Three weeks on from the devastating earthquake that has left about 1.1 million people homeless, focus is shifting to the urgent need for transitional shelter that can tide people through the upcoming rainy season.
This would include tarpaulins, plastic sheeting, tools and ropes that provide more weather-proof and durable shelter in the months to come and upon which they can add more materials.
More than 55 aid agencies working on providing emergency shelter and non-food relief assistance to Haitian earthquake victims are aiming to reach more than one million earthquake victims.
So far, the aid agencies including IOM have distributed or will soon have distributed close to 52,000 tarpaulins, more than 9,000 family tents, thousands of ropes, family toolkits, mosquito nets, and kitchen sets. Tens of thousands of hygiene kits, blankets and sheets, and more than 126,000 jerry cans have also been distributed. Among the non-food items in the pipeline due to arrive in the coming days and weeks are tens of thousands more of tarpaulins, tents, ropes, shelter kits and blankets.
Assistance such as this will be particularly important to help support families hosting those displaced from the capital, Port-au-Prince.
With 340,000 people having left the city on government transport, most of them to stay with family or friends elsewhere and an unknown number through their own means, it is clear that host families will need support in providing a roof for the displaced.
IOM and partners will also be assessing displacement and population influxes in the towns of Jacmel, Leogane, Gressier, St Marc, Gonaeves, Les Cayes and Jeremie in order to better define shelter needs and distributions.
For those who have not left the capital and are living in spontaneous settlements, work is ongoing to improve their living conditions.
Shortly, about 3,500 people in the neighbourhood of Tabarre will be able to move into the first organized settlement prepared for those left homeless and which will be managed by the French non-governmental organization (NGO) ACTED. Three-hundred and fifty tents each capable of accommodating 10 people, have been put up at the site which will also have other essential facilities such as clean water and sanitation.
Another four sites around the capital have been selected for the establishment of organized settlements that would facilitate more coordinated and comprehensive aid delivery.
"If we are to be able to help the homeless to get back on their feet as soon as possible, then we have to also clear the rubble and simultaneously, get people back to work," says IOM's chief of mission in Haiti, Vincent Houver. "Longer-term shelter solutions cannot be implemented until the land is cleared to be built upon and the people themselves can help to do this and be paid for it."
As part of its initial appeal for US$ 30 million for Haiti and which is now being revised to more accurately reflect the needs of the country, IOM had asked for US$ 8 million to implement a cash-for-work programme, largely through rubble removal.
"Even before the earthquake, IOM's cash-for-work programme among Haiti's poorest communities helped to empower communities. Now, more than ever, such an initiative can play an important role in helping to rebuild the country, put a safe roof over people's heads and help to get their lives back on track," Houver adds.
For further information, please contact Jemini Pandya, IOM Geneva, Tel: + 41 22 717 9486/+41 79 217 3374, Email: jpandya@iom.int, or Mark Turner, IOM Haiti, Tel: +509 38140189 Email: markyturner@yahoo.com