British Red Cross-Haiti Earthquake Appeal Update
Summary It is one month since an earthquake measuring 7.3 on the Richter scale struck Haiti on 12 January 2010. The earthquake, which has left the capital, Port-au-Prince, and nearby towns of Carrefour, Jacmel, Leogane and Petit-Goave in ruins, is the worst to strike the country in 200 years. The Haitian government estimates that more than 230,000 people have been killed and one million are in urgent need of shelter, sanitation, clean water, food and medical care. Haiti is also now bracing itself for another potentially catastrophic problem – the country’s looming rainy season, which threatens to bring further misery to the island.
Summary
The Haitian government estimates that more than 230,000 people have been killed and one million are in urgent need of shelter, sanitation, clean water, food and medical care. Haiti is also now bracing itself for another potentially catastrophic problem – the country’s looming rainy season, which threatens to bring further misery to the island.
In terms of its proportionate impact on one country, the Haitian earthquake may well be the worst natural disaster ever’
Bekele Gelata, IFRC Secretary General
How we are helping
The Haitian Red Cross, International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), ICRC and other Red Cross Red Crescent National Societies from around the world responded as soon as the earthquake struck and have worked together to help people that have been affected.
The IFRC released an initial 500,000 CHF from its Disaster Relief Emergency Fund to ensure the Haitian Red Cross could expand its emergency operations and launched a preliminary emergency appeal for 105 million CHF (approx. £70 million). This has since been revised upwards to 218 million CHF (approx. £130 million) as the magnitude of the response required has become clear.
The ICRC has been working in Haiti since 1994 and extended its own country appeal to support the response efforts.
The British Red Cross has allocated £200,000 from its Disaster Fund to ensure money could be immediately used in the response and launched its own appeal on 13 January 2010 to support the Red Cross Red Crescent Movement.
Haitian Red Cross volunteers at the heart of the response
More than 2,500 Haitian Red Cross volunteers have been at the heart of the response – working tirelessly to assist people affected by the earthquake, distributing emergency relief items, helping the injured and those made homeless as well as supporting the hospitals that remain open. Many of them will have lost loved ones, their homes and all their belongings but have chosen to help their fellow survivors.
Sending specialist help to support the response
Specialist Red Cross Red Crescent teams from around the world has continued to arrive in Haiti to ensure people’s most urgent needs are being met. More than 600 Red Cross Red Crescent aid workers from at least 22 countries have flown in – including 180 from Caribbean and Central and South American National Red Cross Societies.
The ICRC has flown in engineers, a surgeon and specialists in reuniting families separated by disaster as well as economic-security, logistics, IT, tracing, nursing, communications and logistics experts. The British Red Cross have sent more than 30 delegates to Haiti, the Dominican Republic, and Panama.
Twenty OneEmergency Response Units (ERUs) - more than in response to the tsunami - have also been sent to Haiti: these include those specialising in hospital and health care, water, sanitation, relief, shelter, IT, telecom and logistics.
Over 70 National Societies are involved in supporting the response, which is being co-ordinated by the IFRC. The IFRC is working with the Haitian government and other agencies in the country to ensure that the support being provided is complimentary and addresses the needs of the people that are most vulnerable.
The earthquake damaged the sea and air ports and blocked roads with debris, hindering access into Port-au-Prince and surrounding towns. Many flights carrying much needed emergency aid have had to be re-routed to Santo Domingo in the neighbouring Dominican Republic, causing congestion on the roads into the city.
But despite these challenges, emergency relief items are now flowing into Haiti. So far, 85 Red Cross flights have arrived in Haiti containing emergency relief items from around the world, either landing at the Port-au-Prince airport, which has been working at 170% of its normal capacity or sent overland by convoy from Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic. Almost 800 tonnes of emergency relief items has been flown in from the Red Cross warehouse in Panamaalone, where they were stored in preparation for disasters in the region.A further 18 shipments have also arrived by sea.
Source: Cruz Roja Colombiana/Silvia Ballen
The British Red Cross and Swiss Red Cross National Society have both provided four person Logistics ERUs, to help ensure that the flow of emergency relief items into Haiti does not let up.
