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<a href="http://www.counterpunch.org/quigley02152010.html" eudora="autourl">
http://www.counterpunch.org/quigley02152010.html<br>
</a></font><font face="Verdana" size=2 color="#990000">February 15,
2010<br><br>
</font><h1><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=4><b>And the U.S.
Calls This a "Model Response?" <br><br>
<br>
</i></font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=5 color="#990000">A
Million Homeless in Haiti
</b></font></h1><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=4>By BILL
QUIGLEY <br><br>
</font><font face="Verdana" size=6 color="#990000">D</font>
<font face="Verdana" size=2>espite the fact that over a million people
remained homeless in Haiti one month after the earthquake, the U.S.
Ambassador to Haiti, Ken Merten, is quoted at a State Department briefing
on February 12, saying “In terms of humanitarian aid delivery…frankly,
it’s working really well, and I believe that this will be something that
people will be able to look back on in the future as a model for how
we’ve been able to sort ourselves out as donors on the ground and
responding to an earthquake.”<br><br>
What? Haiti is a model of how the international government and
donor community should respond to an earthquake? The Ambassador
must be overworked and need some R&R. Look at the
facts.<br><br>
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)
reported February 11 there are still 1.2 million people living in
“spontaneous settlements” in and around Port au Prince as a result of the
January 12 earthquake. These spontaneous settlements are sprawling
camps of homeless Haitian children and families living on the ground
under sheets. <br><br>
Over 300,000 are in camps in Carrefour, nearly 200,000 in Port au Prince,
and over 100,000 each in Delmas, Petitionville and Leogane according to
the UN. <br><br>
About 25,000 people are camped out on one golf course in
Petitionville. Hundreds of thousands of others are living in soccer
fields, church yards, on hillsides, in gullies, and even on the strips of
land in the middle of the street. The UN has identified over 300
such spontaneous settlements. The Red Cross reports there are over
700. <br><br>
The UN reported that barely one in five of the people in camps have
received tents or tarps as of February 11. Eighty percent of the
hundreds of thousands of children and families still live on the ground
under sheets. <br><br>
Many of these camps are huge. Nineteen of these homeless camps in
the Port au Prince area together house 180,000 people. More than
half of these camps are so spontaneous that there is no organization in
the camp to even comprehensively report their
needs. <br><br>
Another half a million people have left Port au Prince, most to the
countryside. As a result there are significant food problems
in the countryside. About 168,000 internally displaced people
are living along the border with the Dominican Republic. Many are
with families. Others are in “spontaneous settlements” of up to a
1000 people. <br><br>
People living in these densely populated camps will be asked to move to
more organized settlements outside the city. Relocation, says the
UN, will be on a voluntary basis. <br><br>
The U.S. Ambassador knows full well there are 900 or so aid agencies are
on the ground in Haiti. Coordination and communication between
those agencies and between them and the Haitian government continues to
be a very serious challenge. <br><br>
Though many people are trying hard to meet the survival needs Haiti, no
one besides the Ambassador dares say that it is a model of how to
respond. Partners in Health director Dr. Louise Ivers reported on
the very same day that “there is more and more misery” in Port au Prince
as fears of typhoid and dysentery haunt the camps as the rainy season
looms.<br><br>
But the still the Haitian spirit prevails. Everyone who has been to
Haiti since the earthquake reports inspiring stories of Haitians helping
Haitians despite the tragically inadequate response of the Haitian
government and the international community. That spirit is
something people should admire. Let me finish with a story that
illustrates.<br><br>
One orphanage outside of Port au Prince, home to 57 children, was
promised a big tent so the children would no longer have to sleep under
the stars. The tent arrived but without poles to hold it up.
The same group was promised food from UNICEF. Twelve days later, no
food had arrived. They improvised and constructed scaffolding to
create an awning over the mattresses lying on the dirt. They are
finding food from anywhere they can. “We’re holding on,” said the
Haitian director Etienne Bruny, “We’re used to difficult times.”<br><br>
Haitians are holding on despite the inadequate humanitarian
response. They are the model.<br><br>
<b>Bill Quigley</b> is Legal Director at the Center for Constitutional
Rights and a law professor at Loyola University New Orleans. He is a
Katrina survivor and has been active in human rights in Haiti for years
with the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti. He can be reached
at:
<a href="mailto:duprestars@yahoo.com">duprestars@yahoo.com</a>.<br><br>
<br><br>
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