Haiti
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From emergency to early recovery
In 2010, ACTED committed itself to the emergency response from the very first day after the disastrous earthquake which affected over 2 million people. ACTED covered the essential needs of 10.86 % of the affected populations, providing relief to 262,000 people both in the directly hit areas (Port-au-Prince, Leogane and Jacmel) and in the displacement areas (Saint-Marc and Hinche), and is now supporting local communities in the recovery and reconstruction process. ACTED further strived to respond to the cholera epidemic, the second emergency which broke out in 2010, through both emergency response and prevention mechanisms.
The immediate emergency response:massive humanitarian aid
From 13 January, ACTED staff started working on the first emergency relief operations. Within a few weeks, over 4,300 metric tons of food were provided to some 755,000 people in Port-au-Prince, Leogane, as well as for the displaced populations in Saint-Marc. ACTED provided regular relief in some 150 spontaneous settlements and to their neighboring communities, with tents and non-food items distributed to 65,000 people. ACTED also set up sanitation facilities, ensuring potable water access and hygiene awareness raising sessions to more than 60,000 people. To complete the set up, Cash for Work activities were also implemented for some 11,000 highly vulnerable people.
Following this first intervention phase, priority was given to accompany and support a camp exit strategy, to provide the earthquake-affected populations with decent housing and a place to resume daily life. Thus, ACTED has been very much dedicated to the construction of transitional shelters to allow the highest number possible to recover decent housing. Some 30 shelters were built on a daily basis. Overall, ACTED plans to offer new housing to 18,900 people in Port au-Prince and Leogane where our teams are involved in the systematic structural assessment of 18,000 buildings and working on the rehabilitation of damaged houses.
ACTED’s response to a new humanitarian crisis:the cholera outbreak
Following the cholera outbreak on 21 October 2010 in the Artibonite Department, ACTED was one of the fist NGOs to carry out emergency relief operations, working hand-in-hand with its partners and the other relief actors present in the field to offer an immediate and coordinated response.
ACTED staff has been present in the area since 2004 and has thus been able rely on its precise knowledge of the local context as well as on its previsouly established links with local communities and organizations. In order to limit the spread of the disease, ACTED distributed 133,000 oral rehydration salts. Over 15 million liters of water were treated thanks to water cleaning tablets distributed to some 150,000 cholera-affected people. 78,300 pieces of soap were also distributed as part of hygiene sensitization activities aimed at 37,000 people.
After this emergency, ACTED initiated water, sanitation and hygiene prevention campaigns to mitigate the vulnerability of populations from the Artibonite as well as the inhabitants of Port-au-Prince and Leogane, focusing on the cholera epidemic as much as on water-borne, vector-borne and fecal-oral diseases at large.
From reconstruction to recovery:towards sustainable interventions
Present in Haiti since 2004, ACTED has been implementing an intervention strategy with prospects beyond the emergency, embedding its actions in the necessary link between emergency, rehabilitation and development. Supporting local communities in the recovery process and the reconstruction of community infrastructures is the next step, so as to promote the sound development of sustainable livelihoods as well as increased access to basic services, such as water and sanitation. These activities are being implemented with the communities to ensure relevance to the local contexts, while choosing continuous and multi-sector support in this recovery and reconstruction phase.
Building up livelihoods through income generating activities, organizing vocational training for young people as well as supporting the productive sectors are key in establishing sustainable socioeconomic dynamics; ACTED is notably paying special attention to the recovery of secondary cities. ACTED also aims at building up local agricultural production to fight food insecurity and malnutrition in the Artibonite, the Plateau Central as well as in the rural areas of Leogane, with a special focus on disaster risk reduction and responsible territory planning.
