For many Haitian children like Madeline, the earthquake was far from the first destructive event in her life.

She has witnessed more pain and trauma in her tender 12 years than most people will thankfully experience in their lifetime.

Neglected by her parents, her life story so far is a catalogue of being moved from place to place, abuse and abandonment.

She has been disowned by her mother who is now believed to be in the notorious City Soleil slum and she fled from her violent and abusive stepfather.

“One day, he threatened to cut off my head,” she tells us in a small voice, “I was so terrified, I ran out of the house and away.”

Like many street children, she was quickly preyed upon by traffickers and sent to work as a restavec, a domestic slave. The whip scars on her skinny legs and back, the testament of how exactly she was treated.

But Madeline is one of the relatively lucky ones. The police eventually picked her up and she was referred to social services – who passed her on to Marline Moudesin. She could not have come into better hands.

A former adoptee herself, Marline runs the Centre d’Action Pour Le Development (CAD) – with which Plan has been supporting for several years.

Plan Haiti staff were actually working on a major proposal to improve CAD when the earthquake struck.

Some 49 boys from the centre had already been transferred from a CAD centre in the capital Port au Prince – to a newer, purpose-built centre in the countryside setting of Guantier.

Tragically though, 12 girls were still in the city centre base when the quake shook the building to pieces.

Marline was driving to pick up some propane gas for the centre at the time – where she also lives with her own three children.

“I just thought ‘oh my god’ the children are in the centre. I prayed – ‘Jesus, Mary, Joseph – why I was not there.”

Local people helped rescue the survivors, including Marline’s own children who had been upstairs doing their homework. But others were not so lucky.

Five of the girl, including Madeline’s best friend and youngest girl – Lovely, 8, were crushed in the collapse.

It took some three days to recover their small bodies.

Madeline herself was injured by falling masonry but managed to run from the building through a corridor and squeeze through a newly-appeared gap in the wall to escape to safety.

“I’m fine,” she says, when asked but admits she is still scared of aftershocks. She is a resilient young woman, but still clings to the hands of adults. She will be among the first to receive psycho-social support to ease her trauma.

The area where she lived in the old centre, Carrefour Failles, is one of the most devastated in the capital. She falls silent when she revisits for the first time.

Local authorities are now moving many people to outlying rural areas. And there are many thousands of orphaned, lost and abandoned ‘quake children’ who are also being moved out of Port au Prince.

There is great concern that they should not fall into the hands of child traffickers who can sell them on as domestic workers and sex slaves.

“I know of families in trouble who have given away their children to domestic servitude because they don’t have enough money,” says Marline, “they are desperate.”

Marline and CAD are now bracing themselves for the imminent arrival of around 200 children transferred from Port au Prince – many of whom were injured, some orphaned – and all traumatised.

Marline receives all children with open arms. But her big-heartedness will have a donwnside.

The centre desperately needs help and simply more space in which to put the children. Currently a UNICEF marquee will be the home for the new arrivals until the extension is complete.

Plan has promised to supply the centre with a minibus to transport the children and supplies, increased security and to continue the skills training such as IT lessons which it has been running there.

The centre also has a good track record in tracing and reuniting parents and children, where appropriate.

So with many thousands of vulnerable children to be dealt with, the project to improve facilities and extend CAD now has a greater urgency.

“If this centre didn’t exist. These children would all be on the street again,” said Marline.

Madeline says she wants to be a nurse. Only time will tell if her dream can become a reality.