Location: Gonaïves, Grand-Anse department, Jeremie, Pilate and Port-au-Prince
Situation:
Haiti is the poorest country in the Americas. More than 70% of its people live on less than US$2 a day.
Haiti is also known for its vulnerability to natural disasters such as landslides, floods, tropical storms, earthquakes and tsunamis.
On 12th January 2010, a massive earthquake measuring 7.3 on the Richter Scale devastated the nation’s capital, Port-au-Prince and the surrounding areas, killing 220,000 people and leaving 1.5 million homeless.
Although it’s been over a year since the earthquake the region still shows signs of the earthquake, with pieces of rubble on the roads, houses in ruins and displaced persons’ camps dispersed throughout the city. Millions of Haitians are living in difficult conditions waiting for reconstruction to take place.
Activities:
Doctors of the World (DOW) has been working in Haiti since 1989. Our teams are working in the capital Port-au-Prince and in Cité Soleil, in the Goâvienne area and in the Grand Anse Department.
After the earthquake, DOW teams, which were already present on the ground in Port-au-Prince, started distributing essential medicines at the central hospital in the city and at the Choscal hospital in Cité-Soleil.
In the aftermath of the earthquake we sent a surgical team to work in the university hospital of Port-au-Prince. Since January 2010 we have been running 8 clinics in the camps and neighbourhoods of Port-au-Prince. We have been providing free medical consultations, reproductive health consultations, discussion groups and individual psychological counselling. In Grand Anse, DOW supplied and supported 8 health centres and 6 maternity clinics with the aim of providing free care for pregnant women and children under 5 years. We also established a nutritional stabilisation unit within Jeremiah hospital to take care of malnourished children requiring hospitalisation.
In the recovery phase there were 1,200 DOW workers, of whom 95% were Haitians. Since the earthquake, we have carried out more than 580,000 medical consultations, of which 800 were surgical procedures.
Cholera outbreak in Haiti:
To address the cholera epidemic which broke out in October 2010, we established 5 cholera treatment centres with 40 to 50 beds specifically for the treatment of cholera. We also established 11 cholera treatment units which are dedicated to oral and intravenous rehydration in Port-au-Prince and in 3 municipalities in the Grand Anse. Over 4,700 cases of cholera have been dealt with by the DOW team. To prevent the spread of cholera, we organised community education sessions and distributed blocks of soap in Port-au-Prince, Delmas, Carrefour and the Grand Anse department.
Outlook:
Reconstruction seems to have stalled. Assistance by NGOs and UN agencies remains essential. To recover, the Haitian government should be supported by donors and the international community. In March 2010, the United Nations member states promised $10 billion at a conference in New York. One year after the earthquake only a few hundred million had been disbursed.
Our commitment to pressuring governments to live up to their obligations remains. We will continue to help Haiti strive towards an equitable health system. In the meantime we continue to work with local authorities to deliver vital healthcare while rebuilding the health infrastructure.
