Haitione year on

On 12 January 2010, a 7.0 magnitude earthquake shook the poorest country in theWestern hemisphere. Haiti’s fragile houses, schools and public buildings collapsedwhen the disaster struck at 4.53pm. Port-au-Prince’s densely populated slums verysoon became the scene of one of the biggest disasters of recent times.

Over 230,000 died in the Haiti earthquake and over three million were affected.Aid agencies found themselves dealing with one of the most complex emergencies interms of size, scale, logistics and location. One year later, even though signs of hopeare evident, the challenges remain. The hopes of new homes, jobs and a stable lifehave been hampered by hurricanes, floods and a cholera epidemic.

Caritas works with Haitians in their daily difficulties and as they look towardsrebuilding their country.

Sara Fajardo/CRS

2 Caritas Internationalis Haiti one year on

Close to a year after the earthquake,Caritas relief and reconstructionprogrammes in Haiti are well-establishedthroughout the country.

Caritas will invest more than $217 million inHaiti over a one year period that started inMay 2010.

This aid will cover further emergencyneeds caused for example by hurricanes,floods or the cholera epidemic, such as thedistribution of hygiene kits and food aid, butalso infrastructure and housing projects,education, livelihoods, water, sanitation,capacity building and health programmes.

The funds are additional to the roughly$14 million that were spent in the first threemonths after the disaster for emergencyrelief efforts and first rehabilitationprogrammes.

As over a million people are still living incamps, shelter remains a major focus ofCaritas’work in Haiti.

Activities include building and repairinghouses, ensuring earthquake-resistantconstruction, training construction workersand providing building materials toearthquake victims. They make up almost athird of the budget of the rehabilitationprogramme.

Over 100,000 people will benefit fromCaritas’ shelter programmes. Many obstacleshad to be overcome in this field over theyear. The rubble needed to be cleared, landtitles resolved, construction sites wereplanned and permits had to be obtained.

Health, nutrition and food security arefurther Caritas priorities in Haiti, representing29 percent of the current budget andbenefitting around 670,000 Haitians.

Caritas has stayed to strengthen longterm healthcare. Even before theearthquake, many Haitians did not receivesufficient healthcare.

Caritas is setting up or supporting clinicsand mobile clinics in different regions.Awareness for healthcare and hygiene issuesis raised through campaigns and training,especially in camps for displaced people.

Towards the end of the year, additionalprogrammes had to be set up to respond tothe outbreak of cholera. Caritas invested instaff and equipment at local health centresand people received water purificationtablets and training on how to prevent thespread of the epidemic.

Support in the field of food security isthrough seed and cattle distributions tofarmers, reconstruction of irrigation systemsand training.

Caritas is also running a wide range ofprogrammes in the fields of education, jobskills and capacity building to help Haitiansrebuild their lives and give themopportunities for the future.

Initiatives include the reconstruction ofschools and orphanages, counselling fortraumatised children, scholarships, humanrights and management trainings, set up ofearly warning systems and support for localmedia.

Caritas Haiti has been working onemergencies, development and socialjustice for 35 years and is present all over thecountry through its diocesan offices, staff,parish priest and community volunteers.

Several international Caritas memberorganisations already had programmesrunning in Haiti before this year’searthquake.

Caritas providing long term helpto rebuild Haiti

Caritas work in Haiti ($217 million)

Institutional Capacity Building1 percent

Emergency8 percent

Shelter32 percent

Infrastructure2 percent

Protection6 percent

Education9 percent

Water and Sanitation7 percent

Livelihoods4 percent

Disaster Risk Reduction2 percent

Food Security9 percent

Health and Nutrition20 percent

Caritas started to send staff, aid and todonate money within hours of theearthquake. Caritas Haiti, Catholic ReliefServices (a USmember of Caritas) andCaritas Switzerland already hadprogrammes in Haiti. They were on theground assessing the situation andestablishing what immediate needs werefrom the beginning.

In the first few months, Caritas’ efforts werefocused on providing food, water, sanitation,medical support and shelter to hundreds ofthousands of people in need.

Three months after the earthquake,Caritas relief efforts had reached more than1.5 million survivors. Caritas members fromover 60 countries took action from the firstday of the disaster to provide food, shelter,livelihoods, clean water, a safe place forchildren, healthcare, and trauma counselling.Over $14 million was spent by Caritas in thefirst three months to respond to the firstemergency and start setting uprehabilitation programmes.

