Every week in Haiti is a busy one, but this one has been particularly rough.
Cholera is spreading throughout the country rapidly. Every day the numbers are getting higher, now approximately 917 people have lost their lives to the infection and 14,600 are currently battling against it.
But these are just official numbers. I have been speaking with my colleagues based in rural Haiti and they insist that these figures do not even come close to the reality of the situation.
There are murmurings that those that co-ordinated the response effort did not move fast enough, and this infection has been allowed to take hold, and have a far greater impact on the country than what was anticipated just a few weeks ago.
For the last 10 months since the earthquake took place, the aid agencies have been focusing their efforts on Port au Prince, to the detriment it seems to the rest of the country.
But the aid community is now ploughing ahead. The Cholera Inter-Sector Response Strategy for Haiti published just a few days ago by the UN and its partners, anticipates a total of up to 200,000 people expected to show symptoms of cholera. The strategy calls for a total of $163,894,856, or €119,532,727.80 to be provided to fund the response to the outbreak.
On top of that Hurricane Tomas hit just off the west coast of Haiti last week.
Unfortunately Tomas brought heavy rain with him, in the bucket loads. Approximately 21 people lost their lives as a result of the hurricane and over 1,000 people were displaced from their homes, on top of the 1.3 million people already living in crowded camps and under tarps in the capital city for the last 10 months.
Haven have developed three operational sectors namely shelter (temporary & permanent), WASH (water & sanitation) and Community Development (CD) which is an integral component of all our projects.
In Port au Prince we have three major Transitional Shelter projects funded by Plan International, American Red Cross and Oxfam America. Our current target is for 700 T-Shelter units along with supplementary WASH and CD services. During the emergency phase of operations Haven constructed 1,360 latrines in 57 of the 1,300 internally displaced person (IDP) camps.
Haven are currently maintaining these latrines. This is a major task when you consider the fact that they were built with an initial six month lifespan and ten months have now passed.
Thankfully Tomas did little damage to the WASH programmes we have in place in the campsites. This was a huge relief as proper sanitation is now more crucial than ever to prevent cholera from reaching the people in the camps.
The hurricane put our T-Shelters to the test also, and I am glad to report that our projects passed with flying colors! All shelters were able to withstand the pummeling that came with the downpour.
The camps were extremely wet and we had to respond with some flood relief activities, but as usual the camp residents got involved, and a major catastrophe was avoided.
In an effort to mitigate against the spread of Cholera in the IDP camps, Haven have commenced a cholera prevention project. Our Community Development team was immediately dispatched to Gonaives to carry out an immediate ‘good hygiene’ practice exercise and distribute hygiene kits. Additionally, our Hygiene Promoters have been giving workshops in schools to teachers, students and student-peer groups about the dangers, symptoms and methods of prevention of cholera.
We are also in the process of implementing additional hygiene awareness training in the Haven camps, engaging the community on hygiene issues, using simple messages like ‘always wash your hands’, ‘never drink untreated water’, or ‘never walk barefoot’.
Our activities have started in 19 camps reaching out to about 35,000 people. This team are receiving $20 per week for two weeks and they will monitor the camps and submit reports to Colin Price, our WASH programme manager based here in Port au Prince.
Country wide Cholera is gaining momentum, and the number of people affected by the epidemic is growing. Haven volunteer, Dr John Morris has sent some grim reports back from Milot hospital, northern Haiti, where he is based, the situation there appears very bad.
Comparatively speaking, Haven is a young and small organisation. We are doing what we can to promote good hygiene and to try and mitigate against this latest scourge to descend on the Haitian people.
Of course, Presidential elections are still scheduled to proceed on 28th November and we are bracing ourselves for possible trouble. Another exciting week in the Caribbean!
Regards,
John.
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