UNICEF SITUATION REPORT

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HAITI EARTHQUAKE

 

UNICEF SITUATION REPORT No.7 , JANUARY 22

 

Situation overview

 

The Interial Minister has presented the numbers of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in the six regions that have been evaluated. In Nord: 2,500, Northwest: 29,500, Centre: 20,530, Antibonite: around 50,000, Grand Goave: more than 10,000 and Sud: more than 10,000 persons. Totally more than 120,000 IDPs. The problem of IDPs is very big and the influx continues.

 

The result of the rapid needs assessments at Petit Goave confirms that there were no significant injuries or damages as a result of the aftershock on 20 January.

 

Aid is getting through to more and more locations. WFP and partners have the target of distributing food to 120,000 persons today, where each individual gets a 5-day ratio. The US Army also started airdropping yesterday. Since the start of the response, WFP has provided around 3 million meals to more than 200,000 people.

 

The Prime Minister has been expressing concern over the insufficiency of food and food items being distributed. It has also occurred that the same site received delivery twice. The Prime Minister urges the humanitarian agencies working in Haiti to further increase communication amongst them. He also pleaded that the humanitarian organizations should be working through the offices of the mayors in the region, in order to improve the cooperation.

 

While making rapid assessments on orphanages etc, UNICEF Child Protection teams have localized more than 70 children, some of them babies that urgently need to go to the hospital because they are injured or ill in some other way. UNICEF is trying to find some partner that could take care of the transportation.

 

Guido Bertolaso, the chief of the Italian Civil Protection, has arrived to Haiti together with a group of experts in emergency relief.

 

Humanitarian needs

 

There have been demonstrations in the streets because of the lack of food.

 

From Jacmel it is reported that the coordination is very slow. For instance, there are too many doctors, due to the lack of coordination. There has been no protection meeting. The first meeting between MINUSTAH, UN and the Canadian Forces is being planned for tomorrow.

 

There is a need for recreation kits for children in the sites.

 

Progress in hygiene is slow in Jacmel. Only three latrine blocks have been built.

 

UNICEF Response

 

Since yesterday, WFP with the support from UNICEF has been distributing 1,076 rations for children under the age of five at eleven small sites in Jacmel. WFP has also distributed 18 000 rations to grownups today. The rations consist of rice, tea, oil and salt which makes it possible for people to cook themselves. The sites are organized by the Committee de Quartier and most of them are small ones. The Committee de Quartier also helps with cooking when necessary.

 

The organization ACDI, VOCA and Save the Children want to start collaborating with UNICEF in the field of health, nutrition and protection. The collaboration is yet to be defined.

 

Programme Commitments:

 

Nutrition:

 

A car with supplies (vitamine A, zink, ORS, plumpynut) left Port au Prince today for Jacmel. The distribution of the supplies to severely malnourished children between six months and five years started this afternoon.

Representatives of the committee for nutrition yesterday visited orphanages to make an assessment of their needs of supplies. The distribution will be coordinated with the committee for Child Protection.

Terre des Hommes have reported on IDPs. UNICEF has been in touch with Terres des Hommes to see how UNICEF can help with food distribution.

UNICEF is working on contracts with ACF to operate in nutrition programs and concerns.

 

Health:

 

Today, UNICEF met with the director of immunization programme at the Ministry HAITI of Health in order to discuss vaccinations. Early next week there starts a new initiative for DTP and DT. Within three weeks, the Measle and Rubella Campaign will start. Port au Prince has the highest priority, thereafter other areas affected by the earthquake. The cold chain is a problem since the refrigerators are run on propane gas, which there is a lack of, but UNICEF will be able to provide propane gas in time for the vaccination campaign to start.

 

PROGRAMME

 

Child Protection

 

Response

 

UNICEF has supported the mobilization of cadres of IBERS mobile teams to undertake rapid child protection assessments on sites, as well as at orphanages/institutions in Port Au Prince affected by the earthquake. These assessments include identifying key needs and providing NFI the following day. Currently, these teams are reaching some 10 sites per day, and the activity is being scaled up to reach 20 per day by next week. This is by no means sufficient to meet the magnitude of need, when considering the number of institutions/orphanages that were in Port au Prince before the earthquake and which have been affected. Due to challenges with Information Management, it has also not yet been possible to process the data that has come in – a preliminary analysis of assessment findings thus far will be available on Monday.

 

Through partners UNICEF Child Protection is reaching some 37,000 children through Child Protection Programming. These include a variety of programmatic themes, including psychosocial support, NFI support and referral for especially vulnerable children, non-formal education, adolescent programmes, services for child Gender Based Violence survivors and interim care arrangements for unaccompanied children, including family based care.

