Friday, February 12, 2010

Haiti: One Month In

It's hard to believe it's been a month since the Haiti earthquake.  Death toll numbers are upwards of 200,000 and a full third of Port-au-Prince's 3 million are homeless.  Today, the people of Haiti gathered to mourn as relief organizations shift into the next stage of the assistance efforts.
Relief operations are improving day by day, a spokeswoman for the International Rescue Committee told CNN on Friday.

"Things [supplies] are moving now, and they are arriving to populations. The bottleneck has really, really decreased," Aisha Bain said.

"About a month ago, when this quake destroyed the infrastructure of Haiti, it was very complicated to get aid in," she said. Now, "the ports and airports aren't at full capacity, but things are arriving and getting to populations. There is much more to be done, but food is coming in."

Food distribution areas are set up around the capital, she said.

Haiti's rainy season is approaching, and the hurricane season will begin June 1. Bain said the organization is gearing up to provide sufficient sanitation.

"We ... are working on a large-scale buildup of providing clean water, latrines, showers, hand-washing stations, which affect not only the livelihoods of basic survival but, really, health. There's a massive concern of the possible outbreak of disease, and so we are working to combat that quickly."
Again, the outlook here is of months and years, not weeks and days.  We will be in Haiti for a very long time.

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