Dates covered: January 27, 2010
AFFECTED POPULATIONS/NEEDS: New developments
The needs are still enormous in Haiti. While roads are starting to clear and food and aid relief is reaching hundreds of thousands of people, the toppled buildings, sprawling camps and tented homes set up on the roadside at sundown are sobering reminders of the long road ahead. Fears loom about the oncoming rainy season and the critical needs for emergency shelter and sanitation. Many Haitians describe the difficulty of grieving for their loved ones when they are without the means to perform burial rituals. CRS/Caritas Haiti staff perform to the best of their ability despite many having lost immediate family members and seen all that they own transformed into debris.
The Catholic Church of Haiti has expressed concerned about how to retrieve and recover its archives that remain buried at the bottom of the Cathedral Notre-Dame de L’Assomption in Port-au-Prince.
According to Reuters, Americans are on track to give more for Haiti than the 2004 Asian tsunami. This is despite a struggling economy.
PARTNERSHIPS AND COORDINATION
At the Nunciature in Port-au-Prince, a strategic meeting was held with the Papal Nuncio, three local Bishops, the President and Secretary General of Caritas Haiti, representatives from several dioceses in Haiti, and representatives from each of the Caritas Internationalis member agencies present in the country. The objective was to look at the strategy of collaboration and process for working effectively and in solidarity together.
PROGRAMMING
Distributions
To date, CRS/Caritas Haiti has distributed food to 96,283 people, and non-food items to 19,257 people.
Health
With strong support from USAID, the US Department of Defense, Maryland members of Congress and the Governor, a shock trauma team from the University of Maryland Medical Center (UMMC) will depart for Haiti this week on a U.S. military plane out of Andrews Air Force Base. This collaborative effort of CRS and the UMMC will consist of a 22 person team and carry 8,000 pounds of donated and purchased medical supplies, equipment and medications. 2
The remaining 4000 lbs. will be transported by air at reduced cost by UPS. The group will be led by Dr. Robert Redfield of the Institute of Human Virology and Dr. Thomas M. Scalea of Maryland Shock Trauma Center. Dr. Scalea and other Shock Trauma staff have unique expertise in the various types of traumatic injuries—orthopedic as well as spine and head injuries—that they expect to treat in Haiti. CRS Haiti anticipates the arrival of the group either Thursday or Friday.
Water and Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH)
CRS/Caritas Haiti has been struggling with lack of WASH material. The sanitation and hygiene materials that were pre-positioned in the wharf are inaccessible due to the serious damage to the berth of the port. As of this week, a new set of TDY-ers, Caritas Haiti and CI members have created a joint team to collaborate on activities and strategy. Materials will start arriving in the coming days. The focus will be primarily on sanitation (emergency latrines) and hygiene promotion. CRS/Caritas Haiti assessments indicate that water is available, but the needs at temporary settlement sites are large-scale storage as well as household storage containers.
Shelter
CRS/Caritas Haiti is providing major support for emergency and transitional shelter efforts. In general, the collaborative INGO/UN Shelter Cluster has two sub-groups:
Camp Planning - Setting up camps and temporary settlements, primarily concerned with site assessments in informal settlements. 500 sites have registered and need to be assessed. This group is also coordinating with the Food Cluster to formalize food and non-food needs in these temporary settlements.
Shelter Strategy – Trying to define shelter-wide consensus for various parts of shelter interventions. IOM is involved, as well as the following: UNHabitat, UNDP, INGOs, Donors, and the U.S. military. The strategy group produced a general overview document to assist agencies and the government with executing shelter activities. The strategy describes emergency shelter as tents or material kits composed of plastic sheeting and other NFIs. Four working groups have been established, focusing on the following specific areas of support:
Support of camp management on coordination of agencies
Establishing tech standards for assessing habitability and safety of buildings, and whether they should be demolished or not
Safety standards for debris clearing and cash-for-work activities
Standards of shelter kits for transitional shelters
LOGISTICS
The CRS/Caritas Haiti distribution teams are working to increase warehouse and transportation capacity. UN Common Services is opening a huge storage complex adjacent to the airport (east end, outside the airport). CRS/Caritas Haiti is looking to draw more on these services. 3
OFDA has significant stocks of relief supplies on the ground that are being managed by and allocated through the IOM. CRS/Caritas Haiti is checking on the availability of specific items, and will then follow the process for accessing them.
SECURITY
Badges are being made for all CRS and Caritas staff to ensure greater security and tracking of all personnel going in and out. Measures are being put in place to prevent people from bypassing security and the beneficiary services desk at the front gate.
In the larger context, the InterAction security situation report for Jan. 27 reported some incidents of people becoming angered with NGO staff, as well as some journalists taking photos of situations perceived as inappropriate. The report also indicated member organizations’ good practices leading to smoothly run food distributions. For example: “Meeting with beneficiary community leaders a day or two in advance; providing tokens or tickets to beneficiaries that they can exchange for rations; and explaining exactly what can be expected at the distribution are reportedly successful strategies. Many organizations are reporting that the presence of MINUSTAH escorts also serves to keep the distributions orderly. NGOs can request a MINUSTAH escort, one day in advance and in person, at the Logbase.”
MEDIA/CONSTITUENT OUTREACH/ADVOCACY
On January 27, the Migration and Refugee Services office (MRS) of the USCCB joined other international and US-focused agencies in a House of Representatives briefing about the protection needs of Haitian children, specifically on the situation facing children in Haiti, including a discussion on immediate care and protection responses, tracing and family reunification, adoption issues and best practices for long-term well-being.
With the finalizing of arrangements to send the University of Maryland medical team to Haiti, the communications team issued a press release today and pitched the story to the media. Yesterday the WFP conducted a food distribution at the Presidential Palace. The distribution became unruly and Brazilian UN troops used pepper spray to control the crowd. This received extensive media coverage, including footage on CNN. In contrast, today’s Washington Post story has just a paragraph on the orderly CRS distribution at Pétionville. This was not something the CRS media team pitched.
Other media coverage includes:
The Washington Post, Brazilian soldiers spray tear gas at crowd of Haitians rushing for food aid, CRS mention of orderly food distribution at Pétionville, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/26/AR2010012603972.html
The NY Daily News, Boro shoppers and students open wallets to help Haiti, mention of school collection for CRS, http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/queens/2010/01/26/2010-01-26_boro_shoppers_and_students_open_wallets_to_help_haiti.html
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Orlando Sentinel, Bishop: Church Plays Critical Role in Haiti, Q&A with Bishop Wenski, no CRS mention, but article featured 2 photographs by Sara Fajardo which were credited. No link.
South Bend Tribune, Notre Dame raises $250,000 for Haiti assistance, CRS mention,
http://www.southbendtribune.com/article/20100127/News01/1270315/1130
WBAL Radio, Shock Trauma Dr Speaks To Resiliency Of Haitians And Mission Ahead, CRS mention of U .Md. partnership, http://wbal.com/apps/news/templates/story.aspx?articleid=44560&zoneid=3
WYPR, Baltimore’s NPR affiliate, Midday with Dan Rodricks, interview with Lane Hartill from Port-au-Prince, archived in the noon to 1 p.m. show, Jan. 26. Also, Monday, Jan. 18, noon to 1 p.m. http://www.wypr.org/midday.html
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