Haiti in hope and despair: The boy craving a hug after a week buried alive and the schoolgirl killed by police for looting

Little boy lost and found: Kiki stretches out his arms to his sobbing mother after being pulled from the rubble


With his arms wide open and eyes sparkling with joy, he is handed over to his weeping mother's embrace.

This seven-year-old boy named Kiki was pulled yesterday from the rubble of his home after being trapped for nearly eight days.

He and his elder sister Sabrina were in their home in Port-au-Prince when the devastating earthquake struck Haiti last week.

All hope seemed to be lost for the pair since rarely last more than three days without food and water.

But their mother remained by the ruins of the house praying for their survival. And yesterday she was there to call out words of comfort to her children as a U.S. rescue team lifted away the shattered concrete which buried them.

Kiki and Sabrina were gaunt but unharmed, and were treated in an Israeli field hospital where they were reunited with their father.

'It is a miracle, an absolute miracle,' said Dr David Cash of Virginia Task Force Two after treating Sabrina. 'She is in remarkable shape. It is an unbelievable feeling.'

Incredibly, it was only one of several incidents which brought hope yesterday to the benighted people of Haiti.


Hauled to safety: Kiki is handed over to a rescuer by a fireman after being pulled out of the ground


Safe: The survival of Kiki (left) and his sister Sabrina (right) has been hailed as a miracle


Recovery: Kiki lies still for treatment after his dramatic rescue


But while the images of survivors being pulled alive brought joy and hope, there was further heartbreak on the capital's streets after a girl of 15 was shot dead as a suspected looter.

Fabienne Geismar had survived the quake which devastated the family home but died in its aftermath, lying face down in her own blood beside the rubble and the worthless pictures she was said to have been stealing.

Her father Osam, sister Samantha and brother Jeff had watched helpless as she was cut down by a bullet.

They returned with a cart to collect her body. Her mother Armante stood wailing, barely able to stand as she was supported by relatives.


Lifeless: Fabienne Geismar died after being shot by police. The pictures she had looted lie beneath her face


Overwhelming sorrow: Armante Cherisma cries in front of the body of her daughter


It is unclear whether police deliberately aimed at looters who had targeted properties destroyed in the earthquake, or had been firing warning shots over their heads.

Fears of widespread violence and looting have eased in Haiti as U.S. troops provided security for water and food aid deliveries, and thousands of displaced Haitians heeded the government's advice to seek shelter outside Port-au-Prince.

While military escorts still are needed to deliver relief supplies, the United Nations said security problems were mainly in areas considered 'high risk' before the quake.

'The overall security situation remains stable,' said the UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

Across the city, there was cause for celebration as a woman of 69 was found in the ruins of the Roman Catholic cathedral.

As each hour went by, Ena Zizi had known that her chance of rescue was drifting away but she never gave up hope. Yesterday, in what was being described as 'the Miracle of the Cathedral', Mexican firemen with thermal imaging equipment detected her heartbeat in the wreckage and then heard her weak voice.


Parched but alive: Ena Zizi is given her first drink in a week


'I'm all right ... sort of,' she croaked as, covered in a thick layer of dust, she was lifted on a sheet of wood away from the spot she feared would be her tomb.

Reaching with her frail arms for a sip of water, she gulped it down - and then thanked God for her survival and rescue. She said that immediately after the quake she spoke with a vicar who was also trapped nearby. But after a few days he fell silent, and she spent the rest of the time praying and waiting.
'I talked only to my boss, God,' she said.

Members of the rescue team, which was created in the aftermath of the Mexican earthquake in 1985, wept as Ena emerged. Doctors who examined her said she was badly dehydrated and had sustained a dislocated hip and broken leg.

Her son, Maxime Janvier, said he had never given up hope that she would be found. 'We were praying a lot for that to happen,' he said. 'Now she has been given back to us.'

Elsewhere in the capital, a smiling and singing 26-year-old Lozama Hotteline was carried to safety from a collapsed store in the Petionville neighbourhood by the French aid group Rescuers Without Borders.

And in another extraordinary escape, it emerged yesterday that a man rescued after three days under six storeys of rubble had used his iPhone to look up ways of treating his own injuries while still trapped.

American film maker Dan Woolley, who is in Haiti to make a documentary for a charity, downloaded a first aid application and followed the instructions to make a bandage and tourniquet for his fractured leg. He was also able to stop the bleeding from his head wound and set the alarm to go off every 20 minutes so he would not drift off into unconsciousness.


source: dailymail