GLIDE TC-2008-000147
Period covered by this Ops Update: 5 December 2008 to 13 June 2009.
Appeal target (current): The Revised Appeal seeks CHF 8,665,574 (USD 7,977,881 or EUR 5,706,366) in cash, kind, or services to support the Haitian National Red Cross Society to assist 10,000 families (50,000 beneficiaries). The revised budget is being finalized and will be made available in the following days.
Appeal coverage: 100 %
Appeal history:
- CHF 300,000 (USD 272,727 or EUR 186,335) was allocated from the Federation's Disaster Relief Emergency Fund (DREF) to support this operation on 27 August.
- A Preliminary Emergency Appeal of CHF 3,812,770 (USD 3,466,154 o EUR 2,360,848) was launched on 5 September 2008 to support the Haitian National Red Cross Society to assist 10,000 families (50,000 beneficiaries) for 6 months.
- The Preliminary Appeal was revised on 25 September to CHF 8,360,877 (USD 7,600,810 or EUR 5,177,020) and extended to a nine month period.
- The Revised Emergency Appeal issued on 6 November 2008 features a Revised Budget for CHF 9,817,443 (USD 9,006,829 or EUR 6,293,233 to assist 10,000 families for 9 months.
- Diverse delays in the procurement of construction materials for the shelter programme have hindered the expected progress. Therefore, this operations update reflects the extension of the appeal until 5 September 2009. The budget has been revised to CHF 8,665,574 (USD 7,977,881 or EUR 5,706,366).
Summary: The hurricane season which officially begins in June and ends in November, left hundreds of people dead and tens of thousands homeless in Haiti in 2008 since Hurricane Gustav, tropical storm Hanna and hurricane Ike made their impact as of 26 August last year. The hardest hit regions of the country were the departments of Sud, Sud-Est, Artibonite and the northern coast. These regions were cut off from the centre due to damaged roads and infrastructure. Emergency relief efforts by the Haitian National Red Cross Society (HNRCS) with the support of the International Federation's Pan American Disaster Response Unit (PADRU) and the Regional Representation for Cuba, Haiti and the Dominican Republic began immediately, despite the challenges of access to remote areas. Preparedness activities and pre-positioning of emergency relief items had been carried out in the months leading up to the hurricane season.
Following the initial assessment by a nine-member Field Assessment Coordination Team (FACT), a joint FACT - Emergency Response Unit (ERU) mission was undertaken in the country as of 2 September to assist and support the HNRCS in its ongoing emergency relief efforts. These efforts focused on addressing the needs of the most affected people were coordinated with Partner National Societies (PNS) present in the country as well as with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). Since the onset of the emergency, three rotations of ERU teams were deployed for ongoing support to the HNRCS covering basic health care, relief and shelter, early recovery, water and sanitation, logistics, IT telecom, including emergency preparedness, monitoring, reporting and capacity building, in partnership with Movement partners in country.
Based on the appeal objectives, 10,000 families in seven departments: Sud Est (425 families), Nord-Ouest (500 families), Grande-Anse (500 families), Les Nippes (500 families) Ouest (967 families) Centre (1208 families) and Artibonite (5900 families) benefitted from relief items, each family received two jerry cans, one hygiene kit and one bucket facilitating access to safe drinking water and adequate sanitation and reducing the risk of waterborne and water related diseases. 300 latrines are being built over a period of six months as well 400 houses, both projects taking place in Gonaïves. 300 families received cleaning tools which then will be used as tools for agriculture and 15,000 people per day received access to safe water, including hospitals and health centres in the Sud-Est department. Additional activities towards the achievement of objectives are described in detail in this document.
National Society capacities continue being strengthened and are prioritized when providing help to the affected people Effectiveness is being ensured by first making sure volunteers and Red Cross staff are well trained and in good physical and emotional conditions. As an example, psychosocial support to volunteers and HNRCS staff was prioritized in order to guarantee they can help others by ensuring first they are prepared, since often they are doubly affected, both by what happened to them directly and by the stories of the affected people.
The International Federation continues leading activities and ensuring coordinating with its partners within and outside the Red Cross Movement by co-operative work as well as attending coordination meetings regularly in order to avoid the duplication of efforts and work more efficiently. Examples of this are given in work with the Partner National Societies such as the American Red Cross (ARC), the Belgian Red Cross (BRC), the Canadian Red Cross (CRC), the German Red Cross (GRC), the French Red Cross (FRC), the Netherlands Red Cross (NRC), the Norwegian Red Cross (NRC) and the Spanish Red Cross (SRC), which together with the HNRCS, are executing projects on health, water and sanitation amongst other areas. Additionally, a binational project is being carried out by the HNRCS with the Dominican Red Cross (DRC), supported by the Spanish Red Cross, the International Federation and the European Union water and sanitation project.
Constraints and delays in the procurement of materials, as well as budget constraints have hindered implementation, especially in the objective focused on shelter in the recovery phase, where based on a careful review of the programme taking into account to the "safer building" concept, the HNRCS made the decision to reduce the target number of families for support from 1,000 families to 400. The project now focuses efforts on building stronger and safer houses in 32 villages within a 20 km radius of Gonaïves. The Risk Management and Audit department is arranging an external audit to be carried out in the operation.
As the Operation made the transition from the Transition to the Recovery Phase, this Operations Update n=B0 4 focuses on the progress achieved in relation with the objectives described in the revised appeal and the Operations update n=B0 3. Although most water and sanitation activities closed at the end of May, as planned, diverse delays in the procurement of the construction materials for the Shelter programme have hindered the expected progress As a result, the Appeal has been extended until 5 September 2009. The final report will be made available by 5 December 2009 (three months after the end of the operation.) The revised budget is currently being finalized and will be made available in the following days.