As of Friday 12 February 2010, more than 185,000 people have received emergency relief items including tarpaulins, tents, blankets, hygiene items, kitchen sets and jerry cans – with over 2,500 families now being reached every day.
We’re doing targeted and frequent distributions. We don’t use any armed security, barbed wire or tear gas, we rely on our emblem and the goodwill the public has towards the Haitian Red Cross’
Charles Blake, IFRC Emergency Relief Team Leader in Haiti
The Haitian Red Cross volunteers visit communities in advance of the distributions and provide people with vouchers – prioritising those that have been identified as being most vulnerable; for example, families left homeless, pregnant women, the elderly and disabled. By giving the vouchers, it helps ensure that the distributions can be managed in an orderly and efficient way.
Over the coming weeks, at least 80,000 families (400,000 people) will be provided with household items to help them get back on their feet – they will receive blankets, jerry cans, mosquito nets, kitchen sets (containing cooking pots, pans, utensils and cutlery) and hygiene sets (comprising soap, toilet paper, toothpaste, shampoo, sanitary pads, towels and combs) .
Baby kits will also be distributed to 20,000 families that have a child under 2 years old – they will comprise a bathing tub, bucket, baby soap, baby oil, a brush, towel, nappies, clothing and a shoulder bag.
This is really useful for us’, says 25 year old mother of two, Ismere Caiis, thrilled with the metal plates and pots. ‘Of course we need food as well but this is welcome as we have lost everything we ever owned’.
Meeting water, sanitation and hygiene needs
In neighbourhoods across earthquake affected Haiti efforts are being made to improve access to clean drinking water and sanitation to hundreds of thousands of people.
As of Friday 12 February 2010, the Red Cross Red Crescent was distributing 1.2 million litres of clean drinking water to 300,000 people every day – and has provided 21.5 million litres overall since the earthquake struck. Water distribution points have been set up in 110 camps, garbage collections services have been organised to help keep camps as clean as possible and 1,000 latrines have been built with a further 300 under construction, which will provide sanitation for up to 20,000 people. Source: American Red Cross/ Lia Frenkel/
British Red Cross send emergency mass sanitation module (MSM)
TheBritish Red Cross has sent its own emergency mass sanitation module (MSM) to camps in the La Piste and Automeca districts, which are home to 35,000 people. The British Red Cross module helps save lives following disasters by reducing disease from poor sanitation with such simple measures as rebuilding latrines, distributing soap and promoting good hygiene practices such as the importance of washing hands, covering food and water, as well as providing advice on avoiding diseases.
So far, 100 latrines have been built in La Piste and a further 54 have been built in Automeca. Planning is also now underway for providing bathing facilities in both camps. In addition, a clean up of both camps is underway, and a significant amount of rubbish and debris has already been removed.
The MSM team have also been identifying and training members of the community to pass on hygiene promotion messages, and worked jointly with Colombian and Spanish Red Cross National Societies to train eighty Haitian Red Cross volunteers, who are also distributing ‘aqua tabs’ to families, which they can use to disinfect water.
Providing emergency health care
Helping the thousands of people who have been affected and preventing the spread of illness and disease remains a priority for the Red Cross Red Crescent. More than 1,600 people are receiving health care and treatment in the Red Cross Red Crescent health facilities every day and over 17,000 have been reached so far.
A joint Norwegian/Canadian Red Cross and Magen David Adom (Israel) 70-bed rapid deployment hospital ERU has been set up in the grounds of Port-au-Prince’s University hospital, which can support 200 wounded people every day. The hospital has an outpatient clinic, two operating theatres, a mother and child unit and post-operative care facilities. Since it opened on Tuesday 19th January, staff
Source: American Red Cross
have delivered two babies – a boy and a girl – and carried out a number of urgent amputations. A larger German/Finnish Red Cross 250 bed hospital, which has been set up is continuing to see an increasing number of people being admitted, and both hospitals are working at full capacity.
Joint Finnish/French/Swedish Red Cross, German/Swiss Red Cross and French Red Cross/Quatari Red Crescent mobile basic health units have provided curative and preventative health care to thousands of people – and are continuing to support more than 150 people per day. A Japanese Red Cross fixed basic health unit has also been set up.
