Haiti earthquake: Canteen programme

Oxfam's livelihoods programme is helping canteen owners get their businesses back up and running and provide hot meals to vulnerable people affected by the earthquake in Haiti.

Marie Carole Bourslquot is a canteen owner in Carrefour Feuilles, in the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince. Oxfam is supporting 57 canteens like Marie's to provide a daily hot meal to 80 people each. For many this might be their only hot meal of the day.

Photo: Jane Beesley

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Marie Carole Bourslquot standing where her house and shop once stood. [Photo: Jane Beesley]

Marie stands on the foundations of her old house. Like thousands of Haitians, her home and business were destroyed by the earthquake that hit on 12 January.

"I was in a meeting when the earthquake struck," she recalls. "When I came home I found the house falling down so I stayed away. But people came and looted everything I had in my shop."

Photo: Jane Beesley

Supporting people like Marie to run a canteen is part of Oxfam's livelihoods programme assisting people to restart their livelihoods.

Through these canteens, Oxfam provides free hot meals to 4,500 survivors in the area. Each canteen delivers 80 meals a day, with priority given to the most vulnerable groups such as needy women, elderly people, and the physically challenged.

Photo: Jane Beesley

"I had the opportunity to run this canteen and I really like it," explains Marie. "I don't run it alone, I have some help from the children before they go to school, and I have a young girl, a niece, who is helping me at the moment. For other things I rely on God."

Photo: Jane Beesley

"I have to get up very early, around 5am, to start cooking so that I have things boxed up for when people come to collect the meals. I have a lot to do as I've 80 plates of food to do... if I don't I'll find a large queue of people. I vary the meals - sometimes its rice, beans and vegetables, meat and a sauce."

Photo: Jane Beesley

"Before I had this canteen things were really bad," continues Marie who is also being considered for an Oxfam income support scheme. "If I hadn't got this canteen I would probably have left for the countryside... I don't know what I would have done."

"Now the canteen is helping me because we are no longer hungry - I use most of the money to buy food for the family. I get about 1,500 Gourde (approximately £25) profit every week."

Find out more about Oxfam's Haiti earthquake response

Photo: Jane Beesley