Haiti Sitrep (3)
NEWS STORY | UPDATED: January 25, 2010
PHOTO: Paul Jeffrey/ACT Alliance
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND — Current situation
The situation continues to be desperate for the people affected by the earthquake in Haiti. Material aid is slowly reaching them but, due to the lack of data and weak government coordination, the organization and distribution of aid is still a challenge. Some incidents of fighting for aid have been registered but they are mostly due to lack of proper organization of the distribution.
The Government has declared the search and rescue phase over. Still people continue trying to find loved ones by scratching into the rubble with rudimentary tools. Otherwise, some normality is coming back to the country for the privileged ones unaffected by the earthquake. Gas stations and supermarkets are reopening and fuel and food are now available.
It is estimated that more than 130,000 people have moved from Port-au-Prince to the rural areas and provincial cities (some very vulnerable such as Gonaives) with the consequent negative impacts on the precarious economy in these areas. Fortunately, no reports of communicable disease outbreaks have been registered. The two big challenges now are to scale up the relief operation and the clean up of the rubble. The death toll is now at least 150,000 people.
Member Activities
ACT Alliance activities include:
Christian Aid
CA is implementing through its partners who have received funds to start implementation, although banks only start to operate regularly this week.
Food distribution: 200 families have already received food in the area of Delma, one of the most affected areas in the city. CA will continue distributing food this week in Delma and Cotes-de-Fer. They will also distribute hygiene kits received from CWS and which arrived in Port au Prince yesterday.
Health care: In coordination with Cuban doctors, CA has been providing health care in the area of Carrefour.
Needs assessment: CA partners have carried out needs assessments in Petit Goave, Leoganne, Delma and Cotes-de-Fer. CA is committed to support recovery and rehabilitation activities for the long term and it is looking for support from DFID.
External staff deployed: head of emergencies, one communicator, representative in Dominican Republic and Jamaica.
Challenges: Access to banks and logistics of getting material aid into the country.
Church World Service
CWS is implementing through its partners, to whom CWS has already provided cash. Partners have started food distribution and assistance to the disabled population they are targeting. A joint shipment, with LWR, of hygiene kits, baby kits, blankets and medicines has already arrived and will be distributed by CWS partners and also by CAID partners.
CWS in partnership with SSID has been providing logistical support to mobilize staff and materials from the DR for all ACT members in Haiti. SSID has rented two warehouses, one in Santo Domingo and another at the border, which is also providing lodging for people in transit between the two countries.
External staff deployed: a Latin America coordinator in Baltimore to Haiti, a Latin America representative in Argentina to Santo Domingo and a regional coordinator for Central America to Santo Domingo.
Challenges: Communication, transportation, traffic and securing a warehouse in PAP to store materials for the ACT Alliance.
Diakonie Katastrophenhilfe
DKH has managed to airlift all cargo received so far (17 tonnes of nonfood items and four health kits) to Jacmel where relief goods are being distributed through existing partners in coordination with local authorities and the UN-cluster system.
Further relief goods (1150 tents), which are expected to arrive in Santo Domingo during the week, will be transported to Jacmel.
Needs assessment: Assessments have been carried out in Bainet and Jacmel regions together with local partners.
External staff deployed: Acting country director, one logistician (based in Jacmel), one psychosocial support for DKH team members.
External staff expected: assessment expert, camp management expert
Challenges: Logistics, communication, road conditions
Lutheran World Federation
Port au Prince: LWF is already distributing water in three temporary settlements in Petionville, including St Theresse and Nerette. Water bladders with capacity of 20,000 litres have been installed in St Theresse and tanks of water are in process to be installed in Nerette. Awareness about storage of water and sanitation has been provided to the community by two health promotion teams. Cleaning implements for clearing the area where the settlement is based have been provided. In Nerette, LWF has already installed eight communal latrines, including separate latrines for children and women, to ensure their protection. Special attention is being given to people with disabilities who cannot reach the distributions of food and water. Female-headed households and mothers and babies are also a priority. In Petionville around 1700 families (around 10,000 people) have benefited by LWF intervention. Coordination with other INGOS working in the area is in process, as well as work with the municipality. However, the latter is proving to be very fragile and creating confusion among NGO actors.
Outside Port au Prince: Last week (January 20-21) an assessment was made in Leogane and Gressier. In Leogane, LWF will work in two areas: Grande Riviere and Petite Riviere. This was further confirmed in two meetings in Leogane with local authorities on January 23 on coordination related to water and early recovery (especially the cash for work alternative promoted by the UNDP). The total population targeted is 8000 families. In Gressier, LWF will work supporting 800 families.
Another mission went to Gressier today (January 25) to determine, with the local partner, the areas to distribute tents donated by FCA and to plan further action during this week. On January 26, negotiations with the Municipality of Leogane to determine actions and map other actors who want to work in the rural areas will be held. Few other actors will want to work in the rural areas as most attention is given to the city of Leogane. On January 27, LWF is going on an assessment mission to Petit Goaves. LWF will also support displaced people who have moved to Thiotte, an area of work of its regular program.
