Haiti earthquake

Aid efforts switch from searching for victims to aiding survivors

Article published on the 2010-01-22 Latest update 2010-01-22 16:33 TU

United Nations soldiers from Brazil distribute water in Port-au-Prince.
Photo: Reuters/Eliana Aponte

Ten days after a massive earthquake devasted Haiti, aid teams have switched their focus from search and rescue to distributing relief to the thousands left homeless on the streets of Port-au-Prince.

While international rescue teams continue to search the rubble for survivors, the relief operation is "concentrating more and more on humanitarian aid for those who need it," said Elisabeth Byrs, a spokeswoman for the UN's Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

Friday saw the first large-scale food distribution since the earthquake, at locations across Haiti.

An estimated 300,000 Haitians have now received food aid and another two million are due to do so in the coming weeks, according to UN spokesperson Nicholas Reader.

For the people left homeless by the earthquake - an estimated one million - the relief cannot come too soon.

"Up to now, we've had nothing," one survivor told RFI.

"We need water, we need food, we need medicine, we need tents to shelter the people who are here and have nowhere to live. We have basic needs," he said, speaking from a makeshift camp by Port-au-Prince airport.

Apart from one truck from the Spanish Red Cross, there is no international aid organisation to be seen in this camp, report RFI's correspondents.

There are just four toilets for 3,500 people, while the only shelter is dirty sheets strung between poles.

In central Port-au-Prince, the city's grand Champs-de-Mars square has become a giant refugee camp holding 6,000 homeless quake victims.

"We want to stop living like animals," said Carole Deslouis, a mother who has spent days begging for rice to feed her children and washing in dirty water.

French and US aid teams brought bulldozers on Friday to clear the debris and human waste currently filling the square.

"The aim is simple, we want to restore a bit of dignity to the Champs-de-Mars square," said France's ambassador to Haiti, Didier Le Bret.

French aid workers are preparing to erect 600 tents that should provide shelter for 5,000 people, Le Bret said.

The Haitian government has also begun a massive operation to move an estimated 500,000 people off the streets of Port-au-Prince to temporary accommodation outside the capital.

Over 30 buses will carry quake victims to camps in the north and south of Haiti, each designed to house 10,000 people.

As work continues to repair the country's air and sea ports, many Haitians hope that improved access will allow not only aid to get in, but people to get out.

Thousands gathered at the capital's port, re-opened on Friday for the first time since the earthquake, in the hope of boarding boats headed out of Port-au-Prince.

Many are expected to head for the United States - but, as US Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano warned, any Haitians entering the US illegally will be repatriated.

"Haitians need to be there to rebuild the country," Napolitano said. "This is not an opportunity to immigrate to the United States."

   

On France 24 TV  Desperation mounts as 400,000 set to move to temporary villages