In the rural areas around Léogane, ACTED realizes the work of evaluation of the needs and localization of the camps of displaced persons. This indispensable task enables the NGO to bring an adequate and relevant assistance to the vulnerable isolated population.

Dawin, 33 years old travels all over the villages around the town of Gressier on his motorbike for the NGO ACTED. He is responsible for the evaluation of the needs of the inhabitants to define the strategic orientation of ACTED’s intervention in those rural areas. “Most of the time, the persons I meet had not received any external assistance and had until now survived alone”, explains Dawin. The solidarity is strong in those remote areas. The peasants distribute cereals and fruits and everybody share the little they have. Those whose houses is still standing have put up a big tarpaulin in their yard to accommodate theirs relatives.

For Pauline Farges, member of the emergency team of ACTED in Leogane, “in an emergency situation, the evaluation of the intervention’s priority in order to offer an efficient and adapted response to the needs of the population proves to be crucial for an NGO”. For now, ACTED is the biggest international actor to distribute emergency assistance in Leogane and the first to have reached the remote villages in the area. “When I arrive in a village, the inhabitants rush around me to seek our help as I am the first person to come to see them”, testifies Dawin.

« Thirty-one spontaneous settlement located »

His work also consists in identifying the informal camps dispersed in the rural areas in order to target relevant points of distribution. “In two days on the field, I have located thirty-one spontaneous camps in the area of Petit Boucan around the town of Gressier”, explains Dawin. The locations are most of the time scattered on large areas.

The assistance would have been more difficult without this prior work of identification. With almost 90% of the displaced population in those rural areas, the needs are huge, especially in term of shelters and food assistance. ACTED’s team have been dedicated to these relief operations in order to reach at last the vulnerable population in those remote areas.

The newcomer

During the earthquake, Rolph Poucely, student in computer sciences, was on the second floor of his university in Port-au-Prince. He kept his calm and his university didn’t fall down. “I thought of the movie “2012” on the end of the world, I told myself I was the actor and that the heroes never die at the end of the movies”. After the first crowd and panic movements, Rolph decided to leave on foot for his hometown, Leogane, the epicenter of the seism. As soon as he arrived, he was relieved: his family is fine. The family’s house being damaged, they had to settle in the town’s stadium. On the football field, most of the inhabitants spontaneously improvised a makeshift camp.

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