Period covered by this Ops Update: 1 - 31 December 2010
Appeal target (current): 314,329,971 Swiss francs in cash, kind, or services are required to support the plan of action of the Haitian Red Cross (HRC) and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) to provide basic non-food items and emergency/transitional shelter to 80,000 beneficiary families and provide emergency health care, fulfilment of basic needs in water and sanitation and livelihoods support for vulnerable populations in the earthquake-affected region.
Appeal coverage: coverage currently stands at approximately 81 per cent. The 2,560,967 Swiss francs requested to support the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Society's inter-agency coordination of the Shelter and Non-Food Items Cluster have already been covered by different donors.
Summary: A 7.0 magnitude earthquake struck Haiti on 12 January 2010, affecting 3 million people. The earthquake directly affected Port-au-Prince, Léogane, Petit and Grand Goâve and Jacmel, causing over 222,570 deaths and 300,572 injuries. Widespread destruction in Port-au-Prince left over 1.5 million people homeless and in Léogane and Gressier 70 per cent of homes were destroyed or damaged; vast numbers of those whose homes were destroyed or damaged resettled in over 1,354 spontaneous settlement sites across the earthquake-affected area while 661,000 people fled the capital for other regions. The earthquake compounded pre-existing structural problems, severe poverty and low levels of development, very limited access to education, health and sanitation services.
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) has recorded a significant fall in the number of people living in camps since the 12 January 2010 earthquake. Some 500,000 internally displaced people (IDPs) have now left the camps in relation to a peak figure of 1.5 million over the summer months to just over one million in November. This is a reduction of nearly one third of the IDP population. The decrease is even more dramatic in semi-urban and rural areas and towns away from greater Port-au-Prince, such as Léogane, Petit Goâve, Gressier, Grand Goâve and Jacmel, where the population in camps has decreased by over 50 per cent and in the case of Léogane, by two thirds.
The IFRC Earthquake response programme has continued progress. At the end of December 2010, the relief teams had distributed 328,760 tarpaulins, 129,497 blankets, 250,116 hygiene kits and 136,733 mosquito nets. The transitional shelter programme has been moving forward with the completion of 723 shelters by the end of December 2010. In the health sector, 122,149 people have been reached by the community based health services and the health unit has been heavily involved in the cholera operation during this month. 218, 910 people have been reached with water distribution by the end of December 2010 and 451,521 cubic metres of water have been delivered; in addition, 143,036 people have been provided with sanitation facilities. The Disaster Preparedness/Disaster Risk Reduction programme has strengthened the capacity of 13 Haitian Red Cross Branches to respond to disasters and 25,000 vulnerable households have been covered by pre positioned stocks as of the end of December 2010.