Response to Earthquake
Preliminary Appeal: HTI101 | Haiti Earthquake | OPEN
An earthquake of magnitude 7.0 struck Haiti on 12 January at 16h53, with the epicenter located 15 km south-west of the capital Port-au-Prince. On 19 January, at least 70,000 people were killed, with estimates up to 200,000 people that could have been killed in total.
The earthquake caused massive damage to the city already beleaguered with staggering poverty. An estimated 60-80 percent of buildings in Port-au-Prince were destroyed. More than one million people are without adequate shelter and no immediate prospect of accommodation in camps. Looting and violence are escalating as people compete for limited food and water supplies.
Relief efforts to date have been hampered by difficulties in getting supplies into Haiti because of damaged airport and port facilities, and intermittent closures of the border with Dominican Republic (DR). Collapsed infrastructure such as roads and bridges along with fuel shortages and communication difficulties are further complicating matters. Road congestion because if traffic once the fuel is available might be a problem as well.
According to UN OCHA report 11, FAO estimates that the number of people leaving cities for rural areas could reach one million, putting pressure on already vulnerable communities. Approximately 130,000 persons have already benefited from the free transportation offer from the government for those wishing to leave the city.
ACT alliance members have also been affected. Two colleagues, related to UMCOR, died. The building of Christian Aid and ICCO collapsed and buried a number of the staff who could be rescued within days, one staff with serious injuries.
ACT members have started a response within days. Members based in Haiti immediately started assessment of damage and needs. Members sent material and equipment for water purification systems, tents, and food aid. They have also collected funds. Members cooperated in organizing a collective assessment for the response. A Rapid Support Team has been deployed with a Coordinator, a Communicator, a Finance Officer and a Security officer to prepare the present preliminary appeal. The RST is led by the Lutheran World Federation as the chair of the ACT Haiti Forum. In addition and in close coordination with the RST, members also fielded staff to assess the needs and prepare the members’ response.
Requesting ACT members within the appeal are Christian Aid (CAID), Church World Service (CWS), Diakonie Katastrophenhilfe (DKH), the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) and Norwegian Church Aid (NCA). Other members plan to join the appeal and more members support the appeal through secondments to members and partners. Also, some members are responding to the earthquake through their direct partners.
Christian Aid plans activities in 9 communities of the Port-au-Prince neighborhoods and Nippes (Miragoane), providing support to its partners KORAL, GRAMIR, VETERIMED, and Service Chrétien d’Haiti (CWS partner). They plan to immediately provide food, tents, hygiene kits, blankets, jerry cans and water purifiers to 15,000 people in eight communities. CAID aims at scaling up its operations with the help of additional partnerships.
CWS, together with its partner Servicio Social de Iglesias Dominicanas (SSID) in the Dominican Republic will set up a logistical link between St Domingo and Port au Prince. CWS will distribute relief items, including baby care and relief items on both sides of the border.
DKH together with Caritas plans to distribute 34 tons of relief materials to Port-au-Prince including four million water purification tablets, jerrycans, tarpaulins, blankets and enough healthcare kits to last 10,000 people for three months. First truck loads of 7.5 tons to Jacmel were delivered on 23 January. DKH will focus its relief efforts on Jacmel and Bainet.
LWF is currently hosting ACT members at its compound, and besides the RST, serving as coordinator for the ACT response in Haiti. It is planning to assist 30,000 people in St Therese (Petion Ville), Gressier, Leogane and Ti Goave with emergency distributions of food, interventions in water, sanitation and health, shelter and psychosocial cares, and later in livelihood and cash for work activities. It will provide support to spontaneous settlements in the South East.
NCA and its partners Viva Rio, MISSEH and MOFECS will directly assist 24,000 people left homeless from the earthquake in Greater Bel Air and Cité Soleil with water, sanitation and hygiene, shelter, basic health care, psychosocial assistance and livelihood rehabilitation including cash for work and disaster risk reduction activities. On request of other ACT Forum members, NCA will provide technical WASH and psychosocial assistance.
Besides coordinating their effort together, from needs assessment to planning of the response, ACT members are also coordinating with the national Haitian system, the UN and other agencies, including sector/cluster coordination and other NGOs present in the country.
Other ACT members present on the ground are Church of Sweden (CoS), with psychosocial workers to support ACT members that request support, in their implementation, DanChurchAid, with a logistician facilitating the ACT response coordination, FinnChurchAid (FCA) working with NCA in wash and shelters, Interchurch Organisation for development Cooperation (ICCO) is monitoring the appliance of the Sphere standards throughout the relief phase and working through its partners in Haiti. Presbyterian Disaster Assistance (PDA), Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), International Orthodox Church Charities (IOCC), Lutheran World Relief (LWR) are considering to step up there presence. The Christian Reformed World Relief Committee (CRWRC) is proposed to be included in the full appeal, once membership issues are resolved.
The recovery and rehabilitation efforts will focus on agricultural production and access to water, possibly also on reforestation. Members will provide more details on both the relief recovery and rehabilitation in the full ACT appeal that is planned to be issued on mid-February 2010.
Project Completion Date: 31 January 2011
Signed by:
Jill Hawkey - Deputy Director
