Haiti Earthquake

CARE's Earthquake Response

HAITI'S RECOVERY: PEOPLE, PERSPECTIVE & PERSEVERANCE

January 12, 2011

Emy Merci, 39, was holding her newborn baby in the hospital soon after delivery, when she felt the earth start to shake on January 12. She received a hygiene kits (background) from CARE. (2010 Evelyn Hockstein/CARE)

When the earth shook in Haiti on January 12, 2010, a humanitarian catastrophe without precedent followed. The earthquake hit Haiti in the heart, claiming more than 220,000 lives and destroying more than 188,000 buildings. And like any country that suffers such a mega-disaster, Haiti was a place in great need.

CARE and other aid agencies responded in the face of a decimated port, destroyed roads and government ministries that had crumbled to the ground. CARE reached more than 290,000 people in those first three months, with emergency relief such as water, tarps, mattresses, blankets, birth kits, kitchen sets, hygiene kits and food.

A year later, Haiti's people still have tremendous needs. But an oft-overlooked one is paramount today: meaningful participation in the rebuilding of their country. CARE's staff, which is more than 95 percent Haitian, remains committed to giving all community members a strong voice in the recovery process, taking special care to assure the perspectives of women and girls are heard.

''Let's not forget that the first ones to reach out after the earthquake were Haitians themselves: families, neighbors and fellow citizens started digging in the rubble, carrying people to hospitals and offering shelter to the homeless,'' said CARE President and CEO Helene Gayle. ''This commitment, this knowledge and energy are the foundation for a better tomorrow for Haiti. CARE draws from these strengths when working with community volunteers and local partners to support lasting change.''

Daniel Léger, lives alone in his CARE-built shelter in Carrefour. He lost his leg eight years ago after an accident while working in construction. (2010 Natasha Fillion/CARE)

This approach is reflected in all of CARE's interventions. In hard-hit areas, where CARE built nearly 1,000 transitional shelters, residents have helped identify those who were most in need. Family members have then aided the construction and learned how the structures can be integrated into a more permanent home. In camps, people work together to develop their own action plans against sexual violence and submit them to local authorities. Mothers' and children's clubs for hygiene promotion provide a much-needed sense of belonging.

But with 38 percent of the adult population illiterate and an estimated 80 percent unemployed before the earthquake, reconstruction is not just physical. Obstacles to lasting change include land tenure rights, lack of employment and economic opportunities and limited access to education. To overcome those barriers – in a way that gives people of Haiti a real voice in the process – takes patience and perseverance. The earthquake was followed by an active hurricane season and a cholera outbreak that has once again placed the country in emergency mode. Recovery after such a massive disaster is slow, and Haiti's vulnerability to disasters makes it even harder to move from emergency relief to rehabilitation.

''We need to be realistic about what could be achieved within a year,'' said Beat Rohr, country director of CARE in Haiti. ''Rebuilding Haiti and making it stronger will take years, sustained commitment and a lot of perseverance. But this shouldn't stop everyone in Haiti – from aid agencies to the government to civil society – from challenging themselves to seize momentum, move even faster and achieve more today than yesterday.''

In 2011, CARE will continue to support families with transitional shelters and to serve people still living in tented camps with water and sanitary facilities. Those families willing to return to their communities will have assistance securing shelter, water and other social services to make the neighborhoods more livable again. CARE will supply schools with furniture and training, collaborate with local medical facilities to ensure basic reproductive health services and scale up cholera prevention activities, too.

''Femme Vigilante'' women' committee members, Uphania Ladouceur, 30 (left) and Mesidor Hyguette, 29, (right) at a meeting with CARE in Léogâne on June 30, 2010. (Natasha Fillion/CARE	A mother washes her baby girl in a bowl in Place St. Pierre Camp, Pétionville. Delivering clean water for consumption and hygiene has been a vital component of CARE's relief efforts. (2010 CARE/Sabine Wilke)	Mona Jean Pierre and Berta Noel are participating in CARE's ''cash for work'' program planting peppers, eggplant, tomatoes and other vegetables to eat and sell in the local markets. (2010 Natasha Fillion/CARE)	Children who now live in a camp in Léogâne. (2010 Melanie Brooks/CARE)

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Background

EARTHQUAKE IN HAITI

Click the map above to download a Google Earth file and see what CARE is doing in Haiti now (updated March 31, 2010)!

