Haiti earthquake coverage
Haiti's most powerful earthquake in 200 years struck on 12 January. Follow the latest updates from Concern.
“Water is life”
Posted by Naoise Kavanagh in Haiti earthquake coverage | 10 March 2010 |
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It’s now nearly two months since the earthquake hit Haiti and an estimated 700,000 people are living in make-shift shelters. Concern is focusing most of its emergency response on water and sanitation in two areas in Port-au-Prince.
One of the first steps was the installation of a 10,000 litre water bladder in one of the settlements.
In the video below we meet Jocelyn and her family who are among the thousands of families displaced by the earthquake. Life is hard for them, but the assistance they are receiving from Concern is helping them cope.
A song for Haiti
What do you get when you put Johnny Depp, Shane MacGowan, Nick Cave, Paloma Faith and other musicians together? You get a song for Haiti, of course.
If you don't use iTunes, you can use one of the links below to buy the song.
>> Order the song now in Sterling
>> Order the song now in US Dollars
Or, in the UK, text SPELL (all in capitals) to 78789. The text costs £1.50.
Help Haiti
Legendary Pogues singer and songwriter Shane MacGowan was deeply moved by the plight of the people of Haiti. With help from his girlfriend, writer Victoria Clarke, they decided to do something about it.
Two and half weeks later, Shane and a line-up of musicians entered a London studio. Together, they recorded a unique version of “I Put a Spell on You,” the classic Screamin’ Jay Hawkins hit from 1956.
The song will be released on 8 March.
The song
Shane has been a longtime admirer of Hawkins, who died ten years ago to the day that the earthquake struck Haiti. Shane regards the song as a modern day “hymn for hope and love.”
Who is who
The stellar cast featured vocals from Shane MacGowan, Nick Cave and Primal Scream singer Bobby Gillespie, the Sex Pistols’ Glen Matlock, The Pretenders’ Chrissie Hynde and Paloma Faith and finally Eliza Doolittle. On guitars were James Walbourne, The Clash’s Mick Jones and Johnny Depp, who recorded his parts in LA.
Long-time Pogues collaborator Cait O’Riordan played bass, and Carwyn Ellis played Hammond organ and piano. Drums were courtesy of Rob Walbourne and the fire hydrant was “played” by Mick Jones.
http://ie.7digital.com/artists/shane-macgowan-and-friends/i-put-a-spell-on-you
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Introducing some of our team in Haiti
Posted by Dominic MacSorley in Haiti earthquake coverage | 24 February 2010 |
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I have just spent the day visiting Concern’s emergency team in the poorest areas of Port-au-Prince. It was a long, hot day – but it was a great day.
We have a great team of more than 250 staff now working in Port-au-Prince. 230 of them are Haitian, and we’re recruiting more every day.
Experience
Heading up the emergency team are some of our most capable and experienced staff members. Here are just a few examples of the people I’m working with.
Per Andersson, our Emergency Engineering Manager, is more experienced in water and sanitation than anyone else I know. Tom Dobbin has being doing food distributions in emergencies in Africa for 20 years. Kate Golden has led Concern’s emergency programmes for the most vulnerable children in Sudan, Ethiopia and Democratic Republic of the Congo. Ted Shine has worked in every large-scale emergency around the world in the last 10 years. It’s an impressive team, and we need every single one of them because we have a huge job to do.
Basics for survival
There is nothing fancy and nothing small about what we’re doing here. We are simply ensuring that thousands of families have the basics for survival.
We’re already providing clean water and latrines to over 50,000 people. More than 30,000 have received a shelter kit, blankets, jerry cans and a hygiene kit. Thousands of children have been screened for malnutrition. In the coming weeks, we’ll be providing 15,000 children with supplementary food. We are providing education for 30,000 children and seeds, tools and goats for 5,000 farmers.
Water distribution has been a big priority from day one, and Concern is now providing 188,500 litres of clean drinking water to 53,000 people every day!
Challenging areas
The areas where we’re responding now are the same places in which we’ve been working for years: Port-Au-Prince, La Gonave and Saut d’Eau. All of them are tough, remote and deeply poor.
I’m very proud of how we are working and what we are doing, and I’m deeply grateful for the support we receive that allows us to do this and more.
“This is the spirit that will rebuild Haiti"
Posted by Dominic MacSorley in Haiti earthquake coverage | 24 February 2010 |
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In Haiti, we know that distributions are only part of the answer. In our focus group discussions, women made it clear: jobs are a priority and work is seen as freedom.
Cash for work
So, last week our teams hit the street with a cash-for-work clean-up campaign that targets the poorest, most vulnerable women. The $5 a day they earn will put desperately-needed money straight into their pockets.
