The international community, pained and overwhelmed, can only resort, in desperation, to humanitarian assistance.

Was it a desire... a loving, dominating desire to help the sufferer... to lighten her pain, to save her?

The European Union reiterates its willingness to participate in the reconstruction of Haiti and to do everything in its power to support emergency aid programmes for the suffering population.

Care giving, as illustrated by our case, includes what happens when hope and consolation are abandoned, when theodicy ends, and when all there is to do is to be present with the sufferer, sharing his or her suffering by simply and usually silently being there.