Around 5:00 p.m. on Tuesday, January 12, 2010, a powerful 7.0-magnitude earthquake struck 10 miles southwest of Haiti's capital city, Port-au-Prince, and triggered a tsunami warning for the region. A series of aftershocks – more than 30 – measuring 5.0 or greater on the Richter Scale, followed throughout the night and into the morning. The nearby towns of Carrefour and Jacmel and other ares to the west and south of Port-au-Prince also were affected, with the town of Léogâne reported to be 80 percent destroyed.

Buildings across the area area collapsed, leaving hundred of thosands homeless, injured and dead. The exact number of people killed will probably never be known, but the Haitian government places the figure at 222,517, and some 300,600 wounded. Three million people were directly affected, of whom the government estimates 1.2 million lost their homes.

Several hundred spontaneous sites in and around Port-au-Prince were established to house affected families, who continue to rely on the assistance of the international community and direct intervention of approximately 1,000 humanitarian organizations, including CARE. There was also a mass migration of an estimated 600,000 persons away from affected cities. Host families and communities in outlying areas are bearing much of the burden of supporting these dispaced people.

CARE IN HAITI

CARE began working in Haiti in 1954 to provide relief assistance after Hurricane Hazel. Our work shifted to development programming in 1959, with a focus on maternal and child nutrition. In 1966, CARE launched community development activities in the country's impoverished Northwest region. In the 1970s, we broadened our focus to include health care for preschool children, safe drinking water and income-generating activities. By the 1980s CARE's programming in Haiti included agriculture and natural resources, preschool education, water and sanitation, primary health care and small enterprise projects. Following the coup d'état in 1991, CARE concentrated on humanitarian feeding and rehabilitation projects.

Today, CARE's work in Haiti reflects an integrated approach, with projects in HIV and AIDS, reproductive health, maternal and child health, education, food security, and water and sanitation. CARE works closely with local nongovernment organizations (NGOs), private companies, community organizations and the Haitian government to build local capacity and achieve sustainable development.

Our emergency response efforts in Haiti also have continued. More recently, tropical storm Jeanne nearly destroyed the regional capital city of Arbonite in 2004. Following that emergency, CARE Haiti developed a comprehensive emergency preparedness plan focused on response to ''recurrent emergencies in the country: flooding and drought. This plan was used in 2008 when four storms, including hurricanes, crossed the country in August and September of that year.

CARE's work in emergencies and times of crisis goes back to our founding in the aftermath of World War II to deliver food and supplies to war-torn Europe by means of the famous ''CARE Packages^®.'' In the decades since, we have responded to hundreds of humanitarian disasters worldwide – from earthquakes, to floods, to the consequences of armed conflict. Today, CARE reaches some 11.7 million people each year with immediate relief and long-term assistance coping with, preparing for and preventing disasters.

Find out more about our work in Haiti.

DELTA AIR LINES PARTNERSHIP

Delta Air Lines, a long time CARE partner, provided transportation for Atlanta-based CARE staff to support the Haiti Country Office team on the ground with emergency relief. Click here to donate your Delta SkyMiles to CARE through Delta's SkyWish program.

Blogs from the Field

BLOGS FROM THE FIELD AVAILABLE ON WE.CARE.ORG

• One community’s parents won’t let anything get in the way of their children’s education
• When Maude Joseph talks about her 15-year-old daughter, she gets nervous
• CARE savings groups help women build their own futures outside camps
• Simple actions that save lives
• The situation here in Artibonite is all but reassuring
• ''My dream is to be a doctor''
• Today, I met Rosette
• CARE visits Haitian town flooded by hurricane
• Why this? Why us? Why again?
• ''We are exceptionally strong; we can stand up again''

To read all of our blogs on Haiti, please click here.