‘In the first wave we get patients with injuries caused by the earthquake, such as fractures, bruises and wounds. Then we start to see infectious diseases such as diarrhoea and skin and respiratory infections. As time passes we start seeing patients with more common complaints such a flu, fever and headaches’.
Marla Nykyri, Finnish Red Cross Team Leader
The Haitian Red Cross with support from staff and volunteers from the Dominican Republic Red Cross and other Red Cross National Societies in the region, have provided the Port-au-Prince central hospital with 30,000 emergency health kits.
ICRC forensic specialists have provided body bags, body tags, gloves and masks to the morgue of the Hopital Universitaire de l’Etat d’Haiti, one of Port-au-Prince’s two referral hospitals and are advising the Haitian authorities on the need to collect information on the dead and ensure that they are handled with dignity.
The ICRC has delivered more 180 metric tonnes of medical items to hospitals and clinics and working with the Haitian Red Cross has set up and equipped 11 first aid posts in Port-au-Prince and 2 in the city of Petit-Goave, which is 70km south-west of the capital.
Mass vaccination and information services
On 2nd February 2010, the IFRC in partnership with the Haitian Red Cross, UNICEF, Haitian Ministry of Health and Pan American Health Organisation launche d a mass vaccination campaign, which aims to immunise 140,000 children against rubella, diphtheria and tetanus, as well as provide them with vitamin D and de-worming treatments.
Source: IFRC Source: IFRC
The IFRC and Haitian Red Cross have launched an ‘SMS Blast Ca mpaign’, which will see 1.2 million people receive health, shelter and sanitation messages via text messages on their mobile phones. The IFRC and Haitian Red Cross have also set up a phone service, which people will be able to ring free of change and receive updated information and advice.
‘The threat of epidemics is very real. This initiative allows us to do with the push of a button what would normally take an army of volunteers several days to do’.
Đr Richard Munz, Head of the IFRC Health Team in Haiti
Healing hearts and minds
The Red Cross Red Crescent is providing 150 people with psychosocial first aid every day to help them keep positive and deal with the trauma they have experienced. It makes a huge difference to hundreds of earthquake survivors – helping them to express their grief, their worries and fears.
The Colombian Red Cross is training Haitian Red Cross volunteers to give psychological support to patients using IFRC manuals: ‘coping with stress and crises’, working in stressful situations’ and ‘children’s stress and how to support them’.
‘We talk to them before they go to see the medical doctors. It’s psychological first aid for people who have lost everything. We find out about them, they tell us their stories. Getting them talking is part of activating their own coping mechanisms, how they can get back in touch with life, face reality’.
Ea Akasha, Danish Red Cross psychological support team leader
The British Red Cross has also sent a psycho-social support team to Port-au-Prince with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, to provide practical help and emotional support to people affected by the earthquake.
Providing shelter ahead of the rains
The Haitian government have indicated that more than one million people have been made homeless and are in need of shelter, after the earthquake caused buildings and houses to collapse. In Port-au-Prince, at least 700,000 people have gathered in more than 500 makeshift camps and with the country’s rainy season approaching, the provision of shelter is essential.
We can get as much as 50mm of rain in two hours
Ms Michaele Gedeonm, President of the Haitian Red Cross
The IFRC has committed to providing emergency shelter to 80,000 families – of which more than 17,000 households have so far been given 2 tarpaulins and a rope to help them secure existing structures in preparation for the rainy season.
Among these, 20,000 families will receive ‘shelter tool kits’ (comprising 30 metres of rope, a handsaw, nails for securing roofing and wood, a shovel, hoe, hammer and tire wire) as well as expert advice on building safe shelters, which will be provided by trained Haitian Red Cross volunteers. To date 1,645 families have received shelter kits and 25 Haitian Red Cross volunteers received shelter training.
The IFRC is providing tents to 10,000 families – with another 50,000 available if needed. So far, nearly 1,000 have been issued.
Source: IFRC Source:
Making space in an overcrowded city
An overriding issue in Port-au-Prince is access to land, the city was already overcrowded but since the earthquake tens of thousands of people have moved into small open spaces.
