Displacement Crisis Nears End in Haiti’s Cultural Capital Jacmel
In an effort to restore the lustre of Haiti’s cultural
capital, Jacmel, IOM and Sean Penn, Ambassador-at-Large for Haiti
and founder of J/P Haitian Relief Organization (J/P HRO) are
working on a project to re-house the last families made homeless in
Jacmel by the 2010 earthquake.
The project aims to close the last two of 36 displacement camps
established after the January 2010 earthquake and relocate families
still living in them to safe homes. Each family will be provided
with a year’s rental allowance and receive additional
financial support, which includes transport assistance to help move
their belongings from the camps to their new housing.
The number of families in Jacmel’s camps has fallen
rapidly since the launch of the IOM - J/P HRO project at the end of
May. A month ago IOM’s June IOM Displacement Tracking Matrix
recorded 2,891 people still housed in four camps in the historic
port city. At the peak of the emergency, upwards of 10,000 people,
or some 2,000 families, were homeless in the 36 camps.
The Haitian Government and local authorities in Jacmel
anticipate immediate benefits from relocating the residents from
camps.“What is happening in Jacmel demonstrates our intention
for the whole country. We’re working to help every family,
close every camp, and move on from the earthquake by giving our
cultural capital a fresh start,” said Harry Adam, Executive
Director of Haiti’s Government Housing Unit (UCLBP).
Links
alt="" border="0" height="12" hspace="0" src=
"/jahia/webdav/site/myjahiasite/shared/shared/mainsite/graphics/interface/icons_buttons/blue_link_box.gif">
"window.open('http://www.eshelter-cccmhaiti.info/jl/pdf/FINAL_DTM_V2_Report_June_2012_English24Jun.pdf', 'mywindow', 'location=1,status=1,scrollbars=1')">Displacement
Tracking Matrix report, June 2012
alt="" border="0" height="12" hspace="0" src=
"/jahia/webdav/site/myjahiasite/shared/shared/mainsite/graphics/interface/icons_buttons/blue_link_box.gif">
"window.open('http://www.jphro.org/', 'mywindow', 'location=1,status=1,scrollbars=1')">J/P
Haitian Relief Organization
“J/P HRO has collaborated with IOM since the
earthquake,” said J/P HRO founder and CEO Sean Penn.
“When the Senators and Deputies of Jacmel said closing the
last remaining camps was a priority need for their community and
asked J/P HRO’s assistance, we turned to IOM to help these
families leave the mud floors and leaky tarps of the camps and find
and secure housing quickly and effectively.”
The relocation process began with IOM staff informing the camp
residents about the project. Heads of households were provided with
special ID cards (Last Mile Mobile Solutions - LMMS) developed by
World Vision International, and all beneficiaries’
information and relocation intentions were registered through J/P
HRO’s high-tech iPod based system, designed to streamline
future relocation projects and reduce operating costs.
The relocation process is scheduled to continue through July,
with monitoring visits to follow in August and September, after
which all remaining families will have been re-housed. Camps in
Jacmel will then close, thereby ending the plight of earthquake
affected people in Haiti’s South East Department.
Jacmel, a city of over 41,000, is slowly rebuilding, but the
homelessness and suffering of those in the camps have blighted
efforts to get the city’s important tourism sector
revitalized. Because many of the displaced have been living on
Jacmel’s two football fields, sports have also been
impacted.
“Large historical areas of Jacmel were virtually
demolished by the quake,” said IOM Haiti Chief of Mission,
Luca Dall’Oglio. “Helping to get it back to its feet as
a thriving cultural centre is one of our objectives in helping the
homeless to find alternatives to the camps.”
The government of Haiti is investing USD 20 million to make the
city more accessible and to improve its infrastructure in order to
turn Jacmel into one of the pre-eminent tourist destinations in the
country.
Jacmel is best known for its handcrafts, its extraordinary
carnival tradition, and its historical architecture, including its
famed gingerbread houses. As part of the government’s
revitalization plan, the historic centre of the city will get a
long awaited makeover, with repairs made to the damaged resorts,
shops and impressive arts-teaching centre in the heart of town. In
addition, the local airport is expected to reopen soon.
Two hours by car over the mountains from the capital,
Port-au-Prince, Jacmel has a rich colonial history. Despite the
poverty and economic collapse, the atmosphere of the old town has
changed little since the late 19th century when wealthy coffee
merchants lived in gracious mansions which influenced the
architecture of New Orleans. Jacmel has been tentatively accepted
as a UNESCO World Heritage site.
Founded by Sean Penn, J/P HRO began its work hours after the
earthquake hit in January 2010 with the goal of helping to lift the
nation of Haiti out of the rubble and give the Haitian people a
better future. To learn more go to:
"paragraph-link-no-underline" href="http://www.jphro.org" target=
"_blank">www.jphro.org.
Detailed information about displacement in Haiti can be
downloaded from IOM’s June Displacement Tracking Matrix
report at:
For more information please contact
Leonard Doyle
IOM Haiti
Tel.+ 509 3702 5066
Email:
"mailto:ldoyle@iom.int">ldoyle@iom.int