IOM and Partners Deal With Emergency Shelter Whilst Looking to Longer Term Solutions in Haiti
IOM and its partners working on providing emergency shelter
assistance to victims of Haiti’s earthquake are rushing to
distribute their stocks of tarpaulins and plastic sheeting until
sufficient numbers of family-sized tents can be brought into the
country.
An estimated 900,000 to 1.1 million people are believed to be in
acute need of emergency shelter assistance in Haiti, according to
assessment data compiled by IOM and its partners, the vast majority
of them in the capital, Port-au-Prince.
In an effort to tackle the complex challenge of immediately
assisting such large numbers of people whilst ensuring adequate
shelter protection is available in the coming months when the rainy
and hurricane seasons arrive, IOM and its partners in Haiti are
focusing on distributing tens of thousands of tarpaulins and
plastic sheets to improve shelter conditions for those made
homeless until more tents arrive in the country.
These tents would be used to shelter homeless families at new
settlement sites and to improve living conditions at hundreds of
makeshift settlements that have mushroomed in Port-au-Prince and in
urban areas in other affected towns and villages in the
country.
"Tents are a three-five month option in the midst of the dry
season. But emergency and transitional shelter solutions
sufficiently durable to last at least two years need to be found
before the heavy rains arrive in a few months," said Vincent
Houver, IOM Chief of Mission in Haiti.
This would allow some time for reconstruction and recovery
efforts to be put in place.
A shelter strategy devised by IOM and partners comprising 55
organizations including the UN and local and international
non-governmental organizations and donors and shared with the donor
community in Haiti, is stressing the need, however, to minimize
displacement away from existing homes where it is safe to do
so.
a Donation
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"_blank" title="">United States
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Countries
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target="_blank" title="">Haiti Earthquake Flash Appeal
2010
A major challenge is, nevertheless, how to allow people to
remain close to their former homes and communities when the scale
of the need is such that it will be necessary to create a limited
number of temporary settlements outside of Port-au-Prince, although
this is recognized as a last resort.
Past crises have shown that although the pressure to act quickly
to provide safe shelter is high, the creation of large temporary
settlements away from communities and livelihood opportunities have
proved to create dependencies, social problems, insecurity and
inhibit long-term recovery.
Another challenge facing the government and the humanitarian
community is in finding safe and sufficiently open spaces to
establish transitional settlements in dense urban areas and in
providing security at makeshift sites.
However, organized transitional settlements not exceeding 10,000
people would allow for government ministries and humanitarian
partners to design and deliver comprehensive and coordinated
services such as water and sanitation, health, food, education and
protection.
Meanwhile, IOM is working with the French NGO ACTED to prepare a
settlement site at Tabarre in Port-au-Prince for a maximum of 3,500
people with the support of engineers from another NGO, Engineering
Ministries International (EMI), and in coordination with the
Haitian Prime Minister’s Office.
Yesterday, 25 boy and girl scouts of Tabarre volunteered to help
put up the first tents, while pits for latrines and water
evacuation were being dug. Today, trucks of gravel will be
brought in and latrine tanks will be installed. IOM and ACTED are
aiming to finish the site by the end of the week.
Islamic Relief UK has also been working to improve living
conditions for 864 people at a makeshift site at St. Claire in the
Delmas 33 neighbourhood. People now have tents and access to water
and sanitation with the British NGO also providing medical
check-ups and other non-food assistance to every family.
IOM and partners are seeking to reach about 200,000 families
(one million people) with shelter and non-food assistance.
In response to an initial appeal launched on 15 January and
which will be shortly revised to better reflect the scale of needs
in the country, the Organization had asked for USD 30 million to
provide emergency shelter and non-food assistance and to establish
a cash-for-work programme that would include rubble removal.
IOM has so far received pledges totalling USD 19.6 million from
the US government (OFDA/USAID), Sweden, Canada, France, Finland,
Korea, the UN’s Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF), the
Clinton Foundation and Argos Cement Company of Colombia to support
ongoing relief operations and future rebuilding efforts.
Private donations can be made to IOM through the IOM website at
target="" title="">http://www.iom.int/ and in the United States
at
"http://www.usaim.org/PROJECTHaiti.asp" target="_blank" title=
"">http://www.usaim.org/PROJECTHaiti.asp
For further information, please contact:
Niurka Pineiro
Port au Prince
Tel: + 509 3490 6678
E-mail:
"mailto:npineiro@iom.int" target="" title=
"">npineiro@iom.int
or
Jean-Philippe Chauzy
IOM Geneva
Tel: + 41 22 717 9361
+ 41 79 285 4366
E-mail:
"mailto:pchauzy@iom.int" target="" title=
"">pchauzy@iom.int
Jemini Pandya
IOM Geneva
Tel: + 41 22 717 9486
+ 41 79 217 3374
E-mail:
"mailto:jpandya@iom.int" target="" title="">jpandya@iom.int