Haitian Story of Triumph and Survival to Air During January
An award-winning documentary about hope and healing in the midst of the horrific aftermath of Haiti's 2010 earthquake will air throughout January on local television affiliates.
New Haven, CT, January 8, 2015 (Newswire.com) - An award-winning documentary about hope and healing in the midst of the horrific aftermath of Haiti’s 2010 earthquake will air throughout January on local television affiliates. Three young Haitian men featured in the film will attend a Vatican conference this week to mark the fifth anniversary of the tragedy.
“Unbreakable: A Story of Hope and Healing in Haiti” will air tonight (January 6) at 10 p.m. and later this month on St. Petersburg’s WUSF-TV, a PBS channel. The documentary will also be shown on WUSF on Saturday, Jan. 17, at 1, 4 and 10 a.m. and at 4 p.m. and other PBS affiliates around the country later this month.
The Jan. 12, 2010 earthquake killed well over 100,000 people and left another 1.5 million homeless. Additionally, thousands of people were seriously injured. As the events unfolded there were many stories of tragedy, but also of heroism and the resilient nature of the human spirit.
Winner of the Most Inspirational Documentary Award at the DocMiami International Film Festival in September, “Unbreakable” tells the story of the thousands of children who underwent emergency amputations and their involvement in the “Healing Haiti’s Children,” a program that offered free prosthetics and rehabilitation to every child injured in the earthquake.
The program was a partnership in which the University of Miami-affiliated Project Medishare provided medical expertise and treatment while the Knights of Columbus offered funding of nearly $1.7 million. To date, more than 1,000 children have received new prosthetic limbs in the program, which has also trained Haitians to continue both the fabrication and rehabilitation work.
“This film shows that when there is the will to do so, both in terms of those providing aid and those receiving it, lives can be saved and transformed by a program that is truly sustainable,” said Supreme Knight Carl Anderson, executive producer of the documentary. “The work of the dedicated medical staff and the unbreakable spirit of these Haitian young people in circumstances most of us can’t imagine, are truly inspiring.”
Not only did these young people survive, Supreme Knight Anderson explained, they thrived and some recipients even formed an amputee soccer team. The film follows the story of the formation of the team called Zaryen (tarantula), named after the resilient spider for its ability to continue living even after losing a limb.
Members of the team include Wilfrid Macena, Mackenson Pierre, and Sandy J.L. Louiseme — the Knights of Columbus’ guests for the Rome conference. The squad and its players have inspired not only Haitians, but also Americans, as the team traveled to the U.S. in 2011 to teach amputee soccer to troops who lost limbs in Iraq and Afghanistan.
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