Haiti photos by Kim Hairston ’80

Kim Hairston ’80, longtime photographer for The Baltimore Sun, took the front cover photo on the Spring 2010 Miamian and several of the photos accompanying the Spring cover story, “Heartache and Hope in Haiti.”

A Cincinnati native and graduate of Miami’s Western College Program, Kim shot these photos and many others when she and Sun reporter Robert Little traveled to Haiti aboard the Baltimore-based Navy hospital ship USNS Comfort a week after the January earthquake.

Here are several of Kim’s photos and descriptions of what she saw during her two-week assignment.

Food distribution area set up by Catholic Relief Services (CRS) on the grounds of the golf course in Pétionville outside of Port-au-Prince.

Arriving before the aide workers are ready for them to come forward, thousands of Haitians cue up.

There is a mad scramble as workers let only a few in at one time to pick up supplies.

Another line forms as people wave their tickets, hoping their turn is next.

Relieved to finally have supplies, this man shoulders a bag containing 55 pounds of bulgur grain, 15 pounds of lentils, and a gallon of oil.

Kim’s observations of the food lines: “For the most part, with that many people and that serious a condition, it was pretty quiet, and it was because the CRS had this ticket situation. Some of the other distribution points, like with the U.N., didn’t have that kind of a system. They just showed up with food, and they would be mobbed. Sometimes they had to pull out. They couldn’t distribute the food because it was a situation where they were overwhelmed.”

While traveling with a rapid assessment team, Kim saw these people lined up near a building on the presidential palace grounds. With so much destruction everywhere, it was hard to determine which governmental building it had been.

A Navy captain and a doctor with Project Hope, both members of the rapid assessment team, perform triage to determine which people to send to the Comfort hospital ship.

“There were so many people who couldn’t be cared for,” Kim said. “Unfortunately, they couldn’t help this man. I don’t know if he died. I know that the gentleman who brought him on the truck drove him away. We don’t know where.”

This little boy was one of the first patients aboard the Comfort when it arrived in Haiti. Several surgeons assess the extent of his injuries, a pelvic fracture and damage to his bladder.

“I was pretty impressed with how the Navy got everything together. Even before they had dropped anchor, they were seeing patients.”

This Navy crewmember shows off the stuffed animals they gave to the younger patients.

“I took this photo because sometimes you just look for something that’s a little fun, something you’re not going to expect to see,” Kim explained.