Though it's been more than a month since Haiti was hit by a massive earthquake, hundreds of thousands of people are still homeless and many others are still missing.
But with the media glare slowly shifting away from the disaster, there is fresh concern and mounting frustration over the pace of relief and the flow of information coming out of the country.
For Montreal's Jocelyne Bitton, whose son Alexandre is still unaccounted for, the wait is becoming excruciating.
"He's still missing, and from what we've heard, he hasn't been recovered," she told CTV.ca in a telephone interview on Sunday.
Alexandre, a 36-year-old father who worked in the computer business, arrived at the Montana Hotel moments before the quake struck on Jan. 12.
While Bitton understands the immensity of the relief effort and the pressures on Canadian officials, she said the family has heard next to nothing about their son.
"I don't blame them for that. (There are) so many Canadians lost in such a large catastrophe, but it's been a month. What we ask is to have one person onsite … just post it so we can have the information."
Bitton said family members are considering travelling to Haiti themselves, despite the risks involved. She said that the family of missing Canadian Tran Trieu Quan managed to identify their loved one after making a similar trip.
However, with 217,000 estimated deaths in the country following the quake, finding Alexandre could be very difficult.
In a statement released earlier this week, Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon said that Canada has mounted a "rapid and comprehensive" humanitarian and consular response to the disaster.
On Sunday, a spokesperson for the Department of Foreign Affairs told CTV.ca that the updated numbers for Canadians in Haiti are:
- 56 Canadians still unaccounted for
- 1,912 Canadians located
- 4,240 Canadians evacuated on 45 flights
- 31 Canadians confirmed dead
So far, Canadians have donated $145 million for Haitian relief, and Ottawa says it has earmarked $135 million "for humanitarian assistance, relief and reconstruction efforts."
Aid efforts focus on shelter
On the ground in Haiti, meanwhile, aid workers have shifted their strategy away from providing tents to the homeless. Instead, they are asking for more patience as temporary shelters are built.
According to workers, tents are too expensive and flimsy. Still, Haitians have been forced to live under tarps and other makeshift shelters.
"A tent would give us more space. There are too many people in here," said Marie-Mona Destiron, a local woman, on Sunday.
She told The Associated Press that the rain leaks through the family's donated tarp and the sunlight makes the temperature sweltering during the daylight hours.
About 1.2 million Haitians have been displaced by the quake, including 770,000 in the capital of Port-au-Prince alone.
So far, only 49,000 tents have reached the country, where 250,000 families are without proper shelter.
However, by May 1, workers hope to have handed out a tarp to each of those families.
Following that effort, shelters with corrugated iron roofs will be built, providing each family with about 18 square metres of space. The unit cost will be about $1,000.
With files from The Associated Press
