Haiti
This time last year, I was in Haiti working with a sister city program and reporting to the ONE Blog. One of the most meaningful experiences I had there was when I met with the mountain community Savanèt, located near Jacmel. I had run into Jackson Jean-Batiste, the chair of their community committee Komité Relèvman Savanè, on a hike the day before, and he had asked me to meet with his organization. I was interested in learning about the earthquake- and food-related challenges they faced, so I did.
At the meeting, I was careful to let them know that I was not going to do anything for their community directly, and, although I would take what I learned to Washington, I would not be lobbying for their community, or even for Haiti, but for people around the world who also depended on land and faced similar challenges.
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Here’s an interesting point to consider: Although Japan’s earthquake last week was a whopping two magnitudes larger than Haiti’s (approximately 100 times more intense), there were very few injuries or deaths reported in the capital city or anywhere else affected by flood waters. Thanks to strict building codes, land use regulations, and enforcement, Japan was able to keep the death toll down to just a fraction of the casualties from Haiti’s quake last year.
Poor countries simply can’t afford to develop and enforce the kind of complex regulations — like building earthquake-proof buildings — that were set by Japan’s government, and because enforcement agents (when they do exist in poor countries) are paid so little, they are particularly prone to corruption.
Charles Kenny from the Center for Global Development argues that because earthquakes are rare and unpredictable, retrofitting existing buildings and investing in expensive construction techniques might not actually be money well spent in places where preventable disease and malnutrition kill widely and reliably. He points out in a piece for Foreign Policy magazine that there are “a range of interventions that cost less than $2 per healthy year of life saved in the developing world,” meanwhile the costs of retrofitting public buildings in Istanbul was estimated to be around $280,000 per building.
However, early warning systems (EWS) play a huge role in alerting residents to evacuate — but countries have been slow to understand its value…or pass the message along. Although EWS wasn’t much help in Japan’s case (water was rushing “faster than a jet plane” toward its shores), it could have helped save the lives of more than 225,000 people from 14 countries during the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami.
As a result of the 2004 disaster, UNESCO set up a global tsunami program to help assess tsunami risk and make sure that tsunami-prone coastal communities are prepared. Unfortunately, the program hasn’t made much headway, and UNESCO’s funding is at risk of being cut by government agencies like the UK’s DfID.
More broadly, efforts to reduce disaster risk have been estimated by the World Bank to return 7 to 1 on investment, meaning that for each dollar invested in emergency preparedness, building codes or resilience building in disaster-prone areas, $7 in emergency response is saved.
Disasters can be traumatic and deadly, as can preventable disease. But at least we know that we can spare lives with better planning, strict guidelines and enforcement for construction in earthquake zones, investment in early warning systems, and efforts to bring adequate health systems, vaccines and nutrition to poor countries. As G.I. Joe used to tell us, knowing is half the battle. The other half, for poor countries, seems to be a serious lack of funding…
Check out this great post from Gail McGovern, President and CEO of the American Red Cross:
Watching the news this week, it’s likely you’ll see images of how bad things still are in Haiti one year after the earthquake. You might wonder whether your donation has done any good, and whether there is hope. I can assure you that the answer is yes on both counts.
The money Americans donated provided life-saving relief to hundreds of thousands of Haitians. It gave people food, water, protection against the elements, and vaccinations against deadly diseases. It has also enabled us to keep important hospitals open. And with time, more visible signs of progress are appearing, such as the brightly colored transitional homes that we and our partners are building.
Like all of us, I wish the pace of progress was faster. But I have to keep reminding myself that Haiti was a very poor country before this disaster, and that in many cases, aid groups are not rebuilding Haiti—they are building some of the infrastructure for the first time.
It’s a rollercoaster of emotions every time I go to Haiti. There’s deep sadness, despair, but also pride, joy and, yes, hope. With the incredible generosity of Americans, the strength and determination of the Haitian people and the heroic efforts of aid organizations and governments like ours who are helping, there is hope for the people of Haiti.
-Gail McGovern, President and CEO, American Red Cross
Learn more about American Red Cross work in Haiti by visiting www.redcross.org/haiti.
Dec 22nd, 2010 10:46 AM UTC
By Field
Frustrated by the lack of health care and resources in Haiti, ONE members Arnel Eugenio, a dentist, and his wife Jasmine, a pediatrician, decided to take matters into their own hands. Here’s an update on what they saw on the ground in Haiti.
Many villagers wait in line for a dental examination from Arnel.
It was all so surreal. We were detained by Hurricane Tomas on the day we were to leave Haiti. As the storm hit landfall, I could see people scurrying in the dark trying to brace for the onslaught. One of the villagers slit his foot in the frenzy, so my wife Jasmine was left to suture a 10-inch gash with what medical supplies we had left. The owner of the guesthouse didn’t want blood tracked through her place so we had to improvise with a lounge chair and flashlight on the patio while the storm raged behind us.
Had it really been only a week since we arrived? It felt more like a year. Almost as soon as we arrived, word spread through the little town of Carries (just north of Port-Au-Prince), that doctors were in town. Through the course of the week, we must have treated more than a thousand patients in a makeshift clinic that had no running water and only electricity from a generator. All the diseases of poverty were there… malaria, malnutrition, dental disease. Fortunately, cholera had not yet reached the area, but we took precautions by bringing our own water. I personally had to treat dental patients with a flashlight and a battery-operated drill.
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It has now been nearly 11 months since the devastating January earthquake struck Haiti. Today, more than a million people are crammed into makeshift tent camps, making them vulnerable to disease outbreaks. In late October, Hurricane Tomas dumped heavy rains on earthquake-ravaged Haiti, leading to flooding in parts of the country. The recent cholera outbreak has already killed almost 1,500 people. The Haitian general election which took place on November 28 will help determine the future of Haiti.
Many of our partners have responded to the difficult challenges in Haiti. Here are some highlights of some of these efforts.
In downtown Port-au-Prince, Colombian Red Cross workers unloads relief items including water, hygiene kits and food supplies for 6,000 families. January 23, 2010. