Haiti 6 months on: what is ActionAid doing?

On January 12, 2010, a massive earthquake rocked Haiti. The UN called the disaster “the worst ever confronted”. The urban environment, high population density, and chronic underlying poverty conspired to create  a terrible humanitarian disaster.

For the first three month, ActionAid focussed on delivering emergency relief:  food, tents, soap, sanitary towels and medical supplies  were delivered to over 20,000 people. By the end of those months, ActionAid’s three-year rehabilitation plan was in place. Education, permanent shelter, rubble-clearing and restoring people’s livelihoods so that they can feed  their own families are now the priorities. 

Almost 4,000 schools were damaged or destroyed by the earthquake, leaving many thousands of children without access to education. Over the coming months, ActionAid plans to provide 3,000 children with school kits, and build 12 temporary schools and one formal school, to enable children affected by the earthquake to continue their education.

ActionAid is equipping people with  knowledge, skills, training and support to reduce their vulnerability to future disasters. In a disaster-prone country like Haiti, these risks are ever-present. ActionAid has trained a number of local volunteers in disaster risk reduction, and will be working with communities over the coming months to ensure people are prepared for and able to respond to disasters.

We’re also pre-positioning stocks of food packages, first aid kits, drinking water and hygiene kits for 3,000 families, ready for immediate dis-tribution should another disaster strike during the hurricane season.

With over 1.5m people left homeless as a result of the earthquake, shelter is a priority. In the months following the disaster, we provided tarpaulins to over 11,000 families living in camps, and tents for 30 extremely vulnerable families. With the start of the hurricane season, the need for more robust shelter is all the more critical.

By the end of 2010, ActionAid plans to build 200 transitional shelters. These structures last for 3-5 years and provide better cover against wind and rain than tarpaulins or tents.ActionAid is also linking with local and national authorities to advocate for the dignity and rights of all Haitians to be respected in discussions over land use and rebuilding.

Emotional support is crucial to helping people, especially children, resume their normal lives. ActionAid is running a number of schemes which aim to help both children and adults do just this.

In Philippeau, we are supporting a psychosocial centre where children receive basic education and are encouraged to sing, dance and draw, to express their feelings.

To date, these schemes have helped over 27,000 people.

UK supporters have been extremely generous with their time and money in support of Haiti.  To provide the kind of long-term support these communities need, child  sponsorship is a great way to help. Because you have a personal relationship with a child, you can be sure that your money is making a real difference4 in their communiuty. And because we know that regular funding is coming in, we can plan ahead, and provide the sort of help that enables Haitians to free themselves from poverty

 To sponser a child through ActionAid click here or to make a regular donation click here.