Care

CARE's Earthquake Response

CARE IS ON THE GROUND DELIVERING AID TO SURVIVORS

Emy Merci, 39, was holding her newborn baby in the hospital soon after delivery, when she felt the earth start to shake on January 12. She received a hygiene kits (background) from CARE. (2010 Evelyn Hockstein/CARE)

Devastation from the January 12 earthquake in Haiti was massive. But so was the outpouring of public support for relief and recovery efforts.

As a result, emergency aid has made a real difference in the lives of survivors, including the women and girls targeted in CARE's response. There has been no large outbreak of disease and no nutrition crisis. Virtually all displaced people have some form of shelter. And we are proud to be part of a response that has helped alleviate suffering for hundreds of thousands of people across Haiti.

Today, our relief efforts are currently focused in two areas of the country: Pétionville and Léogâne. We also have worked in Canapé Vert, Cité Soleil, Delmas, Gonaïves, Gros-Morne, Jérémie, Léogâne, Tabarre and Port-au-Prince. During the past six months, we have reached hundreds of thousands of people with aid.

CARE has distributed food, PUR® water purification packets, water, jerry cans, buckets, hygiene kits, shelter kits, emergency housing repair kits, solar flashlights, kitchen sets, mattresses, blankets, clean delivery kits, newborn kits, latrines, showers and worked on other projects that promote hygiene and sanitation. And we organized our distributions so that women and children, who are among the most vulnerable during times of disaster and crisis, have benefited from CARE's assistance.

WHAT IS IN THE WORKS

Using a community-based approach and working closely with the government, CARE is focusing on those most affected by the earthquake.

Shelter

Daniel Léger, lives alone in his CARE-built shelter in Carrefour. He lost his leg eight years ago after an accident while working in construction. (2010 Natasha Fillion/CARE)

As much as possible, we want to help families move from the camps back into their communities. CARE is doing so by distributing transitional shelter and home repair kits, providing economic opportunities and improving health and educational services – both in earthquake-affected communities and several outlying provinces. CARE also will continue to provide support to people remaining in camps.

Of immediate concern is a hurricane season predicted to be more active and more dangerous than usual. That's why we're importing emergency materials to repair damaged homes and to make 20,000 shelter reinforcement kits for families forced to live in self-built structures. CARE also continues to construct 25 to 30 transitional shelters per week, giving widows, women-headed households and other survivors a safe, secure place to rebuild their lives.

The shelters, roughly 13 feet by 15 feet with wooden frames and sheet metal roofs, are hazard-resistant – able to withstand earthquakes and high winds. They are designed to last at least 3 years – or 5 to 10 years with repair and maintenance. Not only that, but the materials are reusable, and the design can be adapted by beneficiaries to form the core of a permanent dwelling to suit the families' tastes and local housing styles.

Our shelter teams, local authorities and community associations are working together to identify beneficiaries using the following criteria: families with available plots whose homes that have been destroyed or rendered unrepairable. CARE is targeting people who are most vulnerable, including female-headed households, families with children under age 5, persons suffering of chronic illness, disabled people and the elderly. Each person receiving a shelter is assigned two CARE carpenters. Along with three friends or family members, the team can build the shelter in two days.

Since starting in June, 33 percent of transitional shelters targeted for 2010 have been constructed.

Women and Girls

"Femme Vigilante" women' committee members, Uphania Ladouceur, 30 (left) and Mesidor Hyguette, 29, (right) at a meeting with CARE in Léogâne on June 30, 2010. (Natasha Fillion/CARE)

CARE's programs prior to the earthquake were designed to meet the needs of women and girls, making sure they had significant opportunities to improve their quality of life. Now, we are integrating these approaches into all areas of our emergency response. For example, nearly half the participants in cash-for-work activities are women; half the children receiving recreation kits will be girls; and many of our projects seek to lessen workload burdens of women, such as collecting water.

We are also working to help prevent violence against women in Haiti's crowded camps. We've conducted community-training activities at 14 different sites in Carrefour and Léogâne, covering topics, such as gender-based violence, sexually-transmitted diseases, HIV and AIDS and family planning.

In partnership with local health committees, CARE is opening more than 20 women's centers that will serve more than 40,000 women and girls. The centers that will serve as places that women can go to for counseling and referrals, especially in the case of reproductive health issues and matters of gender-based violence. In addition, the centers will offer activities to support pregnant women, the importance of prenatal consultations, nursing, neonatal care and family planning, the danger signs of pregnancy and use of the clean delivery kits and newborn kits.

