Haiti: NGOs prepare for hurricane season

Q:

Are some members scaling back their work in Haiti?

A:

While some NGOs have scaled back emergency work, many have been involved in programs for decades and will continue doing those. Food For The Poor, for example, has been in Haiti since 1986 and, like others, plans to stay for many years to come. The American Red Cross expects to be working in Haiti for the next three to four years, building up capacity within the Haitian Red Cross as well as other local partners on the ground.

Q:

What kind of programs are NGOs, such as your members, involved with in Haiti?

A:

They cover a range of sectors, including health, shelter, water, sanitation, education, agriculture and providing jobs and livelihoods, which are much needed in Haiti. See InterAction’s Haiti mapping project for a better idea of who is doing what, where.

 Some highlights of achievements so far:

- The Red Cross network has completed more than 6,500 semi-permanent homes, provided sanitation facilities to more than 400,000 people and emergency shelter to 180,000.

- Food For The Poor has built more than 2,000 two-room concrete block houses since the earthquake and has completed 110 water projects throughout the country. It also has a feeding center in the capital where 14,000 people get hot meals twice a day, six days a week. Food For The Poor has 33 fishing villages along Haiti’s coasts.

- CARE has built 2,550 transitional shelters in Leogane and Carrefour areas, repaired 500 permanent homes to make them habitable and is also involved in building latrines in camps and furnishing schools and providing psychosocial support to families.

- UNICEF delivers clean water to more than 182,000 people; is distributing 11.5 million water purification tablets in camps and under-served communities. UNICEF has also reached more than 400,000 children with essential school supplies and is a key provider of immunization programs.  

- CHF International has completed over 5,000 shelters since the earthquake, including 2,000 light gauge steel-framed structures and over 3,000 timber framed shelters.

- The IRC currently maintains water and sanitation programs at 31 settlements for more than 100,000 people and has an extensive family reunification program that involves identifying separated children, ensuring temporary protection and care, tracing families, reunifying families and follow-up and monitoring. 

- The IRC has put to work more than 2,000 Haitians through an ongoing cash-for-work program that ensures equal access to employment opportunities for women. 

- Save the Children is in the process of building and/or renovating 51 schools and sanitation facilities that will help 11,575 children. STC is also helping 20,781 children access a full package of school health and nutrition (which includes deworming pills, vitamin A supplements, iron supplements, vision and hearing screening) in 108 schools.

Q:

How many staff do your members have in Haiti, both local and international?

A:

InterAction estimates our members have more than 7,600 local and international staff working in Haiti, although these figures fluctuate with staff rotations.

Q:

What are the needs for hurricane season?

A:

According to the latest “inter-cluster” analysis provided by the United Nations, stocks of food aid rations could cover the needs of at least 500,000 people for 21 days. Stocks of nutritional supplements for children under the age of 5, pregnant and lactating women, are enough to cover their needs for 90 days. Last month, the United Nations estimated a 42 percent water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) funding gap if there is an outbreak of cholera due to the rain and hurricane season. Other gaps are in child protection, education and agriculture.

Q:

How are NGOs preparing for hurricane season?

A:

NGOs are stocking up warehouses with items such as water, blankets, kerosene stoves, medical equipment and tarps and pre-positioning supplies to deal with the storms. This is all part of disaster preparedness and risk reduction efforts, which are obviously stepped up ahead of hurricane season, which starts on June 1. The American Red Cross has reached about 285,000 people with disaster-preparedness activities in camps and other communities since last year’s earthquake. Some of these activities include emergency first aid courses, training in early warning systems and projects such as digging ditches and sandbagging hillsides.

Over the past 18 months, NGOs have also worked hard to design hurricane-resistant homes— permanent and transitional—to cope better with the hurricane season. For example, CARE has distributed “shelter-reinforcement” kits to 20,000 families. It has also stockpiled oral rehydration solution, jerry cans and soap, in the likelihood that the heavy rains will lead to a spike in cholera cases. Also, CHF had completed several thousand shelters (including 2,000 light gauge steel-framed shelters and over 3,000 timber framed shelters) by the 2010 tropical storm season. Both models have already proven effective in providing Haitians with safe, sanitary housing during the storm season.

The IRC is carrying out targeted health and hygiene promotion training in advance of the rainy season. The IRC also maintains stocks of emergency items, including plastic sheeting, hygiene kits, water purification tablets and chlorine and is prepared to distribute the materials to people during the hurricane season in the communities and 31 camps where the IRC works.  In addition, NGOs are using mobile technology, sending out millions of text messages to describe steps that need to be taken to prepare for disasters.

Q:

What about those who live in tented camps? What’s the plan for them? Are there enough tents if there is a major emergency?

A:

Moving vulnerable Haitians into more stable, secure shelter is obviously a priority. But for those who are still in tents, there are major efforts to ensure they are safe if a big storm hits. The shelter cluster has estimated there are sufficient tents in stock to distribute in case of an emergency. The IRC distributes plastic sheeting as a temporary measure for people whose homes are damaged during the rainy season, as well as plywood, nails and other construction materials to make needed home repairs.

Q:

What are the biggest challenges facing your work in Haiti?

A:

There are still many challenges in post-earthquake Haiti. Among the most pressing are land tenure issues, forced evictions and rubble removal, which is still slow going. Finding the right staff, with the skills and experience required to deal with such a complex emergency and extricating relief goods from Haitian customs were among the main challenges for some InterAction members. Meeting the needs of people who leave the camps for other communities is also a major challenge. In addition, the government’s capacity is still limited and the lack of basic infrastructure (roads, electricity and sanitation) is a daily hurdle for both the NGO community and the local population.

Q:

How are you managing to work with the new government? How is coordination between international NGOs and local civil society?

A:

It is too early to say, but we are hopeful that we are off to a good start in coordinating our efforts with both the new government as well as local authorities. The “cluster” system set up by the United Nations has helped humanitarian groups to better coordinate their work and to address gaps and boost efficiency after disasters such as the earthquake in Haiti.

Q:

What is the current situation with cholera?

A:

Nearly 5,000 people have died from cholera since last October and by the end of April, more than 290,000 cases had been reported, according to Haitian health authorities. The cumulative fatality rate remains at 1.7 percent and there has been a resurgence of the disease in several communities in Artibonite, Nippes, Sud Est and Grande Anse, coinciding with the return of the rainy season.

We are concerned that there will be another spike in cases with the upcoming hurricane season and InterAction members are taking action to prepare for that, including massive hygiene promotion campaigns. NGOs are also distributing hygiene kits and doing door-to-door messaging to curb the spread of the disease and to encourage hand washing and other preventive measures. Obviously, a cholera outbreak slows down our work and requires us to be increasingly vigilant.

Q:

What is the food situation? Is it a crisis yet?

A:

Just as in other nations, spiraling global food and fuel prices are having a toll on Haiti too. The United Nations has reported severe acute malnutrition rates in the West and Southeast departments – in some cases two to four times higher than the national value. These rates were higher than expected and we are closely monitoring the situation.

Save the Children has distributed seeds (bean and corn) and tools (machetes and hoes) in advance of the harvest season. STC has also distributed goats and chickens in order to promote a diversified diet and improve poor families’ access to meat, milk and eggs. Save the Children has also promoted fresh food fairs. By providing vulnerable households with vouchers that are redeemable for fresh foods from local suppliers, families are able to diversify their diet. Preliminary results suggest household dietary diversity has increased.