REPORT: Haiti One Year On
On the 12th January 2010 at 4.53pm, a powerful earthquake struck the Caribbean nation of Haiti. More than 200,000 people died and 1.5 million were displaced as a tremor, measuring 7.0 on the Richter scale, destroyed everything from schools and hospitals to government buildings and the presidential palace. The earthquake affected 3.8 million people - that is equivalent to the entire population of Birmingham, UK or the American city of Los Angeles.
As the poorest country in the Western hemisphere, Haiti had previously witnessed several floods and hurricanes in recent years. But in the aftermath of the devastating earthquake, Haitians were forced to endure a cholera outbreak and monsoon rains, including violence following disputed presidential elections.
After setting up the first organised camp for displaced people eleven days after the earthquake, Islamic Relief continued to provide support to thousands of survivors. Since then, we have founded another two camps, housing a total of over 5,000 people. People in our camps receive regular drinking water, access to washing areas and clean toilets.
Children and Education
Children suffered heavily in the earthquake. Of the 3.8 million people affected, 1.5 million were children. Even before the disaster stuck, 58% of Haitian children were undernourished. After the 12 January, 302,000 children were forced to leave their homes and live in camps. Four thousand schools were damaged or destroyed in the earthquake, including 80% of the schools in Port-au-Prince.
Islamic Relief aims to ensure that the pupils’ families also benefit from their education, by equipping the children with the skills and schooling they need to enter into higher education and, later on, secure jobs. In November, our staff and local pupils celebrated the reopening of three primary schools which Islamic Relief had rehabilitated. Now, the 2,500 students are able to focus in the classroom once more.
Infrastructure and Economy
In 2009, Haiti’s resources and products (GDP) was estimated to be worth $6.5bn. But since the earthquake, this has reduced to just $2.3bn. The earthquake caused $7.8bn of damage and losses on an island which, even before the tremor, relied four times as much on imports as it did exports. Devastated infrastructure has made importation and distribution of essentials such as food and building materials extremely difficult for the local community.
The earthquake in Haiti caused staggering damage to the nation’s infrastructure, crippling government buildings as well as the offices of aid agencies already established in the country. This was followed by tens of aftershocks for weeks after the initial tremor, as well as heavy monsoon rains, flooding and a hurricane.
Living in camps
Although much has been achieved since the earthquake struck, millions of people are still living in camps across the capital. More than half a million people have left their camps in Port-au-Prince, and most have returned to their original community. However there are still about one million people without a permanent home. Since August, Islamic Relief has built 250 temporary shelters. These provide people whose houses were destroyed with a durable, weatherproof home to live in until a permanent structure can be built.
Although Islamic Relief aims to ensure conditions in our camps are as comfortable as possible, we are dedicated to providing a route out of these camps. This plan is hindered by several factors:
• There is little land available on which to build
• Some people rely so heavily on the aid provided in the camps that they cannot afford to leave if their land is far away from an aid agency’s project
• A number of earthquake survivors used to rent their houses and do not own the land on which they were living.
Aid agencies cannot rebuild whole cities or national economies, so in addition to building temporary shelters, Islamic Relief is targeting specific communities and working with them to provide employment and training so that they may be able to earn money to repair or rebuild their homes.
Cholera outbreak
Nearly 3,000 people have died in Haiti as a result of the cholera outbreak. Cholera is spread when people drink water that has been contaminated by someone who has already contracted the disease. Over 130,000 people have now been diagnosed with the disease, with more than 30,000 cases in and around the capital, Port-au-Prince. To help combat the spread of cholera, Islamic Relief is continuing to supply clean water to residents of our three camps with 25,500 litres of clean drinking water being distributed on a daily basis.
The relief organisation has also conducted training on good hygiene practices and distributed hygiene kits to all residents of the three camps in Port-au-Prince. These hygiene kits include detergents and soap, toothbrushes and toothpaste, toilet paper, towels, a washing basin. Each of the camps that is coordinated by Islamic Relief has showers, toilets and clothes washing areas. There are also extensive water channels to combat flooding in the camps, which can help prevent the spread of all waterborne diseases.
We would like to thank you all for your generous and consistent support. Over the next few months, we will be constructing temporary shelters for families whose homes were destroyed and continuing our livelihood projects which provide our camp residents with jobs so that they can begin to support themselves once again.
