One year on from the Haiti earthquake disaster, Richard Lemmer reviews Channel 4 programme The Miracle Baby Of Haiti; and wonders what real impact it may have had on it’s viewers…

A hypothetical situation. You visit a hospital. It is overcrowded, barely operating, in the middle of a country that has been reduced to rubble. You discover a baby girl, no right arm, burns on her right leg, and part of her skull, black with disease, visible at the back of her head. She is one of countless orphans in the hospital. She is going to die. You have the ability to save her life with minimal cost yourself. So, understandably, you do your best to save her life. It works. Later you discover she is not an orphan, she has a family, and you decide to return her to her mother. But the country is still in bad state of repair. The girl will need medical attention for the rest of her life. At home, clean drinking water is a precious commodity, let alone cutting edge medical attention. At what point do you stop caring about the girl?

Landina’s story makes good television one year after the earthquake. But lose interest in Landina, you lose interest in the show

This Christmas, Channel 4 viewers were inadvertently asked this question via the show, The Miracle Baby Of Haiti. For precisely one hour, the viewer was asked to care deeply about the plight of Landina Seignon. Landina was a victim of last year’s earthquake in Haiti, which latest reports say left over one million people homeless in excess of 220,000 dead. Out of all that suffering, Landina’s story makes good television one year after the earthquake. But lose interest in Landina, you lose interest in the show. Afterwards, if you stayed watching Channel 4, you could watch Morgana Robinson’s big and silly character-based comedy sketch show. She impersonates Fern Cotton and staples her boobs to a banister. Then she pretends to die.

Whilst a show like The Miracle Child Of Haiti does a lot of good, how much good can one hour of caring produce? Is it okay to indulge in some light comic relief, in the form of celebrity knockers stretched to absurdity, so quickly after caring about a real person‘s genuine pain? After reading this feature, what exactly is the appropriate course of action that means your reading this wasn’t just you using someone else’s pain to kill ten minutes in your day? When is it okay to stop caring?

This is a question that undoubtedly gives Dr David Nott sleepless nights. After taking Landina back to the UK for emergency surgery, Notts and a team of journalists and charity workers were able to reunite Landina with her mother. Her mother came to visit her lost daughter in the UK, also experiencing her first trip on a plane and her first trip on an escalator. The show ends with Landina celebrating her first birthday in comfort in England, but her future remains uncertain. As her mother says, Haiti is no place for her daughter.

Over 3000 people have died from cholera since the first outbreak in mid-October 2010. Earlier this month, Ban Ki Moon, UN Secretary General, called for more funds to fight the epidemic. An appeal for $164 million to combat the cholera outbreak has so far only raised 21% of the total needed. But even before the earthquake and its repercussions, Landina lived in a slum, in a country where unemployment was believed to be around 60% and GDP per person was just over £700. In the UK, it is £22,000.

'Just as I can't help Landina and then leave her, so governments shouldn't abandon Haiti'

“In one respect (Landina) is a microcosm of Haiti,” Nott told The Daily Telegraph. “She shows the importance of following through. When the earthquake happened, people felt sorry. Billions of dollars of aid money was promised. Where is it? Haiti is worse than it was 10 months ago. It's an open sewer. Just as I can't help Landina and then leave her, so governments shouldn't abandon Haiti.”

Can the same demand be made to the millions of generous people who donated money to Haiti a year ago? If it isn’t acceptable for a blameless child to grow up in a disaster zone, is it more acceptable for that blameless child to grow up in a slum? Is it acceptable to give a pound you can spare once, or should you keep giving that spare pound - sacrifice the can of coke, the cheeky Mars bar, a bare minimum tip at a chain restaurant? Is precisely one hour of caring enough?

Words: Richard Lemmer

Photos: Susan Barry

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Disclaimer: This is an opinion piece by Richard Lemmer and is not necessarily reflective of Christian Aid or Ctrl.Alt.Shift views.