Water, Sanitation Hygiene

A mother washes her baby girl in a bowl in Place St. Pierre Camp, Pétionville. Delivering clean water for consumption and hygiene has been a vital component of CARE's relief efforts. (2010 CARE/Sabine Wilke)

CARE is providing water, building latrines and showers, and organizing citizens to promote good hygiene. Since the earthquake, we have built 800 latrines and 140 showers at 60 sites between Léogâne and Carrefour. We've also installed 23 water bladders in 21 locations, bringing clean drinking water to a total of 45,000 people.

In the immediate days after the quake, sanitation quickly became a grave concern, especially the removal of human waste from sites where it was impossible to install emergency trench latrines. CARE purchased 10 mobile vacuum trucks to help meet this need.

In addition, CARE is conducting hygiene promotion activities through local committees in 133 sites in Carrefour and Léogâne. These activities include house visits, group training sessions and peer outreach, such as child-to-child and mother-to-mother. So far, 43 latrine-cleaning committees and 76 site-cleaning committees have been created. We've also distributed more than 32,000 hygiene kits. Moving forward, we plan to work with schools to introduce good hygiene habits to students, replicating programs we have done in other countries.

With the installation of waste bins, the problem of household waste disposal around the camps has been halted. Today, Haiti's camps are litter-free and people are enjoying the cleanliness of the water and sanitation facilities. This is helped by CARE's cash-for-work project that helps people earn a living while keeping the settlements clean of debris.

Livelihoods and Food Security

Mona Jean Pierre and Berta Noel are participating in CARE's "cash for work" program planting peppers, eggplant, tomatoes and other vegetables to eat and sell in the local markets. (2010 Natasha Fillion/CARE)

CARE has supported affected families in non-urban areas (including families who are hosting displaced people) to ensure that sufficient food is locally produced, in order to avoid widespread hunger and reduce the need for people to travel to quake-affected urban areas in search of food.

Our approach includes paying people for infrastructure projects, so they have money to buy food. Through cash-for-work programs, CARE has assisted 3,154 affected families, which is 81 percent of the project's target. Of the people employed, nearly half of them are women. Through these programs, 33 kilometers of irrigation canals have been cleared; 7 kilometers of feeder roads have been rehabilitated, facilitating exchanges between communities; dry stone walls supporting 250 meters of ravines have been built; and rubble from a church and an orphanage have been removed. Communities identified all of these projects as high priority.

CARE also is promoting gardening to improve families' access to fresh food. So far, 146 pounds of spinach and okra seeds have been distributed to 1,575 families, as these vegetables are easy to grow from seeds. Additionally, tomatoes, chilies and eggplants are being started at local nurseries to improve chances for survival; and the seedlings are being distributed to families.

Children's Education, Psychological Care and Well-Being

Children who now live in a camp in Léogâne. (2010 Melanie Brooks/CARE)

Our education efforts includes a project to help 20 directly-affected schools in Léogâne and 50 indirectly-affected schools (serving displaced children) in the areas of Gonaïves, Gros-Morne, and Jérémie. The project will also support students to resume learning activities. Schools will be assisted with refurbishing, e.g. desks and chairs for students and teachers; and their students will be provided school and hygiene kits.

In order to contribute to the stability and security of children, we're training teachers and parents on psycho-social support for children ages 6 to12. And these adults help spread the messages to other teachers and families in the neighborhood. As of the end of October, we'd reached 46 percent of our target.

Out trainings cover topics such as child development, conflict management and post-traumatic stress symptoms, such as loss of appetite, grinding the teeth, apathy, aggressiveness, nightmares, difficulty concentrating, hyperactivity, intense sadness and difficulty sleeping. Participants employ activities for children such as drawing and coloring (which provide them a way to express their emotions), and sports and games, such as hopscotch and marbles.

We've identified 100 schools where CARE will provide psycho-social training for teachers and caregivers. The schools are located in the towns of Gonaïves, Gros-Morne, Léogâne and Jérémie, where many displaced children are now living. In addition to addressing the emotional well-being of the children, we'll provide school furniture and supplies, and rehabilitate school water and sanitation facilities, and promote recreational activities so that the children have a supportive, comfortable and fun place to resume their studies.

Finally, CARE intends to distribute 8,000 recreational backpacks to families whose children are not currently attending school. The backpacks will contain jump ropes, marbles, pens, colored pencils and pencil sharpeners, among other items.

CARE'S LONG-TERM RELIEF AND RECOVERY PLANS

We have developed a 5-year, $100 million strategy for relief and rehabilitation in Haiti, one guided by the priorities of the Haitian people and the Haitian government. It places special emphasis on women and girls who, with the right support and resources, can help build a better Haiti. The strategy focuses not only on earthquake-ravaged areas but also the provinces, so that economic opportunities and social services are spread throughout the country.

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