 

Child Protection programmes are being implemented both in areas directly affected by the earthquake and in those areas to which affected populations are moving. Partners in these projects include Save the Children, Solidarite pour les femmes; Aide Medicale International, Viva Rio, and IBERS, the child protection arm of the Ministry of Social Welfare.

 

In response to reports and risks of trafficking and illegal adoption of children from Haiti, UNICEF is supporting the Special Police Brigades for Child Protection to undertake monitoring of movement of children at the Port au Prince airport as well as along Border Areas.

 

Priorities

 

The immediate priority, both for the Child Protection Sub-Cluster and UNICEF response programme at the moment is ensuring the survival and protection of the most vulnerable unaccompanied children, including those in orphanages and institutions affected by the earthquake. The situation and needs of unaccompanied children is urgent and overwhelming at this stage. Through the urgent reporting form that has been developed by the child protection sub-cluster, there are more than 20 such reports coming in per day. Children are also being dispatched from hospitals either without being accompanied by adults or being in the company of adults that are not their relatives and there continues to be reports of organizations and groups attempting to fly children out of Haiti.Prevention of trafficking/illegal adoption as well as the registration of especially vulnerable unaccompanied children are key issues.

 

Gaps and Challenges

 

The lack of cars as well as human resources has impeded UNICEF’s ability to reach more sites per day. This is a key challenge to child protection activities, which require larger human and transportation resources.

 

Education:

 

Still, UNICEF is facing difficulties in filling the cluster of education because of lack of human resources.

 

HIV/AIDS:

 

Today there was an announcement through the radio that the organization AASON started a patient clinic for providing care for HIV-infected. People are being encouraged to go back to the clinic where they used to get treatment before the quake, but in case the clinics have been destroyed, the patients could get care in the AASON clinic.

 

Clusters:

 

Nutrition:

 

The cluster coordinator Mija Ververes together with Hedwig Deconinck (USAID) will arrive to Haiti tomorrow.

The strategy and the standards are being finalised engaging the government in a leading role.

The key constraints are communication and coordination and the capacity for storage. The plan for general food distribution is not fully implemented yet.

 

WASH:

 

Maximal production of main two companies can not serve all the needs that are increasing every day, so solutions have been analyzed and found. DINEPA is negotiating with private water distributor about water trucking and treatment and the cluster will support in wells and boreholes assessments. The cluster needs to identify new sources to meet the demand, and also to define a strategy for hygiene kit distribution.

Latrine constructions have started in three sites in Port-au-Prince and Petion-Ville.

 

Child Protection:

 

Currently there are 30 organizations participating in the sub-cluster. They have formed three working groups under the sub-cluster to look at specific issue.

The three groups are:

1. Identification and registration of unaccompanied children. In the first phase those most vulnerable to abuse, exploitation and violence, including all those under 5 years of age, will be registered.

2. Interim care arrangements for unaccompanied children and 3. Development and integration of child protection strategy within the Shelter Cluster Strategy scenarios. The Shelter Cluster has developed a draft strategy presenting three shelter scenarios that will be applied in response to this disaster (support to spontaneous settlements; planned transitional sites for larger populations; host family arrangements). Based on these shelter scenarios, the CW Sub-Cluster will develop strategies to ensure mechanisms for child protection in all contexts.

 

The sub-cluster has now agreed upon and finalized a number of key tools, including Inter-agency agreed upon common Child Protection Rapid Assessment and urgent action reporting form on urgent child protection risks in particular areas. A who, what, where mapping tool to begin collecting information is being implemented to meet key gaps.

 

Key child protection issues and concerns have been integrated in the UNDAC Inter-Cluster Assessment that will be undertaken in all affected areas next week. Child protection staff from government and NGOs have also been identified to form part of the assessment teams that will undertake the assessment.

 

The Sub-Cluster, through the coordinator and MINUSTAH-Child Protection, is participating in the Shelter Cluster to ensure that child protection concerns are integrated in to both the development of Shelter Strategies, as well as site planning.

 

Media and Communication:

 

Key media activities undertaken and planned:

 

Today, for instance CNN, the Spanish, Canadian and Italian televisions are making reportages. Tomorrow, CNN international will make a live interview with Representative Guido Cornale.

List of spokespersons: Representative Guido Cornale, sr communication officer Kent Page and communication officer Roshan Kahdivi.

[flickahidalgo]

Good to hear. Thanks for the update!