Until April, Caritas shelter programmes

provided 100,000 people with tents ortarpaulins in the capital Port-au-Prince, inLéogâne, Jacmel and other communities.Working with affected communities meantproviding meals for 1.5 million people,trucking in 30,000 gallons of clean water tofour camps every day, building latrines andgiving out hygiene kits, jerry cans and waterpurification kits.

To prepare Haiti’s regions for an influx of600,000 displaced people from the capital,Caritas also distributed emergency food aid.“Thanks to its continual presence in the field,Caritas was able to go much further into

remote areas than most organisations. It wasable to help affected people where theywere,” said Bishop Pierre Dumas, President ofCaritas Haiti.

Caritas cash-for-work programmesemployed 2000 Haitians in this time periodand over 350,000 people in Haiti benefitedfrom Caritas health programmes. Caritas alsoheld two seed fairs for farmers and gavecounselling to more than 2,000 children incamps. Twenty-five school tents were set upand 53 schools received materials to startlessons again.

Caritas Internationalis Haiti one year on 3

Michelle Hough/Caritas

The first three months – emergency response

A voice in the rubble

Ruth Schoeffel was working for CaritasAustria in Haiti immediately after theearthquake and got involved in a rescuemission.

I went with the Caritas rescuers from Mexicoand some rescuers from South Africa to theCuban hospital one day as I wanted to writeabout what the hospital was doing. Whilewe were there a dog from a German rescue

team found signs of life in the rubble of thenearby cathedral. The rescue teams split upand started looking in different places.

It was the most surreal situation I hadever experienced. There was shootingnearby and there were people rootingthrough the rubble looking for valuablethings. Then the rescuers said a woman wasalive under the bricks.

I climbed up on top of the rubble to talkto her as the rescuers didn’t understandFrench. I also tried to help her keep calm.

When I first talked to her she was still acouple of metres down in the rubble andshe was very scared and cried. It took therescue team almost two hours to get her outof the rubble but as soon as they got her outand she could see the sky she sighed for abrief moment.

Her name was Enu Zizi. She had hurt her

hip and was very dehydrated but after aweek in the rubble she was in an amazinglygood state of health.

Once they had carried her down therubble, she was lying in the grass and we sataround her, holding her hand, she told all ofus: “Je t’aime”. I have never seen so manytough guys like the rescuers break down.They didn’t know whether to cry or laugh.I think it was one of the most movingmoments of all our lives and it was such arelief from all the sadness and the disasterthat was Haiti in those days.

I feel very much connected to thecountry and its people after being there inJanuary. I had never seen so much sadnessbut also this amazing will and hope to startup something new. I really wish that peopleall over the world don’t forget Haiti as thereis still so much help needed.Katie Orlinsky/Caritas

4 Caritas Internationalis Haiti one year on

Katie Orlinsky/Caritas

Health: Putting the ‘care’ in healthcare

Caritas Germany,Dr Joost Butenop,health advisor

Following the Haiti earthquake, Caritaswas with the most-affected people fromvery early on and wemanaged to savelives and alleviate suffering within ourcapacity. Our health centres always didmore than handing out drugs. Peoplecame for comfort and support. Holding ahand or hugging a patient was asimportant and life-saving as givingantibiotics to children with pneumonia.Most of our consultations in the firstmonths were“psychosocial”in nature rather thanmedical in that wehelped people deal with the emotionalimpact of the earthquake.

Even before the earthquake struck, the stateof the healthcare system in the areasaffected by the earthquake was worse thanthose in most countries I had ever workedin. Haiti’s health system was already ashambles before the earthquake with lessthan 30 percent of the population havingaccess to healthcare services – and evenworse, only 17 percent had access tosanitation. I did not expect it to be that bad.

The earthquake destroyed most of whatlittle existed, leaving the many homelesspeople in particular utterly vulnerable.

One of the biggest challenges when Iwas in Haiti immediately after theearthquake was seeing the endless needsand desperation and realising there seemedto be no end to the suffering. Even with tenyears of emergency response experience asa doctor, I found it particularly hard toidentify those in greatest need in those firstfew weeks. It was our duty as humanitariansto identify those who needed most help, butin Haiti the need was so immense and somany people had very, very big needs. Itwas very difficult to finally settle down inone area to start our work knowing that somany others would be left without help.

