Newborn baby Esperanza a ray of hope in devastated city

AMONG the debris and ruins of Haiti, there lies hope.

Baby girl Esperanza was born two days after the devastating earthquake that flattened the capital Port-au-Prince.

Her mother gave birth in a shelter among the rubble.

Within an hour, Esperanza’s aunt took the newborn and rushed her to a makeshift clinic set up inside a football stadium which was being manned by Irish medics.

The four-pound baby girl’s umbilical chord had been tied with string and cloth, recalled Cork midwife and GOAL worker Colette Cunningham.

“We had to take that off clean it and cut the piece of chord. When we asked the name, they said it was going to be Esperanza which means hope in Spanish.

“To finish the day with a baby who was born and then called Esperanza was quite special. The mother had just delivered an hour before.”

Esperanza’s birth was a moment of hope not only for the homeless families taking refuge inside the city’s national soccer stadium but for aid workers, explained the 49-year-old Bandon midwife.

“There was a sense of joy. It was nice to see a newborn baby in the midst of so much tragedy.

All that day we were dealing with heavy wounds, heavy burns and people who were desperate.”

Indeed, it is the simple joys that are comforting the citizens of Haiti, while hungry families continue to unearth loved ones crushed to death under the rubble.

Fruit and vegetable sellers have begun to re-emerge. Banks are reopening. And the exodus continues as families leave the capital on government buses for the safety of the countryside.

But make no mistake. Haiti’s people are hungry. The country resembles a war zone.

And what little hope there is left will be decided by the actions of the international community in the coming days and weeks.