HAITI - Initial Phase of Priority Relocations Completed
- IOM has completed the initial phase of priority
relocations of Haitians displaced by the January 12 earthquake,
helping to move more than 7,300 people from dangerous areas in
Port-au-Prince’s Petionville Club golf course, and the Vallée de
Bourdon.
More than 4,900 people from almost 1,300 families chose to move
from the golf course to a new site at Corail Cesselesse, which was
initially managed by IOM but is now under the management of the
American Refugee Council (ARC).
Meanwhile, almost 2,400 people from more than 500 families moved
from the isolated Vallée de Bourdon to the new site at Tabarre
Issa, which is managed by the aid agency Concern.
Movement to new sites was and continues to be a last resort option
for Haiti’s displaced population, on offer to populations deemed to
be in priority areas at risk of flooding, mudslides or other
immediate hazards.
It came as part of a range of voluntary options supported by
humanitarian actors, including a return to houses identified as
structurally sound, or moving in with a host family.
“This operation was about getting people out of immediate danger”,
said Giovanni Cassani, IOM’s head of camp management and camp
coordination. “It went fast, and it went through successfully –
ahead of the onset of heavy rains”.
IOM and partners, led by the Government of Haiti, are now in the
process of identifying new priority sites for potential
relocations, taking into account the Haitian people’s desire for a
resumption of normal life – such as the reopening of schools – as
well as the need to address emerging environmental health risks.
Meanwhile, IOM’s camp management team is launching a major new
process of information gathering around Port-au-Prince, aimed at
identifying the specific needs and priorities of the almost 900
camps in the urban area.
Multidisciplinary teams will fan out across the city and work
closely with municipal authorities, Haiti’s civil defence
department, camp committees, and the general population to identify
priority infrastructural needs.
The work comes alongside IOM’s continued registration exercise,
which has now covered more than 450,000 people and provides crucial
information to actors across the humanitarian community.
IOM has also trained 370 people from 80 organizations in camp
management practice and standards, as part of its role as lead
agency in the international emergency response’s Camp Coordination
and Camp Management cluster.
Short videos of both relocations can be found in the IOM website, or on the OIMIOM YouTube channel.
http://www.youtube.com/user/OIMIOM#p/a/u/0/fHkiojcxZHY
http://www.youtube.com/user/OIMIOM#p/a/u/1/TYlgBTtodbs
For more information, please contact Mark Turner at IOM Haiti,
Tel: +509 37025066 or +509 34906678; email mturner@iom.int or
markyturner@yahoo.com
SUDAN – Assistance Reaches Millions of Displaced and Returnee Individuals in Darfur - More than 4 million Non Food Items (NFIs) were delivered to conflict and disaster affected populations in the three states of Darfur over the past year by IOM Sudan, in its role as sole Transportation Partner supporting the NFI Common Pipeline for Darfur and the rest of Northern Sudan.
Following the March 2009 expulsion of 13 international and local NGOs from Sudan, IOM stepped in to help fill the humanitarian gap by providing transportation services to re-establish the life-saving NFI Common Pipeline (CP).
More than 1.3 million blankets, 700,000 plastic sheets, 800,000 jerry cans and 1 million sleeping mats, as well as cooking sets and mosquito nets were distributed by IOM and NFI CP partners, to 300 plus locations throughout Darfur, benefiting more than 3 million people, including displaced populations and those returned to their places of origin.
As the sole transportation partner for the NFI CP, IOM is responsible for all transport and delivery of Non Food Items from CP warehouses to cooperating partners’ final distribution locations in the region.
The NFI CP programme is currently managed by the United Nations Joint Logistics Centre (UNJLC) and relies on the support of UNICEF and more than 30 international organizations and NGOs to procure and deliver NFIs.
The NFI Common Pipeline was established in 2004 and is the main provider of non-food and emergency shelter items in the North of Sudan to families who have lost their household possessions as a result of conflict or natural disaster.
For more information, please contact Raluca RADUTA at IOM Khartoum, Tel: +249 (0) 922 406 671, Email: rraduta@iom.int, or Nasir Alatrakhchi, Tel: +249 (0) 922 406 645, Email: nalatrakhchi@iom.int