Caritas’work meant that it dealt withmany aspects of the earthquake other thanthe medical side of things. The Caritas searchand rescue team from Mexico are my heroes.Going three to four metres in the rubble andrisking their lives to save people is just anextraordinary feat. It was purehumanitarianism and I felt privileged to haveshared time with them.

I went to Haiti four times in 2010. There isso much left to do and focusing onseemingly small aspects remains a challenge

for any humanitarian. We have to stayfocused on the work at hand and supportour local partner, Caritas Haiti. All the workthat is being supported from internationalNGOs will have to be handed over at somepoint to our Haitian partners. Building theircapacity is a big and responsible task, and toenable the partners to take over in the nearfuture requires us to remain realistic aboutcapacities and sustainability. InternationalCaritas organisations will maintain apresence over the years to come to supportand strengthen our local partners in thisHerculean task. What I have learned is thatexperience and professionalism are asimportant ingredients of humanitarian workas are idealism, humanity, flexibility and theability to manage chaos.

The Haiti earthquake is something thatwill stay with me for a long time to come.The scenes of total destruction, the smelland sight of the decaying bodies, the smellof cement still in the air, the aftershocksevery day and the expression of total shockin everyone’s face still haunt me even now. Itwill take years to overcome this I think, but ithelps to have been back to Haiti many timesin the year following the earthquake and tocontinue my support and see things slowlyimprove.

Caritas Internationalis Haiti one year on 5

Lane Hartill/CRS

Challenges: Poor sanitation, fragile health

Caritas Haiti

Crowded conditions in camps, limitedaccess to water and heat poor sanitationcombined to create a cholera time bombfor Haiti’s earthquake victims.

The first cases emerged in the Artiboniteregion in mid-October. Two months later,over 2,300 people had died from the diseaseand over 100,000 had been ill.

Cholera is spread through infected water.People who catch it can get severe vomitingand diarrhoea which lead to dehydration. If acase isn’t treated in time the person can die.

In the first 48 hours of the epidemic,

Caritas Haiti in Gonaïves started to give outover 170,000 water purification tablets, handdisinfectant, rehydration salts andantibiotics.

Caritas Haiti and other Caritas memberorganisation embarked on an awarenesscampaigns to tell the public about hownecessary good hygiene was.

Caritas in Jacmel focused their awarenessraising in schools. Staff trained teachers inhygiene promotion and cholera prevention.They also distributed water purificationtablets in schools.

Caritas Haiti also engaged doctors andnurses in various dioceses to back up itscholera programmes with expert advice.

Other Caritas member organisations havebeen running hygiene awarenessprogrammes to prevent the spread ofcholera. But even before the epidemicbegan, Caritas was providing camps withdrinking water, latrines and hygieneeducation in a bid to keep occupantshealthy and safe.

While people are living in crampedspaces, there will always be a risk ofinfectious diseases. The long term solution isto get people into permanentaccommodation with good sanitation asearly as possible.

6 Caritas Internationalis Haiti one year on

Shelter: Brick by brick

Caritas Austria

Nelson Elissier and Michelle Azor builttheir house brick by brick. They didn’thave muchmoney, but every time theygot a little, they bought buildingmaterials for their house. It took fouryears to complete their home, but just sixmonths after they had finished, theearthquake destroyed what they hadworked for.

Their story is similar to that of manyothers in Haiti, where poverty means thatpeople have to work very hard to build ahouse for their families.

Many people slept outside their houseswhen the earthquake hit. They wanted toprotect their possessions and stay in a placethey knew when all around them wasuncertain.

“We never considered leaving our houseto go and live in a camp,” said Mr Elissier.

“We stayed here because it’s our home.Leaving would have meant losingeverything.

Caritas Austria’s reconstruction project inFort Hugo in the district of Morne à Bateauhas been devised so that people rebuildnear their destroyed homes.

They will build 500 houses over the nextcouple of years following a pilot project tobuild seven homes for families in Fort Hugo.

