Text Messages, Radio Warn Haitians Of Cholera Risks

The cholera epidemic in Haiti is slowly spreading into new areas, mostly in the north of the country. The good news is that it doesn't seem to have taken hold in Port-au-Prince, the country’s densely populated capital.

As they track the disease's progress around the country, public health officials have launched a two-pronged education campaign using radio broadcasts and text messages to keep the epidemic out of the camps.

Education In The Camps

The Cahamega camp sprawls along a city street while trucks and cars rocket by on one side and planes land and take off on the other. The camp itself is a maze of tents, each separated by only a few feet.

It's as if you're walking through a field of giant mushrooms — a dirt lane serves as "main street," and people who live there set up tables to sell food, whiskey and socks. A woman sits in a chair getting her hair done.

Farther along, a truck is pumping water into a huge bladder that serves as the camp's water supply. It's 20 feet square and 6 feet high.

Several radio producers who work for the International Organization for Migration, a group affiliated with the United Nations, are visiting the camp. They file into a tiny, makeshift theater with tarps thrown over scaffolding, and a dozen benches of rough planks.

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