Linda Ellerbee on Haiti One Year Later: "We Cannot Afford to Let Haiti Get Lost in the Rear View Mirror"

Award-winning journalist and Nick News correspondent Linda Ellerbee returned to Haiti for the one-year anniversary of the catastrophic January 12, 2010 earthquake — which killed more than 200,000 people and left over one million homeless — to document the ongoing struggle of Haiti's children in "Haiti Rising? Life in the Ruins," premiering Sunday, January 9 at 9 p.m. Premier Guide Miami sat down to find out what that means — and what comes next.

On January 12, 2010, a catastrophic 7.0 earthquake ripped through Haiti, crumbling Port-au-Prince, killing more than 200,000 people, and leaving over one million adults and children homeless. One year later, award-winning journalist and Nick News correspondent Linda Ellerbee returned to document the ongoing struggle of Haiti's children in "Haiti Rising? Life in the Ruins," premiering Sunday, January 9 at 9:00 p.m. ET/PT on Nickelodeon. According to UNICEF, 90% of schools in Haiti were destroyed or damaged. A group of professionals were working to build schools from repurposed shipping containers.

On what Haiti's children are saying one year later: "It is a sad story in the world. They do not look at it as the one year anniversary; they look at it in terms of how many of them still don't have homes, still don't have food, running water, sanitation. We are talking about a country that was in a terrible state before the earthquake and is in no better shape afterwards. I don't think they look at it as we do — here is the news, here is the first anniversary. They look at it as an ongoing struggle to stay alive, to eat, to get an education, and to have a better life."

On whether Haiti's children feel neglected and forgotten: "I think they do. If you ask them, they would say, 'Well all the media was here for a few months after the earthquake happened. Where are they now?' The spotlight on Haiti has disappeared, which is why we wanted to do this story a year later — to go back, let us have a reality check."

On how close Haiti is to being lost to the world: "They are very close to being lost. They got a lot of attention when the earthquake hit and there are still Angels working in hell there. I don't mean there is nobody trying to help, but the world goes on. The world moves on, and the next big story takes over, and we forget about Haiti."

On the message to American kids: "What we want American kids to pick up from this show is that the world is so much smaller than you think, and Haiti could be us. We the world cannot afford to let Haiti get lost in the rear view mirror."

On schools built from repurposed shipping containers: "That is the most fascinating story. Just imagine, you are standing there looking at this devastated place — and what can you do with anything you got? There were these containers that were used to transport supplies, and some smart person made schools out of the containers. Talk about a real case of making lemonade out of a lemon."

On what we can do to help: "There are any number of non-government organizations that do really good work there. The thing that we can most do is not let it die — talk about it. The next time you are at a dinner party say, 'Do you know what is going on in Haiti?' Or the next time you are with a group of kids say, 'Do you know what happened to Haiti?' What we can do is not let Haiti disappear in our rear view mirror."

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