Helping after the dust has settled
The aid effort in Haiti is massive and complicated, but help is getting through.
The EU’s emergency aid teams quietly swung into action in Haiti before any political arguments began to brew about Europe’s visibility. Three million people – almost one-third of Haiti’s population – live in the region of the country that was hardest hit by the earthquake, the worst in 200 years. Destruction was on a biblical scale: much of the capital city, Port-au-Prince, is in ruins, electricity and water supplies were lost, roads blocked, while 200,000 are estimated to have lost their lives.
The spectacle of devastation is widespread, but for one EU official, the speed at which life “began to take over” in the ruins was equally striking. Raphaël Brigandi, a communications officer in the European Commission’s humanitarian aid department, spent a week in Port-au-Prince, arriving days after the earthquake. Brigandi said he was struck by the resilience and dignity of the people he came across. He said every piece of space was filled with makeshift tents, as people made their own shelter, and small shops and street stalls selling fruit were springing up within less than a week.
Brigandi did not find that media reports of anger and riots reflected the mood in the capital: “I had the impression that the public image did not totally correspond to the situation on the ground.”
He said: “It is a major crisis situation in an urban environment where people have dramatic needs putting their lives at risk, so of course this creates tensions…but I was impressed by the calm and discipline of the people.”
Immediate needs
Around one thousand European experts have gone to Haiti, as medics, planners and aid workers, but very few wear an EU badge.
The Commission’s humanitarian aid department sent 15 people to assess needs and to work with non-governmental organisations getting supplies to people. Meanwhile, a team of seven other officials is in place to work on the immediate needs, including rescue and hospital treatment. This team, know as the Monitoring and Information Centre (MIC), is also responsible for co-ordinating aid among EU member states.
Sharing information is crucial to avoid being supplied with mountains of one thing and not enough of something else equally necessary. Now that the initial search and rescue missions have officially ended, priorities have moved on, said Laura Schmidt at the Commission’s MIC in Brussels. No more field hospitals are required, but other medical supplies and equipment are needed, while there is a huge need for tents. Haiti’s government has requested 200,000, but the EU had on Tuesday (26 January) sent only 1,182 tents. Schmidt said that crisis-response officials were looking at sourcing them locally – an example of the decisions that need to be made to ensure the most efficient use of aid.
Loss of life
The widely-reported delays in aid reaching people have been aggravated by loss of life among civil servants and UN officials, as well as the destruction of official buildings.
Fact File
COUNTING THE COST
200,000 people are estimated to have been killed
112,250 bodies have been recovered and buried
133 people have been pulled alive from the rubble by international rescue teams
One million people are in need of shelter
Three million people live in the part of the country that was hardest hit by the quake
200,000 are in need of post-surgery follow-up and an un known number have untreated injuries
One NGO representative told European Voice last week (22 January) that aid was beginning to trickle through. Rezene Tesfamariam, the country director of Plan Haiti, said that aid is getting into the capital and beyond, but supplies need to be intensified and better co-ordinated.
The scale of the need is vast. “The destruction the earthquake left is comparable to Hiroshima,” said Tesfamariam, who lost his own house in the quake. People are sleeping at the roadside in improvised tents, and the need for shelter and sanitation is urgent, he said.
Plan Haiti has distributed tents, food, water and soap to people in makeshift camps, Tesfamariam said, but there is still a lack of co-ordination. Long-term reconstruction also needs to be a priority, he said, adding “it will take years”.
Brigandi at the Commission said that the EU will respect its promise to provide long-term reconstruction aid: “The EU has been present in Haiti for a long time and has been one of the major donors…we will stay as long as necessary.”
The Commission opened a humanitarian office in Haiti in 2008 following four hurricanes that blighted the country.
“Two years ago we were considering it a forgotten crisis, with little media and public attention,” said Brigandi. Whether Haiti sinks back into becoming another ‘forgotten crisis’ will be a test for wealthy donors – the EU included.