Emergency relief to reach over 150,0000

Evolving  needs

The start for the new six month programme is seen as vital to cope with the demands of the imminent rainy season and an array of evolving needs.

Concern’s Regional Director, Brid Kennedy, who has just returned to Dublin from Haiti says:

Speed and effectiveness are paramount, and our local partners and relationships with local government will be vital to success.

Experience

Concern has been in Haiti since 1994, working with 16 local partner organisations. This experience and local knowledge is imperative to the successful roll-out of the new programme.

Brid added:

We must also look to the medium and longer-term as part of a coherent strategy that will encompass an eventual ‘big picture’ plan for Haiti’s future. Before that, however, we are already putting this six month programme into effect to reach to try and prevent a bad situation becoming much worse with the onset of the rainy season. The logistics element in delivering this six-month plan is mammoth.

Concern has identified seven key areas on which it will focus over the coming months:

• Shelter and non-food items to 30,000 people
• Access to clean water and sanitation for 50,000 people
• The prevention and treatment of acute malnutrition targeting 2,500 children under one-year of age and almost 2,000 under fives
• Cash transfers to 10,000 women
• Cash-for-work programmes reaching 10,000 men
• Psycho-social support, including trauma and bereavement counselling
• Primary education to 10,000 children
• Food distribution, working with World Food Programme, targeting 72,000 people