Relatives still worried about family in Haiti

A Chapel Hill businesswoman and mother of three took a call on her Bluetooth from her brother in New York.

“Have you heard any news?” asked Paulette Bekolo, her eyes searching the sky for answers. “Nothing?”

Bekolo’s brother and his children live in a town about three and a half hours away from Port-au-Prince, but three days after Haiti’s largest earthquake in 200 years, she still has not been able to get in touch with them.

She said she’s worried about what the quake’s aftershocks in the town and a 45,000 or more estimated death toll might mean for her family.

“I’ve been hearing a lot of bad news all day long from other Haitians in the Triangle,” she said. “Their families have been buried.”

Bekolo, who grew up 30 minutes from Port-au-Prince, returned from a week-long stay in Haiti in December. It was her first trip back in 10 years.

“I’ve seen so much hope,” she said. “It breaks my heart.”

Bekolo moved from Haiti when she was 19 to study psychology and statistics at Sorbonne University in Paris. She and her husband moved to Canada in 1992 and later to New York in 1995, where two of her brothers and her sister live.

She said she moved her family to Chapel Hill in 2001 so her children could have a better place to grow up. She became a citizen seven years later.

Bekolo said her 6-year-old daughter Hannah is sad but tries to keep the family in good spirits.

“She kept telling me, ‘Don’t cry. I will help them. I will send them my food and my clothes.’”

Serious infrastructure damage has all but severed the lines of communication between Haiti’s capital city and the United States. A weak stream of information and blocked transportation has area natives concerned for the welfare of their loved ones.

Nadine Faustin-Parker is the daughter of Haitian natives and a UNC assistant track coach.

Although her mother’s family is safe, she hasn’t been able to reach others.

Faustin-Parker, who last visited the country in 2001, represents Haiti’s Olympic track and field team. She said she’s had no word from her athletes or the Olympic committee either.

“We still have some family and some friends we haven’t heard from, but, you know, we’re just hoping for the best,” Faustin-Parker said.

Bekolo said she is working with local organizations and other natives to collect items for basic needs for transportation to Haiti through her shipping business, Haiti Express.

She said her goal is to help people find shelter and medical assistance until they can get back on their feet.

But no one knows how long that might take, an uncertainty that keeps Bekolo up at night.

“It’s a nightmare,” she said. “We cannot sleep.”



Senior writer Powell Latimer contributed reporting.
Contact the City Editor at citydesk@unc.edu.