On the second day of her visit to Haiti, Queen Sofia of Spain flew to Gonaives and toured some of the communities and neighbourhoods that were most severely affected by last summer's devastating storms, leaving upwards of 60,000 inhabitants homeless.
While assistance operations deployed by IOM and its partners and Haitian authorities, with support from the international community, have allowed a gradual return home for the majority of the displaced, adverse economic conditions make it difficult for many families to support themselves.
Queen Sofia spoke to some of the families assisted by IOM and its partners of the humanitarian community at the Elim and Eben Ezer missions. During the to a camp and hospital at Eben Ezer, Queen Sofia said: "It's wonderful to see so many people helping... Without you IOM, this was not going to be possible."
Here, some 147 families have been accommodated for the past three months and have benefited from distributions of repair and reconstruction kits and the support in the identification of alternative housing options in areas of the city that are not prone to flooding from Spain's Agency for International Cooperation and Development (AECID). To date, some 4,000 families have been supported in their return to communities of origin.
In parallel, efforts continue on reestablishing access to the many areas of the city that remain encased in mud. To date, some 150,000 cubic metres of mud and other waste have been evacuated by the country's authorities, ACF, Care, Oxfam, UNDP and IOM, yet needs - an estimated 2 million cubic metres to dispose of - far outweigh available resources.
Urgent action is also needed in order to reinforce the city's protection against floods and natural disasters, targeting such interventions as watershed management and the renovation of irrigation canals.
As the lead agency coordinating the international community's response on emergency shelter and non-food items interventions, IOM has to date received contributions from Canada, Japan, Switzerland, Spain, the USA, the Central Emergency Response Fund, UNDP and OCHA.
For more information on IOM activities in Haiti, please visit: http://www.iomhaiti.org/
For more information please contact: Frislain Isidor, IOM Haiti, Tel: +509 3605-6004, email: fisidor@iom.int