The US government’s Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance USAID/OFDA has confirmed that helicopters would be made available to support distributions at sites that have been previously assessed for helicopter landing.
A consignment of 1,185 family-size tents purchased by IOM is expected later today in Port-au-Prince. The Organization will also be taking delivery in the next 48 hours of a donation from the UK of 350 “shelter boxes” for distribution. Each box contains a 10-person tent, survival equipment including blankets, water purifiers, mosquito nets, tools such as axes and shovels, a stove, kitchen equipment and materials for children. The box itself can be used for water storage or a child’s cot.
The UK charity ShelterBox has itself established three separate operational centres in and around Haiti to help distribute assistance to the estimated one million people left homeless by the devastating 12 January earthquake.
IOM will also take delivery of 2,130 UNHCR light weight tents and 18,500 plastic sheets that are scheduled to arrive early next week from its logistical hub in Dubai.
However, IOM’s stocks of pre-positioned non-food items are decreasing rapidly as are its fuel supplies.
Coordinating the emergency shelter and non-food relief response to the crisis, IOM has also been working to get a clearer picture on those left homeless or who are now displaced by the earthquake. The Organization has recorded 106 population concentrations, including 63 sites identified by the Haitian government at the weekend.
Yesterday, a second day of assessments were carried out at a possible site for a large temporary settlement at Croix des Bouquets, 13 kms northeast of Port au Prince by IOM, the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) and Haitian government officials.
With the scale of the damage imposing logistical constraints that are hampering the distribution of aid to victims, the aim is to facilitate comprehensive aid delivery to a large number of earthquake victims.
IOM is also supporting the Haitian government’s priority for a rapid return to economic activities through the establishment of food and cash-for-work programmes, and through efforts to remove rubble from affected areas.
The removal of debris would not only provide employment and income for beneficiaries but would also help the future return and reintegration of displaced people and reconstruction efforts as well as help ease growing frustrations at the lack of sufficient assistance among earthquake survivors.
Following a succession of hurricanes and floods which devastated large areas of Haiti and displaced tens of thousands of people in 2008, IOM launched in partnership with the Haitian authorities a large scale waste, rubble and mud removal programme.
This initiative, part of a USAID-funded emergency recovery and community stabilization programme, helped generate employment for more than 67,000 individuals in 2009.
As part of an initial appeal launched last week, the Organization is asking for US$30 million to provide emergency shelter, non-food assistance, track internal displacement and among other things, establish a cash-for work programme that would include rubble removal.
So far IOM has received US$ 7 million from OFDA/USAID, US$ 1.2 million from the UN Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF), US$50,000 from Argos Cement Company of Colombia with another US$250,000 pledged from the Clinton Foundation to support ongoing relief operations and future rebuilding efforts. However, as the situation evolves, the Organization will be revising its appeal.
Private donations can be made to IOM through the IOM website at www.iom.int and in the United States at http://www.usaim.org/PROJECTHaiti.asp
Meanwhile, at Haiti’s border with the Dominican Republic, IOM staff report many Haitians are accumulating at border hospitals in search of medical treatment for themselves or their relatives. Those who have already received attention are asking for help to return home.
Doctors working at border sites are preparing for the next wave of people who they think will be arriving with untreated festering wounds, mostly due to unset bone fractures.
For further information, please contact Niurka Pineiro at IOM Port-au-Prince on +881 651 499 753, email pineiro@iom.int or Jean Philippe Chauzy or Jemini Pandya, IOM Geneva, Tel: + 41 22 717 9361/+ 41 79 285 4366, Email: pchauzy@iom.int and + 41 22 717 9486/+ 41 79 217 3374 Email: jpandya@iom.int respectively.