The IFRC is distributing 1,200 kits containing items including wheel barrows, shovels, brooms, sledge hammers, wrecking bars and sacks for rubble. Each kit will enable 25 families (30,000 families in total) to remove earthquake debris and help ensure the land is kept safe for shelter.
Haitian Red volunteers will also be on hand – digging drainage gullies for when the rains arrive and helping to clear debris and refuse.
In the Port-Au-Prince district of Quartier Richard Brisson, the French Red Cross has also been distributing ‘shelter boxes’ containing a tent, mattresses, blankets, jerry cans, colouring books for children and kitchen items; while in Afca, 3 tents have been provided to fulfil the needs of a local orphanage.
Helping re-unite loved ones
Thousands of people live in anguish, unsure whether their relatives have been buried under the rubble or are alive but can’t be contacted.
The ICRC is using every means available to help people within Haiti and abroad find out what has happened to their loved one. Many Haitians rely on support from relatives abroad so getting in touch is vital to them. An ICRC ‘Family Links’ website has been launched, which over 26,000 names, of which 3,500 are people eager to let family members know that they are alive. Nearly 1,000 have asked for their names to be removed after being located by their relatives.
Source: ICRC/Marko Kokic
In Port-au-Prince, an ICRC and Haitian Red Cross tracing office has been set up to help follow up on the requests posted on the website and 3 mobile units are working in camps across the city, and informing the population of their services through spots on radio shows and street broadcast.
Landline communications are not working and mobile phone networks are heavily congested. The ICRC is also providing satellite phones so people have the opportunity to make international calls to family members living abroad, so far thousands of calls have been made.
Children are particularly vulnerable since many have been left with no parents to care for them and have been separated from their extended families. The ICRC and Haitian Red Cross is registering unaccompanied children and working closely with UNICEF and other child protection agencies in Haiti ensure that they have somewhere safe where they can be cared for.
Working in the poorest areas of Port-au-Prince
In Bel Air, a neighbourhood, which has been plagued by street violence and one of the poorest areas of the capital, the ICRC has been supporting 20,000 people living in makeshift camps who have had little access to medical care since the earthquake – setting up 2 first aid posts.
‘We thank you with all our hearts and welcome you’
Pasteur Roland, Bel Air resident
In Cite Soleil, a district with a population of 200,000 the ICRC is the only organisation that is present every day. The ICRC has set up 7 water distribution points serving 25,000 people living in 3 camps, and is working with French and Spanish Red Cross National Societies and the Haitian authorities to repair the water supply system, which was damaged by the earthquake. Work has begun to replace a broken generator at a pumping station, which will allow for an additional 150 cubic meters of water to flow into Cite Soleil every hour.
Planning for the future – committed to recovery
Haiti is the poorest and least developed country in the Western hemisphere, half of the population live on less than $1USD a day but the earthquake has robbed many people of even those limited means and left them needing extensive help to rebuild their lives.
‘The Red Cross and Red Crescent is committed to fully supporting the people of Haiti on the long road to recovery that lies ahead. We will partner with communities so we can rebuild safer homes and more sustainable livelihoods. Together we must transform this tragedy into an opportunity for Haiti to rise again’
Bekele Gelata, IFRC Secretary General
One month on, the focus of Red Cross Red Crescent teams on the ground remains on providing emergency relief in key areas such as water, sanitation, health care and shelter. It is likely that the emergency relief phase will continue for up to 12 months.
However, with the rain and hurricane seasons approaching, it is important also to keep a longer-term view in mind. To that end, a team of experts from Red Cross Red Crescent National Societies, including the British Red Cross, has been deployed, and is assessing options for longer-term recovery work. The team is comprised of experts in a number of areas including shelter, sanitation, health and economic recovery.
The recovery effort in Haiti is going to be long and difficult. It is likely to take years – perhaps even generations for Haitians to overcome the physical and psychological damage caused by the earthquake. The Red Cross Movement is committed to working with the Haitian Red Cross, and the people of Haiti, to assist them in recovering from this disaster.
For more information visit the British Red Cross website at www.redcross.org.uk
Thank You
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