RELIEF EFFORT

March 4, 2010

Through the ongoing vaccination campaign in temporary settlements, over 8,000 children under seven years of age have been vaccinated against diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis and over 5,000 against measles and rubella.

Six child protection messages on prevention of violence, exploitation and abuse have been transmitted by SMS in Creole to over 1 million cell phone owners.

Schools in unaffected areas of Haiti re-opened on February 1. 1,234 schools have been destroyed, 2,504 schools have been damaged and 975 schools have been affected by the earthquake.

The Ministry of Public Health and Population (MSPP), working with WHO, WFP, UNFPA and UNCEF, has begun a program to prevent severe malnutrition in infants and children living in makeshift shelters across Port-au-Prince.

The United Nations Security Council has authorized 3,500 more UN peacekeepers for Haiti.

International Organization for Migration (IOM)

• IOM is working with some 40 agencies in the field of mental health and psychosocial support to provide emergency help to tens of thousands of earthquake survivors living in spontaneous settlements in the capital Port-au-Prince and surrounding areas.
• IOM states that aid agencies have distributed 24,500 family tents and 160,000 tarpaulins.
• IOM and its partners are continuing the distribution of non-food items and has already supplied 22,000 kitchen sets, 39,000 mosquito nets.

Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO)-World Health Organization (WHO)

• PAHO/WHO reports a permanent water aqueduct has been installed in Buen Samaritano hospital and the water uptake capacity has increased in General Melenciano Hospital. Latrines and septic tanks in shelters and makeshift health facilities along the border are being cleaned daily.
• PAHO/WHO is providing technical support on recreational activities for hospitalized infants and children. It deployed a team to the Dominican Republic which is providing psychosocial support to patients in five institutions in the border region.
• PAHO/WHO, in collaboration with the regional waste-hauling authority, has set up a collection system to remove medical waste in all hospitals and dispose them in safe and organized landfill sites.
• The PAHO/WHO response team includes specialists to establish supply chains, and water and sanitation engineers to help restore shattered water and sanitation networks, communicable disease specialists, experts in psychosocial care, and public-health officers who can advise on the management of corpses.

United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF)

• UNICEF, in coordination with its partners and the Ministry of Health has conducted training for local psychologists. Through child friendly spaces and other locations, approximately 2,150 persons have been reached with psycho-social support activities.
• To date, UNICEF has distributed 1,571 child protection kits (Operation Protect Now) to residential childcare centers, child friendly spaces and other critical community points benefiting up to 37,704 children. More than 126,000 liters of water have been delivered to the same facilities, along with 829 early childhood development kits.
• According to UNICEF and partners, 88 fixed community out-patient care centers for the treatment of severely acute malnutrition are open or have re-opened throughout Haiti, along with 19 mobile units. In addition, 22 stabilization (inpatient) centers have been established to manage cases of severely malnourished children in inpatient and outpatient sites within and outside of Port-au-Prince.
• 23 infant and young child feeding programs are operating throughout the country, offering baby friendly areas, counseling and feeding corners for mothers and infants. To date 1,165 mothers and infants have participated in baby friendly feeding tents within the camps of Port-au-Prince.
• UNICEF has distributed over 150 school tents, 482 school-in-a-box kits and 762 recreation kits. Some 1,331 early childhood development kits were distributed all over the country covering education, nutrition and child protection needs.
• On February 2, UNICEF, in collaboration with the Ministry of Health and PAHO/WHO, began a vaccination campaign against measles/rubella (MR) and diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis (DTP) with overall target of 700,000 children.
• UNICEF and its partners, under the direction of DINEPA (the national water authority) are delivering 6,558 cubic meters of safe water to over 341 storage and distribution points in Port-au-Prince, Leogane, Petit Goave, Grand Goave, Gressier and Jacmel on a daily basis. This volume of water had reached approximately 1.3 million people with five liters of water per day.
• In Port-au-Prince alone, approximately 4,383 cubic meters are tinkered on a daily basis reaching 876,000 people with five liters of water per person. Non-potable water (for cooking, bathing and washing) is reaching 1.2 million people in Port-au-Prince with ten liters per person on a daily basis.
• 900 cartons of food supplies containing therapeutic spreads and sachets of CAR-150 arrived in Jimani.
• UNICEF and its partners provided 20,000 latrine slabs in three locations (Leogane, Petit Gouave and Grand Gouave).
• 70 child-friendly spaces established by UNICEF and its partners. Psychosocial activities are operational in ten of the spaces. Throughout the earthquake-affected area, some 150,000 children/care givers are being reached with psychosocial support and non-formal education, among other things.
• UNICEF and partners have completed a Who, What, Where (3W) mapping exercise for psychosocial support in the 19 prioritized sites.
• Child centers have been set up for 900 unaccompanied children.
• Three shelters for the Separated and Unaccompanied Children (SUAC) are being reinforced and equipped by UNICEF. The child protection sub-group has established a 24-hour help line to assist with the identification and tracing of children, established in partnership with the Haitian welfare ministries, with the support of UNICEF, Save the Children and IOM.
• UNICEF has also set up “safe spaces” for unaccompanied children and infants, allowing UNICEF and its partners to assist and protect children who have nowhere else to go, until their families are found or alternative arrangements are made.