Reports

CARE REPORTS

• Haiti Earthquake: Two Year Report
• Haiti Earthquake: CARE Finances
• Fighting Cholera in Haiti
• Haiti Earthquake: One Year Report
• CARE Haiti's Earthquake Response: The First Six Months
• The Way Forward: Haiti Three Months After the Earthquake

JOINT REPORT

• CARE-Save the Children Effectiveness Report
  
  In September 2010, CARE International and Save the Children commissioned a joint independent evaluation of their humanitarian assistance. This evaluation presents a snapshot of the global humanitarian interagency response in areas of CARE and Save the Children intervention, as felt and perceived by a cross section of groups representative of Haitian society. It is important to emphasize that the findings reflect the views and sentiments of Haitians themselves in conversations led by and between Haitians. The openness of the methodology of the joint evaluation put the experience of Haitian people at its center and then worked from that experience to determine the effectiveness of wider agency efforts including those of CARE and Save the Children.

Press and Media Coverage

MEDIA CONTACTS
For more information or to arrange interviews with staff in Haiti:

• Brian Feagans (in Atlanta): +1 404-457-4644, bfeagans@care.org
• Melanie Brooks (in Geneva): +41.79.590.30.47, brooks@careinternational.org

CARE HAITI NEWSLETTERS

• No. 8: September 3, 2010
• No. 7: June 2, 2010 (available in French only)
• No. 6: May 21, 2010
• No. 5: May 5, 2010
• No. 4: April 29, 2010
• No. 3: March 26, 2010
• No. 2: March 19, 2010
• No. 1: March 13, 2010

CARE PRESS RELEASES

• Two Years After Earthquake, CARE Supporting Haitians on Long Road to Recovery
• Haiti's Recovery: People, Perspective & Perseverance
• CARE Steps Up Haiti Response as Cholera Cases Surge
• CARE Responds to Hurricane Tomas
• CARE Helps Haitians Prepare for Tropical Storm Tomas
• CARE Braces for Potential Spread of Cholera in Haiti
• CARE Brings Shelter, Dignity to Thousands in Haiti: Six Months After Deadly Earthquake, Women Lead Rebuilding, Healing
• Habitat for Humanity, the American Red Cross, CARE and Others Help Provide More Than 13,000 Additional Emergency Shelter Kits for Haiti
• Resettlement of Quake Victims Must Ensure Human Dignity: Agencies Call for Upholding of Standards to Protect Vulnerable People
• Quick Work on Water Has Prevented Disease After Haiti Quake
• CARE Announces Key Recommendations for Haiti's Recovery, Reconstruction and Development Needs
• Food Crisis Looms in Rural Haiti: FAO and CARE collaborate on cash-for-work program in Léogâne
• Race to the Rainy Season in Haiti: CARE Calls for Mass Tarp Distribution and Sanitation Campaign
• CARE Is Working to Prevent Sexual Violence in the Aftermath of Haiti Earthquake
• CARE Calls for Rehabilitation Funding and Debt Relief to Rebuild Haiti
• CARE Distributes Food, Water and Supplies to Haiti's Hardest Hit
• CARE Works with Women in Haiti to Keep Disease at Bay
• Tens of Thousands of Pregnant Women at Risk in Haiti
• CARE Deploys Supplies, More Emergency Team Members to Haiti
• CARE Deploys Additional Emergency Team Members to Haiti
• CARE Readies Operations in Haiti Following Devastating Earthquake

CARE IN THE NEWS

• Click here to read media coverage of CARE's work in Haiti

CARE ACTION NETWORK UPDATE

We asked our supporters to send a message to their elected officials asking them to encourage the IMF and others to forgive Haiti's debt. Thousands of you did, and your efforts will make a difference in the lives of so many:

• CNN – IMF Forgives Haiti's $268 Million Debt to Fund

CARE in the News

Two year anniversary coverage:

• The Huffington Post – Haiti: Two Years On

Resurgence of cholera:

• CARE Scales Up Activities to Respond to Resurgence of Cholera
• CNN – Haitian Flooding Kills 23, at Least Six Missing

Hurricane Thomas, cholera outbreak and one year anniversary coverage:

• Relief Web – Haiti's Community Cholera Volunteers
• Relief Web – Haiti: Hurricane Tomas Update
• CNN – Hurricane Tomas Begins to Lash a Devastated Haiti
• Chicago Sun-Times – Haitian Quake Victims Not Out of Danger Yet
• Channel One News – Haiti: After the Quake (video part 1)
• Channel One News – Haiti: After the Quake (video part 2)
• Channel One News – Haiti: Donations (video)
• California Chronicle – Bringing Hope to Haiti
• ReliefWeb – The Women of Haut Miton: Much Lost, but Not Leadership
• CNN iReport – CARE Helps Make Strong Women in Haiti (with video)
• Media Global – Haiti's Displaced Begin Building on Their Own
• CNN iReport – Nadine's Story (with video)
• Atlanta Business Chronicle – Health-Care Heroes Haiti Service Award: Honoring CARE for Easing Devastation in Haiti

Previous coverage:

• Global Post – Haiti Stands Alone
• Foreign Policy in Focus – Ghosts Threaten to Return to Haiti
• Today's Chicago Woman: CARE President Dr. Helene Gayle Updates TCW on Women in Haiti
• Marketplace – Leaving Haiti to Relief Plan a Challenge (audio and transcript)
• Relief Web – Haiti Aid Marred by Slow United Nations Response
• Associated Press – Haitian Women Become Crime Targets After Quake
• The New York Times – Coupons Ease Chaos in Efforts to Feed Haitians
• PBS – Haiti Scrambles to Find Shelter for Quake Survivors (video, MP3, and transcript)
• CNN – Scout Takes Comfort in Haiti Relief Work
• Ladies Home Journal – Do Good: Haiti Earthquake Survivors Helping Others
• CNN – Massive Food Distribution Begins in Quake-Ravaged Haitian Capital
• The Berkshire Eagle – ''Most Intense Two Weeks''
• Tagesschau – Nach dem Erdbeben (CARE interview at 6:54, in German)
• The New York Times – Giving Life in a Land Overflowing With Pain
• Reuters – Haitian Women Lose Out in Post-Quake ''Survival of the Strongest''
• BET – BET Networks Presents SOS Saving OurSelves – Help for Haiti Benefit Concert, Feb. 5
• Des Moines Register – Guest Column: International Community, Haitians Must Work Together
• Reuters – Thousands of Pregnant Women in Haiti Face Dangerous Delivery After Earthquake
• CNN – Haitians Helping Each Other (Video features a CARE hygiene kit distribution)
• The Huffington Post – It's the Haitians Who Will Rebuild Their Country
• Pittsburgh Post-Gazette – Haitians' Spirit Remains Strong Amid Ruins
• Fit Pregnancy – Born in Haiti: The Littlest Survivors
• The Washington Post – With Few Resources, Haiti's Women and Children at a Disadvantage
• Pittsburgh Post-Gazette – In Leogane, Doctors Try To Save Lives and Limbs
• WXIA Atlanta – Local Kids Report for Online Magazine (video: N'Naserri Crew-Johnson, 11, discusses her interview with CARE)
• PC World – Haiti Digs Out From Communications Disaster
• Pittsburgh Post-Gazette – Grinding Poverty Exacerbated by Haiti Earthquake
• CNN – In Haiti's Outlying Areas: ''When Will They Come to Help Us?''
• Elle France – L'actu en images Haïti: La Vie Avant Tout (with CARE photos)
• ABC 7 San Francisco – CARE Focuses on Haiti Pregnant Women (video)
• The Columbia Chronicle – Local Businesses Support Earthquake Victims
• CNN – Mental Health Experts Help Volunteers in Haiti (with CARE photos)
• CTV Edmonton – Haiti Ends Search and Rescue (click on video with Rick Perera)
• The New York Times – How Kids Can Help Haiti
• Fox 5 Atlanta – CARE CEO Returns to Atlanta from Haiti
• Atlanta Journal-Constitution – Hard To Give Away Food
