Rebuilding Haiti

PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI—Action Against Hunger | ACF International has provided emergency services in clean water, nutrition, sanitation and hygiene to more than 100,000 people since the earthquake devastated the Haitian capital one month ago today. The humanitarian organisation has also expanded its current operations in Port de Paix and Gonaives, cities that have experienced an influx of hundreds of thousands of earthquake survivors fleeing the capital.



Update from Port-au-Prince

* Clean water: Action Against Hunger has installed 41 large water reservoirs and five water treatment stations in hard-hit neighbourhoods across Port-au-Prince that provide daily clean drinking water access to nearly 70,000 people.

* Sanitation: The humanitarian agency is constructing 100 latrines equipped with hand-washing stations and has mobilised 60 staff members to conduct public awareness campaigns in displacement camps on best hygiene practices in emergency settings.

* Nutrition Services: A dozen makeshift tents are now operational in Port-au-Prince, providing nearly 500 mothers and their young children with a safe setting for breastfeeding, as well as counselling and psycho-social support, each day. The centres also provide feedings to forty infants whose mothers were killed or injured in the earthquake.

* Distributions: Since the earthquake, Action Against Hunger has distributed 62 tons of high-protein BP5 biscuits, 3,600 blankets and more than 2,000 emergency kits containing plastic sheeting, soap, buckets and other essential items. Some 35,000 people have benefited from Action Against Hunger’s distributions.


Strengthening programmes in surrounding areas

In response to the arrival of an estimated 500,000 survivors from Port-au-Prince who have taken refuge with families in nearby cities of Gonaives and Port de Paix, Action Against Hunger has scaled up programmes in nutrition, health, clean water and sanitation already underway prior to the earthquake. Having run programmes in these cities since 2001, the organisation is focused on the treatment of severely malnourished children; the installation of clean drinking water stations, latrines and other sanitation facilities; and the provision of technical and logistical support for local health centres and hospitals.



The consequences of this disaster are unimaginable and it will take a long time before Haitians will be able to return to any kind of normality. The cameras might no longer focus on Haiti, but our teams are there, working together with communities to make a difference to tens of thousands of survivors.



Action Against Hunger has launched a public emergency appeal. Call 08456 003618 or click here

News from Haiti

•So far, 20,000 children have received high-energy biscuits so far, and Action Against Hunger UK are reaching more people on a daily basis

•400,000 litres of water are being distributed every day, providing access to safe drinking water to some 100,000 people. Every day, more water points are being set up in Port-au-Prince and surrounding areas

•Hundreds of breast-feeding mothers receive nutritional and psychological support in our baby tents, which have been set up amongst the makeshift tent cities all over Port-au-Prince

•Sanitation is an immediate priority. The rainy season is about to start and sanitation problems can quickly turn into a health disaster. Our teams are working round-the-clock to set up latrines, dig trenches and implement hygiene-promotion sessions

•We currently have some 40 international staff and 250 national staff in Port-au-Prince, plus an additional 50 colleagues in Gonaives and Port de Paix

•The media spotlight has moved on: but our teams continue to make a life-saving difference every day.

Aid Reaches Thousands of Earthquake Survivors in Haiti

Humanitarian organisation rushes to provide access to food, water & sanitation in stricken areas

February 2, 2010| PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI — Three weeks after the 7.0-magnitude earthquake struck parts of western Haiti, Action Against Hunger | ACF-International is providing displaced families with access to food, water and sanitation in hard-hit neighborhoods of Port-au-Prince and surrounding areas. In spite of gasoline shortages, airport delays and other logistical limitations, the international humanitarian organisation has assisted thousands of people left homeless and in dire need of life-sustaining supplies.


Targeted Food Distributions

As the risk of acute malnutrition grows in Haiti, ACF is distributing high-protein biscuits to families with children under five, who are most vulnerable to the life-threatening condition. To date, Action Against Hunger has handed out 26 tons of vitamin-laden BP5 biscuits to over 13,000 people. By working in close cooperation with the neighbourhood communities established in the camps, ACF is working to ensure efficient and safe distributions.



In cooperation with the World Food Programme, Oxfam, and the National Food Security Coordination Unit, Action Against Hunger is also carrying out a rapid assessment of the food security situation in affected areas to determine immediate and longer-term needs of the population.



More Supplies Arriving

A cargo plane carrying emergency supplies landed in Santo Domingo on Friday to reinforce ACF’s emergency relief efforts. This chartered flight, the organisation’s fourth since the quake, carried additional emergency food, and water and sanitation supplies, including 4,200 sheets, 14,000 blankets, 30 tons of BP5 biscuits, water taps and additional bladder tanks. Five ACF vehicles are currently en-route from the Dominican Republic to Haiti.



Action Against Hunger has implemented programmes in Haiti since 1985, focusing primarily on food security and water, sanitation and hygiene programmes in both emergency and recovery contexts in Port de Paix, Gonaives, Anse Rouge and Jeremiah.





Action Against Hunger has launched a public emergency appeal. Call 08456 003618 or click here