On the second day of her visit to Haiti, Queen Sofia of Spain flew
to Gonaives and toured some of the communities and neighbourhoods
that were most severely affected by last summer's devastating
storms, leaving upwards of 60,000 inhabitants homeless.

While assistance operations deployed by IOM and its partners and
Haitian authorities, with support from the international community,
have allowed a gradual return home for the majority of the
displaced, adverse economic conditions make it difficult for many
families to support themselves.

Queen Sofia spoke to some of the families assisted by IOM and
its partners of the humanitarian community at the Elim and Eben
Ezer missions. During the visit to a camp and hospital at Eben
Ezer, Queen Sofia said, "It's wonderful to see so many people
helping... Without you, IOM, this was not going to be
possible."

Here, some 147 families have been accommodated for the past
three months and have benefited from distributions of repair and
reconstruction kits and the support in the identification of
alternative housing options in areas of the city that are not prone
to flooding from Spain's Agency for International Cooperation and
Development (AECID). To date, some 4,000 families have been
supported in their return to communities of origin.

In parallel, efforts continue on reestablishing access to the
many areas of the city that remain encased in mud.  To date,
some 150,000 cubic metres of mud and other waste have been
evacuated by the country's authorities, ACF, Care, Oxfam, UNDP and
IOM, yet needs – an estimated 2 million cubic metres to
dispose of – far outweigh available resources. 

Urgent action is also needed in order to reinforce the city's
protection against floods and natural disasters, targeting such
interventions as watershed management and the renovation of
irrigation canals.

As the lead agency coordinating the international community's
response on emergency shelter and non-food items interventions, IOM
has to date received contributions from Canada, Japan, Switzerland,
Spain, the United States, the Central Emergency Response Fund, UNDP
and OCHA.

For more information on IOM activities in Haiti, please visit class="paragraph-link-no-underline" href="http://www.iomhaiti.org"
target="_blank" title="">www.iomhaiti.org.

For more information please contact:

Frislain Isidor

IOM Haiti

Tel: +509 3605-6004

E-mail: "mailto:fisidor@iom.int">fisidor@iom.int