Attachments
Period covered by this Operations Update: July 2012 to September 2012.
Appeal target (current): The overall budget is 309,770,006 Swiss francs including the Emergency Response Units (ERUs) value. The current appeal target without the ERUs value is 274,947,517 Swiss francs.
Appeal coverage: 89%
Summary: More than two and a half years after the devastating earthquake that hit Haiti, humanitarian assistance to aid the affected population in their recovery continues in the country. The Red Cross Red Crescent, in collaboration with Haitian authorities are still deeply involved in this process. This update, which covers from July until September 2012, describes the role of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) that, together with the Haiti Red Cross Society (HRCS) and Partner National Societies (PNSs) still support the Haitian people in the post-earthquake recovery and long-term development.
Through the Integrated Neighbourhood Approach (INA), the IFRC secretariat has scaled-up its urban renewal activities in the neighbourhoods of Delmas 30 and Carrefour Feuilles, in coordination with other actors such as UN- Habitat, municipal authorities and government agencies. This collaboration is also contributing to increased information sharing and avoidance of duplication in the target areas. INA continues to facilitate and strengthen communication to ensure community participation and understanding of the Red Cross activities in the neighbourhoods. As of the end of the reporting period, the IFRC INA approach had supported 276 families, whose houses were found to be unsafe based on technical assessments, with alternative shelter solutions. The IFRC secretariat INA programme continues to support other Movement partners involved in the approach. The French Red Cross (FRC) for its part has repaired a cumulative total of 133 yellow houses, cleared 32 plots of red houses and removed 8,928 m3 of rubble.
Although the transitional shelter programme ended during the first quarter of 2012, the IFRC continued to provide alternative shelter solutions for persons remaining in camps, in support of the government’s decongestion strategy. At the end of the third quarter of 2012, the relocation team had supported 7,010 households to relocate from internally displaced persons (IDP) camps. The IFRC has also supported 7,251 households with livelihood grants and assisted 423 with skills acquisition training for them to be self-sufficient.
The IFRC and the HRCSS intensified their collaboration with the government agency in charge of water and sanitation (DINEPA) with the finalization of the procurement procedures for the construction and rehabilitation of water kiosks in selected areas of Port-au-Prince. In collaboration with DINEPA, the IFRC camp mitigation team has also constructed 75 shower points and desludged latrines in three of the 16 camps targeted for mitigation activities. During this reporting period, Red Cross volunteers, in partnership with community volunteers in the camps, also intensified hygiene promotion activities.
At the end of the reporting period, in Léogâne, the IFRC water and sanitation team had trained 284 community facilitators, during 11 Participatory Hygiene and Sanitation Transformation (PHAST) training sessions, and built 2,073 ventilated pit latrines in collaboration with the beneficiary communities. The team has also distributed 1,341 metallic garbage bins and installed 1,657 hand-washing facilities near the latrines. The team continued to ensure sensitization of the communities including schools on good hygiene and sanitation practices. In addition, 579 community facilitators were trained in Community-based Health and First Aid (CBHFA), which has helped to sensitize the population. Some 6,675 home visits, 1,313 awareness sessions on mother and child health, HIV and AIDS as well as malaria prevention activities were carried out during the reporting quarter. The team has referred 553 suspected cases of malaria, diarrhea and ill health to health facilities between July and September. The health team distributed 38,142 condoms and organized sensitization sessions on HIV and AIDS during this period.
The IFRC violence prevention programme has developed the Protected Lives and Livelihoods approach within the INA approach, through the Haiti Red Cross Society’s violence prevention project, Kote Trankil. In addition, violence prevention messages were disseminated to 1,500 persons during the Tropical Storm Isaac relief distribution.
The Beneficiary Communications’ project, Telefon Kwa Wouj, launched in May 2012 is an effective communications and feedback tool for the Red Cross activities in Haiti. During the third quarter of 2012, Telefon Kwa Wouj received 350,000 messages across the country with callers making inquiries about Red Cross services. The Beneficiary Communications team continued to support the development of community communication tools and actively assisted in sensitizing the population on preparedness measures during Tropical Storm Isaac.  According to Pillar 2 of the revised plan of action, the IFRC supports the HRCS in the implementation of activities planned in its core programme areas of health and care, and disaster risk management. The health and care department strengthened the community-based health programme with the training of 150 volunteers in epidemic control during the third quarter of 2012, and increasing the number of trained volunteers in Epidemic Control for Volunteers (ECV) to 885. The trained volunteers intensified their sensitization activities on cholera prevention and referrals to health facilities, and reached more than 20,000 households with cholera prevention messages during this quarter. The HRCSS psychosocial support programme reached 10,347 individuals between July and September 2012. The psychosocial support team also actively supported persons affected by Tropical Storm Isaac with psychological first aid and promoting the psychosocial well-being and protection of children.
The HRCSS disaster risk management (DRM) team supported some of the households affected by Tropical Storm Isaac in August 2012, in coordination with Movement partners. Red Cross relief assistance reached more than 16,500 households in three departments. Items distributed include shelter toolkits, tarpaulins, hygiene kits, cholera kits, aquatabs, blankets, soap, jerry cans, mosquito treated bed nets, and blankets. The Red Cross volunteers, supported by community volunteers (relais communautaires), intensified sensitization on good hygiene practices in camps and neighbourhoods during the intervention period.
This operation update highlights the progress recorded in the recovery and long-term programme of the Haiti operation, and is the last update report on the revised plan of action issued on 29 December 2011. The next quarterly report will be based on a new revised plan of action issued on 14 December 2012, which sets out clear indicators and keys results in all sectors.