External staff deployed: CoS communicator, FCA emergency coordinators (2), DCA logistician, ELCA International program coordinator, LWF/Geneva advisor for the local Emergency Coordinator and Program officer for LAC from Geneva.
Challenges: Logistics of acquiring materials and getting materials in place; coordination with government; lack of proper data - information
Norwegian Church Aid
NCA is providing a water supply in Bel Air sector of PAP. NCA has established three sites for distributing water to benefit around 4000 people, and established eight latrines and provided training in water and sanitation. A psychosocial adviser is working with the communities. NCA has obtained medical equipment to provide medical services in its areas of work in coordination with specialized organizations. Food distribution will start this week in Bel Air. NCA will coordinate with the leaders in the settlements.
In Cite de Soleil, NCA is working with its partner, MOFECS. Water has been provided in four sites to benefit 2000 people. NCA has installed water bladder tanks.
NCA has been in contact with its church partners and will assess areas of cooperation tomorrow.
External staff deployed: coordinator, water and sanitation specialists (2), psychosocial adviser (2), communicator to Port au Prince. Emergency coordinator for Central America to Santo Domingo.
Challenges: Access to fuel; access to bladder tanks; technical solution for sanitation in the spontaneous settlements
Rapid Support Team
The four members of the team are in place and working in the coordination of the response. The communicator (Paul Jeffrey) and security advisor Sicko Pijpker arrived in Port au Prince on January 18. The team leader (Elsa Moreno) arrived in DR on January 19. On January 20, Elsa held a meeting with the ACT members operating in DR to coordinate their support to the ACT members in Haiti. On January 21 she arrived in PAP and had the first coordination meeting with all ACT members. On January 22, the preliminary appeal was put together and sent to the ACT Secretariat. The finance member of the team (Eric Celiz) was key in putting together the budgets for the preliminary appeal.
Paul Jeffrey started shooting images on January 19. His photos have been sent to Geneva and posted on the ACT website. In addition, they were shared with Associated Press and Agence France Presse by the ACT Secretariat and have appeared in media all over the world. Given the daunting challenges of getting around as well as the difficulties in communicating with others inside Haiti, he is focusing primarily on photography. It been agreed that another communicator will be deployed to work on the writing.
Sicko Pijpker has been providing support to ACT members since his arrival. He has assessed the security of some of the offices and has provided regular security sitreps. He has participated in the creation of a joint security initiative (InterAction-EISF-ACT-IOS). This initiative has started disseminating information on incidents and plans to provide advice and training to all the NGOs working in Haiti in the emergency response.
CWS in coordination with its partner SSID in the DR have provided a key support for the mobilization of materials and human resources into Haiti. The logistician seconded by DCA has also provided important support in assessing warehouse capacities for the members and in defining systems for the management of them.
Overall Challenges
- Lack of data and weakness of government institutions to coordinate relief efforts
- Lack of transportation and congested traffic in the city
- Logistics and lack of availability of materials in the country
- Decision by the government to resettle the displaced population or promote displacement to the rural areas
- To date, security for humanitarian workers is currently acceptable but there is a high risk the situation could degenerate if distribution and organization does not scale up rapidly.
Clearing House Function
DanChurchAid proposes hosting a ‘clearing house’ in Copenhagen to manage offers from individuals with technical or relief experience, logistical resources and requests from members in the field and their implementing partners. The clearing house will try to match job requests with offers. It will function from January 27 for a month.
The CVs of candidates with suitable profiles will be received in Copenhagen and distributed on request. The service does not include a quality check but indicates from whom the CV was forwarded and references attached. Requesting members need to send short profiles of the staff they require (four to five bullet points), describing minimum requirements. Other agencies are requested to share details of staff they may have available for this response, and indicate the degree to which the agency knows and has worked with them.
ACT Alliance – Possible talking points/messaging on Haiti
The ACT Secretariat, in cooperation with ACT members in Haiti, has produced a draft ‘talking points’ document in response to requests by members for ACT ‘positions’ on Haiti-related issues. While the note provides some ACT ‘positions’ especially on civil military relations, there are also some advocacy messages put forward by some of our members, as well as more general ‘talking points’ that can be used for discussions with donors or the media. Fields covered are: international coordination, ACT Alliance response and coordination, military involvement in humanitarian response/civil-military coordination, security, international adoption post Haiti, search and rescue (SAR) and aid delivery, recovery and reconstruction, protection, Haiti debt relief and learning from past disasters.
Haiti Preliminary Appeal (HTI101)
ACT Alliance has issued a preliminary appeal of $19,331,559, of which the balance requested is $11,116,353. 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 will support the appeal through secondments to members and partners. Project completion date is 21 January 2011.