• Scholastic News – How to Give to Help Haiti: CARE Says Do Your Research and Help Educate Others
• CNN – 8 Day After Haiti Quake: More Survivors, 5.9 Aftershock
• Associated Press – Efforts Boosted, but Thousands Wait Unaided
• WAMU Washington, D.C. – The Fate of Haiti (audio)
• The Daily Tell – CARE Helps Haiti Purify Contaminated Water
• CNN – Beyond Survival, Health Crisis Looms
• USA Today – Faucet of Aid Opens in Haiti
• Giving Birth in the Streets: Haiti's Pregnant Women Need Help
• CNN – Celebrities Help CARE (video)
• Access Atlanta – OutKast's Big Boi Hosts Fundraiser for Haiti (photos)
• CBS Face the Nation – Clinton, Bush on Haiti Relief Fund
• Atlanta Journal-Constitution – AJC Photos from Haiti (images of CARE's work)
• Atlanta Journal-Constitution – CARE, Used to the Bad, Says This by Far the Worst
• Fox 5 Atlanta: CARE Providing Relief Supplies in Haiti (video)
• The Wall Street Journal – After Delays, Water-Purification Tablets Arrive
• The Seattle Times – From the Ground: First Person Accounts in Haiti
• Atlanta Journal-Constitution – CARE Relief Workers Distributing Water Purification Packets in Haiti
• Chattanooga Times Free Press – As Aid Pours In, Haiti Struggles to Distribute It
• Fox 5 Atlanta – Size of Tragedy Slows Delivery of Aid
• Global Grind – Party with a Purpose: Atlanta CAREs for Haiti
• CBS Atlanta – Atlanta-Based CARE, City Team Up to Help Haiti
• Bloomberg – U.N. Struggles to Unblock Aid as Haitians Suffer, Wait
• The Wall Street Journal – Rescuers Strain to Get Safe Water to Thirsty
• PBS – In Haiti, the Sights and Sounds of a Sudden Disaster (video, MP3, and transcript)
• Reuters – Haiti: How to Rebuild a Country Already in Crisis?
• Fox 5 Atlanta – There is a Race Against Time in Earthquake-Ravaged Haiti (video)
• Huffington Post – Notes From the Field: Haitians in Desperate Need of Help
• The Wall Street Journal – Aid Efforts Face Obstacles in Quake-Ravaged
• WABE Atlanta – Atlanta-Based CARE Helps Haiti (audio)
• The Washington Post – Theola Labbé-DeBose en Route from the Dominican Republic to Haiti (audio)
• Atlanta Journal Constitution – Baptism by Fire for New CARE Leader
• WXIA Atlanta – Atlanta's CARE Preps for Haiti Relief Mission
• PBS – Global Humanitarian Response Critical to Haiti (video, MP3, and transcript)
• CNN – Money Needed Most in Haiti Earthquake Relief Efforts
• WXIA Atlanta– New Web Site Unites Atlanta, CARE for Haiti Relief
• Kaiser Family Foundation – Aid Begins Flowing Into Haiti, Up To 3M May Be Affected
• Reuters – Earthquake Pushes Back Progress in Haiti
• News 24 – Massive, Global Effort Needed in Haiti (from South Africa)
• Marketwire: UPS Donates $1 Million to Haitian Earthquake Relief
• BusinessWire: JPMorgan Chase Reaches Out to Aid Victims of Haitian Earthquake
• Associated Press – Panic, Looting and Triage After Major Haiti Quake
• 20 Minutoes – El terremoto retrasa el progreso en Haití (in Spanish)
• Antara News – Gempa Bumi Memukul Balik Pencapaian Haiti (in Bahasa Indonesian)
• AlterNet – The Disaster of the Century: How to Help Haiti
• The Philadelphia Inquirer – Social Media a Lifeline After Quake Struck
• WGN Chicago – CARE Part of Relief Efforts for Haiti (video)
• WXIA Atlanta – Salvation Army and CARE Moves Quickly for Haitian Relief
• Atlanta Journal Constitution – Haitian Quake Reverberates in Atlanta
• Times Online – Sun Rose over Port-us-Prince To Expose Scenes of Armageddon
• The NonProfit Times – Getting Relief To Quake-Stricken Haiti Is Perilous For Charities
• Global Atlanta – Georgia Groups Rush Help to Haiti
• The New York Times – Panic, Looting and Traige After Major Haiti Quake

