Today’s distribution of hygiene kits and jerry cans will benefit 26,000 persons in Leogane, a coastal town south of Port-au-Prince where 80 per cent of the city was destroyed. In the capital, 24,000 residents of the impoverished neighbourhoods of Martissant, Belair, Fontamara, and Saint Martin will receive similar items.
IOM began distributing vital non-food items on 14 January from stock it had prepositioned for the hurricane season. On the first day, 3,000 received relief supplies. Since then, IOM and its partners have been distributing everyday and to larger numbers each day.
Yesterday, IOM received additional tents, hygiene kits, blankets, jerry cans, plastic sheeting, water bladders and kitchen sets from USAID, tents, sleeping pads, water purifying kits, and plastic sheeting from the Japanese government, and tents, blankets and kitchen sets from the Turkish government.
Transportation of the relief items from the airport to warehouses and then to distribution points remains a challenge with trucks and fuel still in limited supply.
So far some 447 improvised settlements comprising at least 500,000 people have been identified in this city alone, out of which 350 settlements have been assessed by IOM, the Haitian government and humanitarian partners. One hundred and seventy nine out of the 447 have improvised shelter material/tents and only three have access to potable water.
“The situation is in flux and there is no one size fits all for shelter solutions,” says IOM Chief of Mission Vincent Houver. “Tents will not work in May when the long rainy season begins and later when hurricane season starts, but at this point there is not much choice. Assessments must take place and best construction methods and durable materials need to be discussed.”
In the suburb of Croix des Bouquets, a Brazilian battalion deployed with MINUSTAH continues to level the land for the setting up of a large tented camp that would facilitate aid delivery to large numbers of displaced and where the Inter-American Development Bank is planning to build permanent houses for 30,000 people. Displaced person would be employed to help build their houses under a food for work scheme.
IOM believes camps should be established in the periphery of the capital to allow people to remain close to areas where they were making a living.
Thousands of people continue to leave the city to stay with family or friends. Those who have nobody to call go from one area to another in search of safety and support. IOM sub offices in Gonaives, St Marc, and Les Cayes are reporting a continuous flow of people in search of shelter and support.
IOM and its humanitarian partners providing shelter and non-food assistance are working non stop to bring more assistance to populations living in other affected areas such as Leogane, Mirevalais and Petit Goave, where IOM, WFP and UNICEF are now establishing a base.
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 food-for-work programme that would include rubble removal.
IOM has so far received pledges totalling USD 18.3 million from the US government (OFDA/USAID), Sweden, Canada, France, the UN’s Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF), the Clinton Foundation and Argos Cement Company of Colombia to support ongoing relief operations and future rebuilding efforts.
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
For further information, please contact Niurka Pineiro, in Port au Prince, on Tel: + 509 3490 6678, email: niurkapineiro@yahoo.com, or Jean Philippe Chauzy Tel: + 41 22 717 9361/+ 41 79 285 4366; Email: pchauzy@iom.int