While the homes are being built on theplot of land where their original house wasdestroyed, the families live next to it in atemporary shelter. They are also involved inclearing away the rubble of their originalhouse and in building their new one.

The new houses have been built so theywill be resistant to earthquakes, floods andhurricanes.

Caritas Austria is also helping those whohave lost their houses through farming andcash-for-work projects. This is aimed athelping people take control of their lives andavoid falling into extreme poverty in theaftermath of the earthquake.

In the long term Caritas Austria will focuson education, agriculture, livelihoods,disaster risk reduction and building homes.

The team in Gressier.Caritas Austria

Nelson Elissir and Michelle Azor in front of their new house.Caritas Austria

Caritas Internationalis Haiti one year on 7

Francois Tifabe and his family in their new shelter.Cordaid

Cordaid (Caritas Netherlands)

Francois Tifabe was walking through analley near his home on 12 January 2010when the ground started to shake.Before he understood what washappening a nearby wall collapsed andthe debris fell on his leg.

“I still feel the pain and need a stick to walk,”said Mr Tifabe, pointing to his injured leg.

On returning home, his worst fears wereconfirmed. His house had totally collapsed inthe earthquake. However, he was relieved tofind that his wife and five children hadsurvived.

Bad times followed in the months afterthe earthquake. The family went to live in acamp. Following the earthquake, over onemillion people were without a home. Theyslept anywhere: in camps, in the street, inimprovised shelters made from anythingthey could find.

“There were snakes crawling in the campand the ground was wet all the time. Ourtent wasn’t such good quality and Iconstantly wished my family was in betterconditions,” said Mr Tifabe.

In November the local authoritiesdecided to clear the camp. Suddenly, MrTifabe and his family found themselveshomeless again.

Not long after the earthquake, Cordaid(Caritas Netherlands) launched a project toprovide up to 10,000 temporary houses tofamilies who had lost their homes in theearthquake in areas of Port-au-Prince andLéogâne.

Mr Tifabe was chosen as one of thefamilies to receive a house. He and his familyhelped clear a plot of land for the buildingwork to proceed and now they are waitingfor the house to be finished.

“This house means so much to me; itfeels good that we’ll have our own placeagain,” said Mr Tifabe.

Safe from the snakes

8 Caritas Internationalis Haiti one year on

Education: Food for thought

Development and Peace(Caritas Canada)

The afternoon of the Haiti earthquakemany children died or were left trappedin collapsed schools. An estimated 90 percent of schools in Port-au-Prince weredamaged or destroyed, leaving aroundtwomillion children without access toeducation.

Following the disaster, the Haitianauthorities made education a high priorityand asked humanitarian organisations togive particular attention to educationalneeds so that children could complete theirschool year.

Development and Peace (the Canadianmember of the Caritas network) respondedquickly to this appeal by supporting severalreligious communities that run schools.Religious communities have a long traditionin Haiti of looking after the schooling of

children, but after the earthquake they facedenormous challenges in re-opening theirdoors.

“After such a traumatic event, school canbe very stabilising for children as it givesthem back some sense of normalcy to theirlives,” said Danielle Leblanc, EmergencyProgrammes Officer for Development andPeace. “The desire to greet the children backwas there, but the walls weren’t and manyparents no longer had the financial meansto send their children to school.”

But just a few weeks after the earthquakeleft so many schools in ruins, with crackedwalls and collapsed roofs, students werepulling on their uniforms and making theirway to class.

The Sisters of Saint-Anne run ÉcoleMarie-Esther and École Saint-Antoine inPort-au-Prince. They are both all-girls’schools that have a combined total of1,270-students. Development and Peaceprovided funds to offer students a hot meal

and to help cover the costs of school fees,which go towards the purchase of schoolmaterials and teachers’ salaries.

In families where money is tight followingthe earthquake, school meals encouragechildren to come to school. The nutritiousmeals such as rice, beans and chicken, helpchildren concentrate in the classroom andalso keeps them healthy in general.

“It is truly important for us to have a mealhere in this atmosphere of friendship, andespecially for our parents, who always madesure we had food for our lunches. Andespecially after the earthquake, since manyof our parents are having difficulty findingfood to feed their children,” said BeverleyMillford, a ninth grade student at the school.

The meals programme meant that thestudents at both schools were able tocomplete their school year and not fallbehind in their studies.