Videos

Featured Photos

Cholera Outbreak

KNOWLEDGE IS LIFE:
CARE'S CHOLERA RESPONSE IN HAITI
April 2011

• Report: Fighting Cholera in Haiti

(UPDATED: December 14, 2010) Cholera has claimed the lives of 2,535 people and hospitalized 58,190 in Haiti. Since the first cases of cholera appeared at the end of October, more than 114,497 people have contracted the potentially fatal disease.

With more than 1 million people living in tents and under tarps following January's devastating earthquake, the outbreak is expected to grow worse before it gets better, affecting up to 400,000 people in the worst case scenario.

What is cholera and how is it spread?

The World Health Organization defines cholera as ''an acute intestinal infection caused by the ingestion of food or water contaminated with the bacterium Vibrio cholerae. It has a short incubation period, from less than one day to five days, and produces an toxin that causes a copious, painless, watery diarrhea that can quickly lead to severe dehydration and death if treatment is not promptly given. Vomiting also occurs in most patients.''

Cholera spreads quickly in water contaminated by feces. Heavy rains from Hurricane Tomas that lashed Haiti on November 5 and 6, sent water and mud contaminated with feces pouring into streets, buildings and homes.

''Health facilities are overwhelmed with cholera victims,'' says Dr. Franck Geneus, CARE's health manager in Haiti. ''The people are afraid and angry. They don't completely understand what is happening right now. People have to understand, cholera is something new to Haiti.''

CARE's response

CARE is stepping up our humanitarian response to the disease, focusing on our strengths and where we can make the biggest impact – that is, prevention and prepardness. We are disseminating cholera prevention tips to a growing audience in Haiti as the disease spreads across the country.

This work is carried out through radio broadcasts, ''causeries,'' mothers' clubs, youth clubs, sensitization events and home visits. An estimated 40 percent of Haiti's adult population is illiterate; therefore radio announcements, public events and flyers with images play a great role in public outreach. The CARE team has also invented a song that tells about key hygiene behavior, such as washing hands with soap and how to safely prepare a meal. Children like humming the melody and thus memorize the precautions in a playful way.

Meanwhile, CARE continues its efforts in water and sanitation for Carrefour and Léogâne, two of the hardest-hit areas of the earthquake. Our work includes water trucking, hand-washing stations, construction and maintenance of latrines as well as hygiene workshops. To help keep public sources from contaminating, CARE also supports the chlorination of buckets of water at water points in Artibonite. Mortality rates in camps and the metropolitan area of Port-au-Prince are still significantly lower than in other, more remote parts of the country. This shows the lifesaving effects of dependable access to water, continuous hygiene promotion and the fact that medical facilities are relatively easy to reach.

Together with our partners in Haiti, CARE is carrying out additional health and hygiene activities, including providing safe drinking water, helping purify water, clorinating wells, training local volunteers on how to chlorinate well water, assisting with sanitation, installing hand washing stations and distributing oral rehydration solution, antibiotics, IV ringer lactate, cleaning products, soap, hygiene kits and aqua tabs. We're also helping with emergency case management, supporting clinics and distributing high-calorie food to pregnant and lactating women.

While CARE is in the midst of our lifesaving response to the cholera outbreak, we're looking toward the future. We'll soon prepare a 2-3 year response to the cholera outbreak that will address some of the underlying causes of the rapid spread of disease related to safe water, hygiene and sanitation.