Situation in Haiti remains “acute”
MARKHAM, ON—Ten months after a massive earthquake devastated Haiti, World Vision Canada's Sabrina Pourmand says "things are coming along" as aid agencies and governments continue to help the small nation get back on its feet.
But as a freak storm on September 24 clearly showed, recovery remains fragile.
"The fact that a 10-to-15-minute storm caused anywhere between five to seven deaths," says Pourmand, who has been serving in Haiti since May 1, "very much shows that we're still in an acute phase. If a hurricane or a strong tropical storm were to move through Haiti, this population could be greatly at risk."
Ed Epp, executive director of Christian Blind Mission Canada, who visited Haiti within weeks of the earthquake, agrees that "things are starting to come together. But it's taking the time that everyone who was on the ground expected it to take."
Some signs of progress, says Pourmand, are a slight easing in the demand for essentials and an increased ability to use local suppliers, which is speeding up World Vision's construction and water sanitation projects. But the flow of outside aid remains slow, due to Haitian government red-tape and streets still littered with rubble.
As well, Pourmand says the tent cities that sprang up following the earthquake are now "in flux" as people either choose or are forced to move out. "As camps close, our ability to continue to serve those people always gets more complicated," she says.
Ontario Conservative MP Paul Calandra has not been to Haiti, but he has seen the aftermath of the earthquake that destroyed L'Aquila in Italy in 2009. Recently, he invited several aid agencies—most of them Christian—to meet with Peter Kent, the Minister of State of Foreign Affairs (Americas), to assess Canada's response to the disaster.
"We owe it to the people in Haiti to see if we can improve, or where we have done good, to make sure that when a situation like this happens [elsewhere] in the future, we follow the same type of protocol," Calandra says.
"I really like that kind of cooperation," says Epp, who was at the meeting. "People had a chance to voice their issues clearly. They were heard."
Noting that the earthquake only added to the already high number of Haitians who are physically disabled, Epp urged the government to help ensure their needs are met as Haiti begins to rebuild.
"Virtually all the schools in Port-au-Prince have to be rebuilt," he says. "There were students in those schools before the earthquake that can't go in if they're not going to be accessible, because they were disabled because of the earthquake."
Calandra says participants offered a lot of positive feedback, such as "how the Canadian Armed Forces was able to protect them, open up some roads and offer immediate relief."
"If the way that the Canadian government and Canadians have supported Haiti is an indication of how they do things in other disasters," says Pourmand, "I would say, 'Keep on doing what you're doing.'"
Even so, Calandra says he would like to see the international community explore ways to be better coordinated in delivering initial supplies of emergency aid.
Calandra hopes they can meet again "in a few months" to work on some recommendations to the government. All agreed, he says, "that we have to keep Haiti in the minds of Canadians. We can't allow this to just fade away. And I don't think we will."
"People in Haiti who live in the tent cities [and] have had an amputation," says Epp, "they don't have the luxury of forgetting."
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