At École Marie-Esther in Port-au-Prince, pupils are lined up before a table piled high with plates filled with steaming rice and beans.Development and Peace

Caritas Czech

Saint LouisWilner is counting hisblessings that his wife and children arealive. He lost family members in theearthquake and also his house andpossessions. His wife lost her businessand he lost his job as a result of thedisaster. It’s been a tough year.

He is taking his three-year-old daughter,Julie, to school. This is one reassuringglimpse of normality in a time of uncertaintyand difficulties.

Dominic Savio nursery in Sibert,Port-au-Prince, collapsed in the earthquake.Caritas Czech Republic along with theMissionary Oblates of Mary Immaculatehelped rebuild it.

They also provided the children with

school uniforms and basic supplies andlearning activities.

Mr Wilner has managed to survive oncasual work since he lost his job. CaritasCzech helped him with cash-for-workprojects and by providing the family withfood and essential items as well as a tent tolive in.

“It’s difficult living in a tent as everythinggets wet during the rainy season. My wifeand children are often sick because of thedamp. I’m hoping someone will help merebuild my house,”he said.

One year after the earthquake Mr Wilneris still anguished by what happened.

“I feel worried that another disaster mayoccur. Especially knowing that experts havesaid on the radio that more earthquakesmay occur in the future in Haiti. This worriesme a lot,”he said.

Caritas Internationalis Haiti one year on 9

Julie and Saint LouisWilner.Caritas Czech

Education: Something solidin the uncertainty

Providing children in camps witha safe place to play and grow

Trócaire (Caritas Ireland)

More than a million earthquake victimsin Haiti are still living in camps. Many ofthem are children as four out of tenpeople in Haiti are under 14 years old.Difficult living conditions in the campsand uncertainty about the future marktheir daily lives. Irish Caritas memberTrócaire provides children in camps witha safe place to play, learn and overcomethe traumatising memories of thedisaster.

Six-year old Christine knows the centre inthe Pétionville Club camp in Port-au-Princeinside out. She and her younger sister wereamong the first children to join the centrewhen it opened shortly after the earthquake.

“When she arrived, Christine was verystressed,” says Armelle Joseph, a localcounsellor in the centre. “She cried all the

time and would refuse to participate andmingle with other kids. She was convincedanother quake would happen. But she isdoing a lot better now. Most days, shedoesn't want to go home!”

Symptoms of childhood trauma can beacute stress, nightmares, emotional distress,behavioural disorders or attention deficits.

“After an incident as traumatising as thisearthquake, it is essential to offer safety,comfort and counselling to the children,”

said Helen Nic An Ri, of Trócaire, who workedon setting up the spaces.

Child protection staff working withTrócaire have worked with more than2,000 children in three differentdisplacement camps. Counselling has beenset up to help children and give them backsome normality in their lives.

Christine herself says, “It is so nice here!I am having a lot of fun with my friends, weplay all day! I also like it because we getfood. And there is so much space!”

Trócaire has been particularly active inthe fields of mental health and educationsince the earthquake in Haiti. It is providingcommunity-based mental health supportservices for 20,000 people in Léogâne andDelmas, supporting the Ministry of Health intraining primary healthcare doctors onmental healthcare and conducting a widerange of activities helping thousands ofchildren go back to school.

Helen Níc an Rí of Trócaire (Caritas Ireland)taking part in an art class at the Pétionville Club.Conor O'Loughlin/Trócaire

10 Caritas Internationalis Haiti one year on

Secours Catholique(Caritas France)

With Port-au-Prince in ruins following theearthquake, hundreds of thousands ofpeople fled to the countryside.

Les Cayes, in the south of Haiti, is a ruralzone. It is very vulnerable to heavy rains,floods and soil erosion due to deforestation.

Enelio Teme is trying to help his relativeswho arrived from Port-au-Prince followingthe earthquake but floods following theearthquake have made his life much moredifficult.

“My crops, my seeds, my cattle…everything has disappeared,”he says. “Peopledon’t usually die from hunger here, but thisyear, who knows? What with my familyarriving on top of the floods, life is verydifficult.”

Mr Enelio’s story isn’t unusual in LesCayes. Mass deforestation around Les Cayeshas led to soil erosion which leads to floodswhen torrential rains arrive. The floods inFebruary 2010 destroyed most of the cropsand led to the loss of many heads of cattle.

