Social Structures Form in Haiti's Tent Cities

As Homeless Settle in for the Long Haul, Committees Lobby for Aid and Keep Order; 'There Is No Government but Us'

From the Wall Street Journal
By MIRIAM JORDAN
March 8, 2010

The quake left nearly 1.3 million Haitians homeless, more than 750,000 of them in metropolitan Port-au-Prince, and paralyzed the government, reducing ministries to rubble. Nearly two months after the Jan. 12 tragedy, relief still hasn't reached many needy people.

Inside the many tent cities now home to hundreds of thousands of people, a rudimentary social order is beginning to emerge as committees agitate to secure food, water and supplies in high demand from international aid organizations.

US Troops Withdrawing En Masse From Haiti

By BEN FOX and JENNIFER KAY Associated Press Writers
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti March 7, 2010 (AP)

U.S. troops are withdrawing from the shattered capital, leaving many Haitians anxious that the most visible portion of international aid is ending even as the city is still mired in misery and vulnerable to unrest.

As troops packed their duffels and began to fly home this weekend, Haitians and some aid workers wondered whether U.N. peacekeepers and local police are up to the task of maintaining order. More than a half-million people still live in vast encampments that have grown more unpleasant in recent days with the early onset of the rainy season.

Some also fear the departure of the American troops is a sign of dwindling international interest in the plight of the Haitian people following the catastrophic Jan. 12 earthquake.

Agencies give shelter to half of Haiti's homeless

From Associated Press
Sun Mar 7, 12:54 pm ET

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – Aid agencies say they have delivered emergency shelter to half of the 1.3 million people in need following the Jan. 12 earthquake in Haiti.

Aid groups enlist Google Earth to help with Haiti relief efforts

Project lets officials in Haiti og onto site, provide real-time details about makeshift settlements

By Bradley S. Klapper ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: 5:31 p.m. Sunday, March 7, 2010

GENEVA — In an innovation that could significantly boost the ability to respond to future disasters, aid workers, with the help of Google Earth, are uploading key information onto the Web to illustrate the needs of hundreds of thousands of people left homeless by the earthquake in Haiti, which killed more than 200,000 people.

The idea is new and relatively simple: U.N. and nongovernment aid officials can log on to Google Earth from makeshift settlements housing more than 600,000 people in Haiti and provide real-time details about the population and its location via global positioning technology.

House vote imminent on Rep. Maxine Waters’ bill to cancel Haiti’s debt

March 7, 2010
by Michael Levin

Washington – Legislation introduced by Congresswoman Maxine Waters, D-Calif., to cancel all debt owed by Haiti to the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and other multilateral institutions was passed by the House Financial Services Subcommittee on International Monetary Policy and Trade during a markup on Thursday, March 4, following a subcommittee hearing on debt relief for Haiti. The legislation could be voted on by the entire House of Representatives as early as this week.

A longtime advocate for Haiti, Congresswoman Waters introduced the Debt Relief for Earthquake Recovery in Haiti Act (H.R. 4573) shortly after the devastating earthquake struck Haiti.

Haiti faces colossal and costly cleanup before it can rebuild

By William Booth
Washington Post Foreign Service
Sunday, March 7, 2010

Before Haiti and international donors can rebuild this devastated city, they must first destroy it.

The task of knocking down, smashing apart and hauling away the mountain range of rubble left by the Jan. 12 earthquake will take years and cost as much as $1 billion, according to some estimates.

As rains approach, a scramble to get latrines and hygiene supplies to Haiti

March 06, 2010|By Ken Ellingwood
From LA Times

With about a million displaced Haitians living in crowded camps with limited toilet facilities, officials warn of widespread health risks and possibly another wave of deaths.

With rainy season expected to begin next month, sanitation and hygiene loom as urgent health concerns for about 1 million people living in fields and vacant lots in quake-struck areas in and around the capital.

Aid workers say coming rains will increase the risk of disease outbreaks. Authorities are racing to get latrines built and portable toilets and hand-washing stations installed before heavy rains begin.

With Haitian Schools in Ruins, Children in Limbo

From New York Times
By SIMON ROMERO
Published: March 6, 2010

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Thousands of schools in and around this devastated capital could remain closed for months or never reopen, according to Haitian and United Nations education officials. That leaves vast numbers of children languishing in camps or working in menial jobs as they struggle to survive.

Even before the Jan. 12 earthquake, only about half of Haiti’s school-age children were enrolled in classes, a glaring symbol of the nation’s poverty.

Risk of deadly malaria is growing in earthquake-ravaged Haiti, CDC warns

Cases of a deadly malaria strain endemic to Haiti are being reported, and officials are urging precautions for anyone with plans to visit.

From Miami Herald
BY FRED TASKER
March 5, 2010

In Haiti, the half-million people made homeless by the Jan. 12 earthquake now face another danger: malaria.

Also at risk are the relief workers who may not have built up an immunity to the sometimes-deadly strain found in Haiti.

On Thursday, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that 11 cases of the P.falciparum malaria infection, acquired in Haiti, have been confirmed among emergency personnel and Haitian residents who traveled to the U.S.

Haiti rebuilding plan expected this week

From Reuters

PORT-AU-PRINCE (Reuters) – Government planners and international experts are racing to produce a blueprint this week to reconstruct Haiti's economy after the earthquake that killed up to 300,000 people and devastated its infrastructure.

A team of 150 Haitian government officials and 90 international experts is to submit the plan to the government by Friday.

Haitian leader focusing on nation's biggest needs

Two months after an earthquake killed hundreds of thousands, Haitian President René Préval arrives in the U.S. to ask for aid and coordination.

From Miami Herald
BY LESLEY CLARK AND JACQUELINE CHARLES

AID WASHINGTON -- Haitian President René Préval arrives in Washington Monday for meetings with Congress and President Barack Obama as the White House prepares to ask lawmakers for more than $1 billion in aid for the earthquake ravaged country

Haiti earthquake opens window on dismal prisons

By MICHELLE FAUL (AP)

Legal experts say the earthquake has given the country a chance to reform its judiciary, which has been the source of international condemnation for years.