Children in Haiti still suffering

11 Nov 2008

SOS Children is assisting children in areas throughout Haiti where hurricanes Fay, Gustav, Hanna and Ike have killed hundreds and left thousands without shelter, food and medical supplies.

A series of unusually violent hurricanes in August and September of this year left Haiti, the poorest country in the Americas, in a desolate state. It is estimated that 700 people, including many children, were killed due to the storms that battered the island, some only a few days apart. Many are still missing and might never be accounted for, since the floods washed many corpses out to sea. According to aid workers on the ground, at least 800,000 Haitians are in urgent need of help, since the hurricanes also destroyed homes, crops and killed livestock.

Celigny Darius, the Director of SOS Children’s Villages Haiti,reports that families who lost their homes along with all their belongings, spent up to 20 days in shelters without water, food, sleeping mats or basic sanitation. The lack of clean water and medical supplies made it particularly easy for contagious diseases to spread unchecked.

While the children and staff living in the two SOS Children’s Villages of Haiti at Santo and Cap Haitian were unharmed, SOS Children's Villages has started an emergency relief programme to help 50 families who were hit hardest by the disastrous storms. This programme provides them with basic foods such as rice, milk, beans and corn for a period of two months.

Mr Darius recognises that in spite of the hellish conditions the thirty families at Santo and the twenty families at Cap Haitien have to suffer, they have shown amazing solidarity: "The food staples are calculated to last exactly two weeks, until the next distribution is due. And yet, most of the families we selected as being those most severely affected by the lack of food nevertheless shared with their neighbours and closest friends. They see the supplies as being a gift from heaven, and therefore feel obliged to share the little they have."

The lack of food, shelter and even the most basic infrastructure comes at a particularly hard time for Haiti, since it coincides with the installation of a new government replacing one that was dismissed in April 2008. Even though a large number of Aid organisations are struggling to provide the population with basic necessities such as clothing, clean water and medical supplies, the lack of central coordination makes it extremely hard to get the goods that are needed most urgently to those who need them.

In spite of the sheer scale of the disaster and its relative visibility in the media, the world has been surprisingly slow in providing financial aid, say the spokespersons of aid organisations including the UN relief coordination office, Mr. Darius confirms: "So far, Haitians have not even received one tenth of what they really need."

Further devestation hit Haiti at the weekend after a school collapsed in Port-au-Prince . About 500 children and teachers were inside the school when it collapsed and it is believed around 93 were killed.

Relevant Countries: Haiti.