In the coming weeks, we hope to recruit 7,000 workers. In addition, we’re providing $75 to 7,500 women to help them restart their small businesses.
We have also been using mobile phones to transfer cash directly into people’s hands. Similar to the system we have used in Kenya, this will facilitate cash distributions in slum areas that could otherwise be highly risky.
Malnutrition
Chronic malnutrition was a huge problem in Port-au-Prince prior to the crisis. Concern has screened over 3,000 children under five years of age and has referred those that are malnourished to one of our eight therapeutic centres.
Hospital
Some of the children we have screened are really sick and acutely malnourished. They are being transferred to the nutrition stabilisation unit which we opened at the General Hospital. In the past few weeks, 37 severely malnourished children have received 24-hour care.
The numbers are big, sometimes too big to take in, but lots of people here wouldn’t stand a chance if Concern wasn’t here. And we wouldn’t be here without the generosity of our supporters.
Counselling
Many women, who were sick, dehydrated and traumatised, stopped breast feeding after the earthquake. To address this, we have set up six tents where women are given gentle counselling in a safe, quiet place, with the aim of encouraging them to breast feed again. About 60 women are coming to each tent every day.
Hope for tomorrow
Haiti has faced tough times before, but this is their biggest challenge and they will overcome it. Back in 2008, when three successive hurricanes hit the island, our staff made Concern t-shirts with these words printed on them: “We are the hope for tomorrow - working together for better future.”
I noticed that many were wearing these t-shirts after the earthquake. When I asked why, I was told something that has stuck with me ever since: “This is the spirit that will rebuild Haiti, because this spirit cannot be buried under the rubble.”
One month on
Posted by Niall O Murchu in Haiti earthquake coverage | 12 February 2010 |
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It is now one month since a massive earthquake struck Haiti. Concern’s team has been working with long-established local organisations to get aid to those that need it most.
Reaching thousands
Brid Kennedy of Concern commented:
“The first month of our current six-month recovery plan has reached one third of the 150,000 earthquake-affected people we are targeting. We’ve provided water, sanitation and shelter, but the road to recovery will be long.”
Bigger team
We have more than doubled our team of local staff in Haiti from 106 to 250. We’ve also provided an additional 23 international emergency response staff. They are part of our effort to provide relief and support to 150,000 people within six months of the disaster.
Water and hygiene
Over 41,500 people are now receiving drinking water daily from Concern and its partners in Port au Prince and Martissant. Over 40,000 hygiene kits have been distributed.
A long view
According to Brid Kennedy:
With a view to the longer term, Concern is continuing the education programmes in which it was engaged before the disaster. Between 2,000 and 4,500 schools have been destroyed in Haiti and education is key to developing the country.
We are continuing to target 18,000 school children with primary education and creating five open ‘child friendly spaces’ in camps which will provide safe play and learning areas for an additional 4,000 children.
What your support is achieving
Posted by Alan O Reilly in Haiti earthquake coverage | 11 February 2010 |
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Your donation is working in Haiti – this is how.
Dominic MacSorley and Laurie Richardson are part of Concern’s team on the ground in Haiti. In the video below they give an update on our response.
28 days later
Posted by Susan Finucane in Haiti earthquake coverage | 8 February 2010 |
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I had to return to New York last week to ensure that our programmes in other countries were being looked after. It was a difficult decision to make nearly a month after the earthquake.
Telling the story
I haven’t had time to sit still since my return. I have been trying to tell people what it was like in Haiti.
Generous supporters
As part of this, I flew to Chicago to speak at the Irish Consul General’s residence to a group of engaged, interested and generous Concern supporters. It was quite surreal to go from the grim reality of Haiti to the plush surroundings of Chicago.
However, what Haiti needs is continued support from the international community and there are an abundance of charitable people looking to help.
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Haiti: “the job is huge”
Posted by Ed Kenney in Haiti earthquake coverage | 4 February 2010 |
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This is my final blog post from the Haitian island of La Gonave. We have a massive task ahead of us.
Massive problems
The challenge for organisations like Concern is immediate and massive. Assistant Country Director Brian Tabben, who led the assessment team, summarised his thoughts:
It's sobering – if the population is increasing by something like 20%, that puts a major stress on communities that are already on the edge. Obviously we need to move quickly to respond here. Fortunately we have a long history on La Gonave. We have close links with the mayors, the ministries, other NGOs here on the island and with the communities themselves.
The job is huge. It's going to mean finding the displaced, making sure that their needs for water, food and shelter are taken care of, and making sure the host communities do not slide back, that we can preserve some of the development gains of the last several years. The situation is critical and the response begins today.
More to come
The team brought plastic sheeting to families living outside at Grand Source. We’ll be starting larger scale distributions in the coming days.
