ADRA-UK News Update

As the rainy season in Haiti looms closer, more than 1 million displaced Haitians living in Port-au-Prince and in surrounding areas will face increased hardships unless they have access to suitable shelters, warned the Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA).

“The upcoming torrential rains in Haiti will have a greater impact this year because so many people are living out in the open,” said Frank Teeuwen, bureau chief for Emergency Management at ADRA International. “The humanitarian situation could become exponentially worse if the issue of shelter is not resolved quickly.”

Makeshift camps are among the most vulnerable, as more than 500,000 displaced Haitians are living in often squalid conditions in temporary shelters many of them built after the January 12 earthquake using bed linen, scrap wood and metal sheeting. While access to water and food has improved among displaced populations in recent weeks, rains could negatively impact the precarious state that many families are currently in. “With the rains will come increased health and sanitation concerns,” said Kim Bolduc, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon’s deputy special representative to MINUSTAH, the UN’s stabilization force in Haiti.

While Haiti’s first rainy season is not officially expected until May, heavy rains could arrive as early as March. A predawn rain in Port-au-Prince yesterday already gave some early indications of the misery that regular daily rainfall could bring. According to reports, the rain soaked bedding and clothing and collapsed cardboard shacks in some areas where displaced Haitians have camped.

As part of an effort to reduce the effects of the upcoming rains, ADRA plans to deliver thousands of tarps and plastic sheeting, items that can be delivered quickly and to large numbers of people, and 900 family tents, which are suitable for accommodating a family of up to six members. These items will be provided throughout various distribution sites, including the largest displaced group that ADRA is assisting, a camp of more than 15,000 people on the campus of the Haiti Adventist University in the Port-au-Prince neighborhood of Carrefour.

In addition, ADRA will distribute basic household equipment and supplies in order to improve the living conditions of many people who lost their belongings during the quake. This aid includes 6,000 household kits, which comprises light blankets, tarps, a collapsible water container, a cooking pot with hand and lid, plates, spoons and mugs; 6,000 mattress pads; 500 tool kits comprising a wheelbarrow, spades, mattock, hammers and other miscellaneous tools. These will be shared between groups of households in the camps.

At present, it is estimated that between 1.1 million and 1.5 million people in Haiti lack basic shelter, according to the United States Agency for International Development’s Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance (USAID/OFDA). Of that number, approximately 272,000 people have received emergency shelter support, reported the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

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Source: ADRA International