Haiti's generation of amputees

Peterson is ten. For two weeks he waited under the rubble, and when he was finally rescued his leg had to be amputated. The same was true for Keshna, Baltazar, Stevenson and Bedgena — who is only three months old. This was the fate of around forty thousand Haitian children, who are living with terrible injuries as a result of January's devastating earthquake.

Life after an amputation is much more difficult in Haiti than it would be in a more developed country: there are no public facilities for disabled people, and the streets are muddy and full of wreckage. At least 80% of Haitians also rely on their physical fitness for survival, taking on any available work and having to walk dozens of miles to reach food, water, medicines or school.

In February, while on assigment for Vanity Fair, I photographed a number of these children; some were recovering in hospital, while others were already returning to homes comprising a pile of rubble, a few rags hanging from a wooden pole or, at best, a tent.

At the same time, the non-profit organization N.P.H. launched a child prosthetics program. However, life will not be easy, even for those who receive a prosthesis: the children will need physiotherapy and practice to learn how to use their prosthetic limbs, and the device will have to be replaced once every six months or so until they have reached the age of 18 and finished growing.