Haiti: Six months after the earthquake - For a new beginning together with the Haitians

Haiti: Six months after the earthquake - For a new beginning together with the Haitians

Cologne/Port-au-Prince. It’s not just a question of reconstruction: the Haitians have to rebuild their country from the bottom. But rehabilitation can also be a big chance for Haiti. Now, after having finished the emergency relief phase, it will be important that people can quickly experience  the improvement of their living conditions and get involved and can participate in the further development of the relief programmes. At short notice, this still means providing access to primary health care and drinking water, joint clearing of rubble, repairing damages and building houses for the more than one million Haitians who lost their homes. 

In 2010, Malteser International, the relief service of the Order of Malta for worldwide humanitarian aid, plans to invest about 2.3 million Euros for relief programmes in Haiti. Please find below a short overview of the various programmes and projects:

Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH)

Malteser International is running three water treatment plants in the region of Petit Goâve together with its partners. 700 families have been provided with water storage devices and hygiene kits. Information and education campaigns are organised in Léogâne District in order to train communities and school classes and to raise awareness for the relationship between hygiene and health. In cooperation with the communities, sustainable drinking water and sanitation facilities are established. 

Health

Only some days after the earthquake, Malteser International was able to a carry out emergency medical relief with a team working in the Hospital “Saint François de Sales” that was only partly destroyed. Meanwhile, Malteser International provides basic health care for the population in Léogâne District in two temporary health centres and by mobile teams. Since 14 January 2010, around 16,000 people received treatment and medication in the health centres and more than 4.000 patients in the hinterland of the centres were treated by mobile medical teams.A special focus is set on mother-child-health. Improvements are achieved through better ante- and post-natal care, the training of midwives and the establishment of mother-support-groups. To reduce the mortality and morbidity of mothers and children, women are trained about hygiene and nutrition. Additionally, 1.000 children were vaccinated up to now. 

Schools

To enable a restart of education, Malteser International has set up 30 provisional classrooms with sanitary facilities in Léogâne District. 1,500 pupils received bags, exercise books, pens, pencils and other learning materials. Until September, Malteser International will pay the teacher’s remunerations. 

Livelihood including „cash for work”, education

Those who are living in the areas that were most severely hit by the earthquake have almost any possibilities to work and earn enough for their daily life. In close cooperation with the village communities, blocked access roads are being rebuilt by means of “cash for work” programmes. In the medium term, Malteser International will rebuild and reopen a vocational school in Darbonne in cooperation with a local partner. Especially youth and young adults need this new, long-term perspective to secure their income und thereby increase their self-help capacities. 

Disaster preparedness

Malteser International is implementing a network of safe, functional and resilient health facilities in Milot, Port-au-Prince, Léogâne District and Petit Goâve. This network will be formed by staff members of hospitals and health centres as well as by volunteers who are trained for emergencies and will act on a decentralised basis. Additionally, an early-warning system was installed in Port-au-Prince. 

General evaluation

Already before the earthquake, Haiti was an extremely poor country, and counts among the poorest countries of the Western Hemisphere. The supply with drinking water and sanitation facilities was insufficient; many people were starving and could not afford to buy food. Many children went to school only casually and many Haitians were barely integrated in political processes. On the contrary, in their daily life they encountered arbitrariness and corruption. It now is an enormous challenge for all relief organisations to break this vicious circle of violence, distrust and poverty in view of this wide-ranging catastrophe and all the damage it caused. Of course, many things proceed only slowly, but all in all not more slowly than after similar disasters in the past. “After reconstruction and rehabilitation, the situation in Haiti ought to be better than before the catastrophe“, Beate Maaß, Malteser International programme coordinator, summarises the aim of all humanitarian relief. “No expert can predict when this goal will be achieved”, Maaß continues.  But: “The Haitians look at our cooperation in a very positive way as they see that our words are followed by actions.” 

Attention editors:

Beate Maaß, Malteser International programme coordinator, will be available for interviews in English, French and German upon her return from her six months’ mission in Haiti – probably as of next Monday (12 July).

Julio Sosa-Calo, Malteser International programme coordinator in Darbonne, is available for interviews in Spanish and English. - (Contact +49 221 9822 155) 

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Donation Account 2020122; Pax-Bank Köln, von-Werth-Str. 25-27, D-50670 Köln, Germany,Sort Code : 370 60 193; IBAN : DE93 3706 0193 0002 0201 22; BIC: GENODED1PAX, Reference : “Earthquake Haiti”

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