Haiti's President Rene Preval has vowed that his country will live on, during a day of national mourning held a month after the earthquake struck.
He spoke at an emotional ceremony in the capital, Port-au-Prince, near the ruins of the National Palace.
"Haiti will not die, Haiti must not die," he told mourners.
At least 217,000 people died in the devastating earthquake on 12 January, which also left about 300,000 injured and one million homeless.
Representatives from Haiti's two official religions - a Catholic bishop and the head of the Voodoo priests, both robed in white - joined ministers from Protestant denominations for the main prayer service in central Port-au-Prince.
Thousands of people gathered for the ceremony in the shade of mimosa trees. President Preval wept during the service, and was comforted by his wife.
"Wipe away your tears to rebuild Haiti," he said in his address
I truly feel for the Haitians. However, they set a very good example- many of them have lost loved ones, yet the spent today thinking of their good memories and worshipping God. I will continue to pray for Haiti, the Haitians seem to get the worse luck. It cannot die.
Re: Haiti will not die, President Rene Preval insists
I believe natural disasters occur for a reason, only which Allah knows why. On the other hand, I also feel like everytime there is a catastrophe in the world, it only ever happens in poor, impoverished, 3rd world countries. My heart goes out to the Haitian people. But more alarmingly, I feel like this international attempt at raising profits for the victims is just an attempt for organizations to take the majority of the funds.
Unfortunately, there is always opportunity in devastation.
Re: Haiti will not die, President Rene Preval insists
Unfortunately, there is always opportunity in devastation.
A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity. An optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.
Winston Churchill
I do think the richer nations have indeed seen the opportunity here to help the Haitians, I gave a bit of money yesterday. It's brilliant to see that even in the face of such tragic disaster, human beings pull together to make things right.
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