Haiti: ACT Distributions Continue in Remote Areas
NEWS STORY: Sandra Cox UPDATED: January 21, 2010
PHOTO: Paul Jeffrey/ACT Alliance
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND — Medical teams, experts and tonnes of food, household items and tarpaulins from ACT Alliance members and partners continue to reach Haitians made homeless.
The strength of ACT Alliance – its well-established members on the ground – is proving its worth in the devastated country.
Clement Celis was in the shower in Leogane, southwest of Port-au-Prince, when the earthquake struck. Her daughter was in the living room. “Everything was moving from side to side and there was nothing to hold to. It was like being caught up in a giant wave,” the 45-year-old said. She ran out of the bathroom and managed to get herself and her 21-year-old daughter out of the house just before it collapsed. Her three sons also survived but she has not heard from her husband.
Today she received two 5-gallon jerry cans, plastic sheeting for shelter and a blanket from ACT Alliance. For days, an ACT member had been trying to land a plane from Belgium at Port-au-Prince airport where problems with air traffic control made landing difficult. The plane finally arrived, loaded with four portable hospitals, medical equipment and large tents for schools and administration buildings. Some of the cargo was transported by UN troops to Leogane. The rest is awaiting helicopter airlift to Jacmel which has no road access.
Another ACT member has sent five medical teams of 8-10 doctors and nurses to Jacmel, Leogane, Petit Goave, Carrefour and Matissant. ACT has also organised groups of young people with primary health care skills to do play therapy with children.
In Darbonne, a rural community just outside Leogane, ACT has been distributing hand torches, t-shirts and raincoats, taken from a stock in Port-au-Prince. This material was to be delivered to another part of the country but given the intense needs since the earthquake, this material went to Darbonne instead.
Sixteen-year-old Christella Petit-Frere has been living in a plastic structure in a football field in Darbonne since her house was destroyed. She was at a meeting in a church when it happened. “It felt like the earth was going to open up and swallow me. I ran as fast as I could to get out of the building, but it was very hard as the ground was moving all the time.”
ACT is organising a system of communal cooking so Darbonne residents like Christella receive one square meal every day.
Another ACT member has got 45 tonnes of tents and water purification equipment into Haiti, enough to provide 5000 people with clean water. Presently, many people are drinking contaminated water, risking the spread of disease. These recipients will also get shelter when a tent camp is erected.
ACT Alliance members referred to in this story are:
Christian Aid
Diakonie Katastrophenhilfe
Norwegian Church Aid
