Good plan
Despite the fact that Haiti appears to have greatly exaggerated the number of victims of the earthquake (the authorities say some 300,000 people died -  according to RNW’s own research, the actual figure is  below 100,000), the request for billions of euros in assistance seems fair - the amount of damage is enormous.

Travelling through the capital Port-au-Prince and the surrounding area is enough to confirm that a great deal of money will be needed to clear the rubble and rebuild the destroyed schools, hospitals and universities. Remarkably few large buildings survived the quake.

However, in addition to funds, Haiti needs a good plan so that it can construct an entirely new capital, where buildings will not be constructed on an ad-hoc basis. In recent years buildings without permits were erected everywhere, sometimes only propped up by their neighbours. This meant that even earthquake-proof structures were in danger, since the adjoining buildings were liable to fall on top of them.
 
Countryside
Haiti’s Culture Minister Marie-Laurence Jocelyn-Lasseque hopes that the ruins can be cleared to make way for parks and thinks that in order to ensure a healthy environment the number of people who live in the capital must decline.
 
Haiti has undoubtedly drafted a magnificent plan to convince the donors gathered in New York. However, in recent months, many of the people who fled the devastated city have returned to Port-au-Prince, with resulting unemployment. Drastic changes are necessary in order to solve the country’s problems. Corruption must be eliminated, something which Haitians consider a near-impossible task.

One thing that is essential to create a new Haiti is work. As unemployed earthquake survivor Mr Vilcevan says: “I don’t need anyone to give me a fish every day. That doesn’t do anything for me. I need someone to teach me how to fish”.