Secours Catholique works with partnersin Les Cayes to build up communities andhelp them work together. With their support,

farmers receive tools, seeds and help to buycattle. They also learn techniques regardingconservation and the rehabilitation of land.

“Without this aid, I’m not sure I’d havebeen able to manage,” said Carline Nézaire,who had recently arrived from Port-au-Prince with her four children.

The area is heavily dependent on thehelp of aid agencies. But despite thedisplaced population and the risk offlooding, Les Cayes’ future could be bright.

“With the right policies, the southernregion of Haiti has real agricultural andtourism potential,” said Fr Wilnès Tilus, formerdirector of Caritas Haiti.

Livelihoods: Helping farmers in rural areas

Elodie Perriot/Secours Catholique

Caritas Internationalis Haiti one year on 11

A year in Haiti for oneCaritas member organisation

Catholic Relief Services (CRS – anAmerican member of Caritas) had beenworking Haiti 55 years before theearthquake struck. On 12 January, CRShad a staff of around 300 on the groundwho had been working on existingprogrammes. Here’s how the yearpanned out:

12 January:When the earthquake hits inthe afternoon, many people are at work andchildren are at school. Mary Lineberger, whowas in Haiti for CRS, said: “All around us weheard screaming and the crashing down ofbuildings. The falling of buildings continuedfor hours. We stayed there at the apartmentcomplex and immediately pulled themattresses out knowing that we would besleeping outdoors for several nights.”

14 January: Staff in neighbouringDominican Republic prepare10,000 packages of food and water witheach package containing enough to sustaina family of five for two weeks.

18 January: Doctors at St. Francois de Saleshospital in Port-au-Prince to perform theirfirst operations since the earthquakedestroyed about 70 percent of the hospital

using CRS medical supplies. CRS soon formssix medical teams to provide preliminarycare at sites where people have soughtshelter.

19 January: CRS registers people at thePetionaville Golf Club makeshift camp andprovides them with food, water and hygienesupplies.

22 January: CRS sets up a food distributionsystem to immediately feed more than50,000 people. Plans are also taking shape toset up 50 more distribution points to reach150,000 people.

17 February: Over one month after theearthquake, CRS has fed more than500,000 people. Additionally, CRS helps keepthe heavily damaged St. Francois de SalesHospital running and distributes emergencyshelter kits to more than 32,500 people.

5 April: Nearly 3 months after theearthquake, CRS has fed more than700,000 people, given 45,000 outpatientstreatment, provided more than80,000 emergency shelter kits and hiredabout 1,700 people in cash-for-workprogrammes.

9 July: As Haiti prepares to mark the sixmonth anniversary of the quake, CRS haddistributed food to nearly 900,000 people inthe Port-au-Prince area and 114,000 peoplereceived emergency shelter materials. CRShas completed 62,000 outpatientconsultations and 960 emergencyoperations.

22 September: Eight months after theearthquake, CRS begins building transitionalshelters for about 8,000 families.

23 October: Immediately after the outbreakof a cholera epidemic CRS and partners gotent to tent in 12 camps in Port-au-Prince,distributing three bars of soap each to morethan 10,000 families (more than50,000 people) and reaching thousandsmore through an information campaign thatpromotes hand washing and personalhygiene. CRS and Caritas hire local graffitiartist Jerry Rosembert to spray paintmessages promoting good hygiene toprevent the spread of cholera.

5 November: Hurricane Thomas hits Haiti,narrowly missing Port-au-Prince. CRS feedsabout 4,000 people seeking refuge intemporary shelters during the storm.

8 November: St. Francois de Sales hospitalin Port-au-Prince, which was destroyed inthe earthquake, is reopened in a temporaryfacility. CRS worked with the hospital staff toconstruct the temporary quarters and movein new medical equipment and supplies.

December 2010: CRS has fed more thanone million people, provided shelter to250,000, conducted around70,000 outpatient hospital consultations,given short term jobs to 10,000 people andoffered protection and education tothousands of vulnerable people.

Dr. Rodrigue Mortel, right, a CRS volunteer, treats patients at CRS partner, the St. Francois de SalesHospital.Sara Farjado/CRS

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