Ongoing Relief Efforts Accompany Moves to Tackle Displacement and Facilitate Reconstruction
IOM will today continue the distribution of non food items (NFIs),
including kitchen kits and bottled water in several locations in
Port au Prince.
The US government's Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance
USAID/OFDA has confirmed that helicopters would be made available
to support distributions at sites that have been previously
assessed for helicopter landing.
A consignment of 1,185 family-size tents purchased by IOM is
expected later today in Port-au-Prince. The Organization will
also be taking delivery in the next 48 hours of a donation from the
UK of 350 “shelter boxes” for distribution. Each box
contains a 10-person tent, survival equipment including blankets,
water purifiers, mosquito nets, tools such as axes and shovels, a
stove, kitchen equipment and materials for children. The box itself
can be used for water storage or a child's cot.
The UK charity ShelterBox has itself established three separate
operational centres in and around Haiti to help distribute
assistance to the estimated one million people left homeless by the
devastating 12 January earthquake.
a Donation
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style="margin-left: 7px;"> "paragraph-link-no-underline" href="http://www.usaim.org" target=
"_blank" title="">United States
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style="margin-left: 7px;"> "paragraph-link-no-underline" href=
"http://iomdonations.kintera.org/" target="_blank" title="">Other
Countries
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style="margin-left: 7px;"> "paragraph-link-no-underline" href=
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target="_blank" title="">Haiti Earthquake Flash Appeal
2010
IOM will also take delivery of 2,130 UNHCR light weight tents
and 18,500 plastic sheets that are scheduled to arrive early next
week from its logistical hub in Dubai.
However, IOM's stocks of pre-positioned non-food items are
decreasing rapidly as are its fuel supplies.
Coordinating the emergency shelter and non-food relief response
to the crisis, IOM has also been working to get a clearer picture
on those left homeless or who are now displaced by the earthquake.
The Organization has recorded 106 population concentrations,
including 63 sites identified by the Haitian government at the
weekend.
Yesterday, a second day of assessments were carried out at a
possible site for a large temporary settlement at Croix des
Bouquets, 13 kms northeast of Port au Prince by IOM, the
Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) and Haitian government
officials.
With the scale of the damage imposing logistical constraints
that are hampering the distribution of aid to victims, the aim is
to facilitate comprehensive aid delivery to a large number of
earthquake victims.
IOM is also supporting the Haitian government's priority for a
rapid return to economic activities through the establishment of
food and cash-for-work programmes, and through efforts to remove
rubble from affected areas.
The removal of debris would not only provide employment and
income for beneficiaries but would also help the future return and
reintegration of displaced people and reconstruction efforts as
well as help ease growing frustrations at the lack of sufficient
assistance among earthquake survivors.
Following a succession of hurricanes and floods which devastated
large areas of Haiti and displaced tens of thousands of people in
2008, IOM launched in partnership with the Haitian authorities a
large scale waste, rubble and mud removal programme.
This initiative, part of a USAID-funded emergency recovery and
community stabilization programme, helped generate employment for
more than 67,000 individuals in 2009.
As part of an initial appeal launched last week, the
Organization is asking for US$30 million to provide emergency
shelter, non-food assistance, track internal displacement and among
other things, establish a cash-for work programme that would
include rubble removal.
So far IOM has received US$ 7 million from OFDA/USAID, US$ 1.2
million from the UN Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF),
US$50,000 from Argos Cement Company of Colombia with another
US$250,000 pledged from the Clinton Foundation to support ongoing
relief operations and future rebuilding efforts. However, as the
situation evolves, the Organization will be revising its
appeal.
Private donations can be made to IOM through the IOM website at
www.iom.int and in the United States at
"paragraph-link-no-underline-bold" href=
"http://www.usaim.org/PROJECTHaiti.asp" target="_blank" title=
"">http://www.usaim.org/PROJECTHaiti.asp
Meanwhile, at Haiti's border with the Dominican Republic, IOM
staff report many Haitians are accumulating at border hospitals in
search of medical treatment for themselves or their relatives.
Those who have already received attention are asking for help to
return home.
Doctors working at border sites are preparing for the next wave
of people who they think will be arriving with untreated festering
wounds, mostly due to unset bone fractures.
For further information, please contact:
Niurka Pineiro
IOM Port-au-Prince
Tel: +881 651 499 753
E-mail:
"mailto:npineiro@iom.int%20" target="_blank" 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="_blank" title=
"">pchauzy@iom.int
Jemini Pandya
Tel: + 41 22 717 9486
+ 41 79 217 3374
E-mail:
"mailto:jpandya@iom.int" target="_blank" title=
"">jpandya@iom.int