AN accountant will spend Easter counting the devastating cost of the earthquake in Haiti.

Chris Fyfe, a 43-year-old father-of-three, has been helping relief workers deal with the aftermath of the January 12 disaster, which killed an estimated 200,000 people, since last week.

Mr Fyfe, who lives in a narrowboat near Kirtlington, will miss his youngest son’s third birthday while he works as an emergency finance manager for children’s charity Plan International.

He said: “My job is to help the effort by ensuring that the money people have generously donated is properly managed, and used for the correct purpose, so that we can tell the people how we used the money they gave us.

“I am a bit sad at spending Easter away from my children. However, I bought Easter eggs for them before I left, which they will get on Sunday.”

Mr Fyfe will be in the country for a month. So far he has worked in the capital Port-au-Prince and the southern city of Jacmel.

He said: “The charity is part of the relief effort and they are busily involved in clearing collapsed schools and rebuilding temporary ones, providing safe areas for children to play, providing support to children and teachers who are suffering from trauma, and providing mobile clinics and immunisations.

“There is still a lot of work to do. The scale of the devastation is unimaginable, with collapsed buildings and rubble all around.

“The effort is continuing to clear collapsed buildings and to ensure that people made homeless are in secure tents before the rains come.

“Every piece of spare ground, from parks to football pitches, seems to be covered in tents, but there are still many people waiting for tents to arrive.

“I had a three-hour car journey over the mountains yesterday and the damage caused by the earthquake is everywhere – mostly collapsed buildings, but also ripped-up roads and landslides for miles and miles.

“However, the efforts to clear up after the damage are well under way and all along the route I could see teams of people clearing collapsed buildings.”

The Oxford charity Mango, which helps aid agencies with their financial management, put Mr Fyfe in touch with Plan International.

Mr Fyfe has 15 years of development experience and joined Mango a year ago to help in humanitarian crises.

He has previously worked across Africa, the Middle East, Latin America and the Caribbean, and has worked at Oxford University for two-and-a-half years.