Port-au-Prince, February 3rd, 2010 - ACTED intensifies its collaboration with UNICEF and the World Food Programme to ensure that the largest number of children benefit from the food distributions held in the orphanages of the Haitian capital-city.

All afternoon, Shiller Bernard, ACTED Evaluation Officer, explored the streets of Port-au-Prince under a hot sun looking for orphanages that will receive emergency food assistance. In parallel to UNICEF’s evolving record of the neediest orphanages, ACTED is independently contacting the orphanages who could benefit from such assistance. For many years, Shiller, an ACTED staff for two years now, has worked with Port-au-Prince abandoned children and orphanages. His acute knowledge of the field is determining in the task at hand.

“I know many orphanages, but we now need to identify the ones which haven’t received any assistance yet”, such as for the orphanage ‘La Chambre Haute’, where food is scarce; only a few cans of peas subsist for 27 children, aged from two to twelve. After a few questions to Joseph Pierre, the director of the establishment, Shiller identifies the needs of the orphanage for ACTED to fulfill. Seemingly, two children suffer from malnutrition; a distribution must be held on the following day. This spotting also allows for a advice on hygiene-related issues. The two sick boys will be taken to the hospital for treatment.

The next step in Shiller’s agenda is coordinating ACTED’s collaboration with UNICEF and the WFP, to enable the most adequate organization. In order to ease both stock management and planning, ACTED rented a warehouse to store food supplies. The ACTED teams hence expect to supply five orphanages with daily food assistance, in comparison to merely two or three today. In spite of all difficulties, ACTED reached its objective; all the visited orphanages will be supplied tomorrow.