United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)

• UNDP and its partners have integrated solid waste disposal through the cash-for-work programs, in close collaboration with DINEPA (the national water authority) and the Ministry of Public Works,
• The cash-for-work program has employed 66,672 workers, indirectly benefiting 333,360 people (on the basis of five persons per family).

United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)

• UNEP staff has actively assisted UN colleagues on technical matters including structural assessments of buildings and emergency environmental assessments of destroyed sites.
• An initial assessment indicates no major acute environmental emergencies, but enormous issues for the anticipated recovery phase. The most urgent issues include waste management, medical waste, disposal of corpses and disposal of demolition material.

United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA)

• UNFPA has released its complete list of centers and police stations with the capacity to respond to the needs of victims of sexual violence. The list includes 45 police stations and a half dozen women’s centers supported by UNFPA. The Police Department in affected areas is enhancing and patrolling more closely camps, so that women and girls can report gender violence as quickly as possible. Under the guidance of UNFPA, police are also sending up to 28 special tents for women and girls to report and discuss violence issues.
• UNFPA in Haiti has already supplied 18 safe delivery and reproductive health kits to still-standing hospitals, NGOs and mobile clinics with enough supplies to meet the needs of 150,000 women for three months.
• Immediate humanitarian response includes delivering emergency reproductive health kits that contain essential drugs, equipment and supplies to provide life-saving services to pregnant women. UNFPA will also work to ensure that women and girls have access to basic hygiene supplies so that they can live with dignity, even amidst the worst circumstances.

United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)

• The Communications with Disaster Affected Communities group has broadcast four editions of its daily Creole radio show, Nouvelles Utiles (News You Can Use). The ten minute program has been developed by a team of Haitian journalists and is broadcast by 20 stations across the affected area.
• The Joint Operations Tasking Centre (JOTC) started its operations. It will operate from the logistics base of the UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH). The JOTC was established to bring together and coordinate the efforts of all actors in the delivery of humanitarian assistance at different levels – political, humanitarian, and military.

World Food Programme (WFP)

• WFP and partners have reached 4.3 million people with food assistance since the earthquake struck.
• WFP has started providing daily cooked meals for school aged children (five to 16 years) in the greater Port-au-Prince area.
• Food distributions continue through supplementary and targeted feedings as well as food-for-work and cash-for-work programs. Distributions to hospitals, orphanages and community kitchens continue, reaching over 200,000 beneficiaries.
• WFP is reinforcing food assistance in the Sud-Ouest, Nord and Artibonite departments. These areas are hosting significant numbers of displaced people from Port-au-Prince.
• In Gonaives, WFP-supported school feeding has resumed, with a 10 percent increase in pupils, incorporating new students from families displaced from Port-au-Prince.
• In Gonaives, WFP released 22,700 ready-to-eat meals to feed 8,830 school students through partners. This is in addition to the feeding of 6,580 displaced in the Artibonite and North West departments.
• WFP has started a nutrition drive to run alongside the general distributions, targeting 53,000 children under five and 16,000 pregnant and breast-feeding mothers with specialized food to prevent malnutrition.
• Outside the capital, WFP and its partners have reached more than 200,000 people in and around Leogane, providing over 30,000 people in Jacmel with a daily cooked meal and is expanding distributions to 50,000 people from the new St Marc office.
• WFP and its partners provided food support to 48 orphanages and hospitals in order to reach particularly vulnerable people.

Other

Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon ordered $25 million to be released from the Central Emergency Response Fund.