Ecuador - IOM is ramping up its support to the Government of Ecuador to help people affected by the earthquake that struck the country's Pacific coast on April 16, leaving 659 dead and at least 720,000 people in need of humanitarian aid.

IOM will this week start to distribute 10,000 shelter grade tarpaulins and 1,000 shelter toolkits to help people rebuild their homes. It has also deployed emergency specialists to advise in areas of camp coordination and camp management (CCCM), shelter and early recovery.

Initial assessments indicate that thousands of people who were left homeless by the quake are now living in temporary shelters, spontaneous settlements and with host families. Some 29,000 people are living in temporary shelters managed by the government.

IOM has been working closely with the Ministry of Economic and Social Inclusion (MIES), local authorities including the Decentralized Autonomous Governments, and other aid agencies to identify the number of people in spontaneous settlements and with host families, and to identify their needs.

In some of the worst-affected rural areas, the number of people living with host families is huge, according to IOM staff on the ground. If these families do not receive assistance immediately, the situation may worsen to the point to force them to leave and return to their places of origin or to move to spontaneous settlements.

Many other families decided to stay on the land where their homes were located before the earthquake and are now living either in tents, or in precarious and overcrowded conditions in the rooms not affected. Many of these buildings are structurally unsound and at risk from aftershocks.

This is the case of Peter Vera’s family. The earthquake destroyed his home. He, his wife, his five children and his mother-in-law, are crammed into a tiny space without walls and with items that he managed to rescue from the rubble. Peter said that he will not leave his land and needs aid to rebuild his home himself.

IOM is also working to identify and assist vulnerable people, including people with disabilities, and people at risk of Gender Based Violence (GBV) in displacement sites. It is also facilitating access to specialized care for GBV survivors.

Minister of Interior José Serrano and Defence Minister Raul Patiño on Sunday visited La Chorrera, a devastated small fishing village located in Pedernales and met with IOM, the UN Resident Coordinator/Humanitarian Coordinator and the UN Disaster Assessment and Coordination (UNDAC) team.

Despite the efforts being made by the Ecuadorian government to help all the affected population, major outstanding needs include shelter, non-food relief items, CCCM training for local authorities, and help for displaced families living in spontaneous settlements and with host families.

IOM made a contribution of USD 500,000 from its Migration Emergency Funding Mechanism (MEFM), but it needs at least USD 9.25 million to carry out all its planned emergency response and early recovery humanitarian activities.

For more information please contact Juliana Quintero or Jimena Almeida at IOM Ecuador, Emails: juquintero@iom.int and jalmeida@iom.int, Tel: +593 99 9666640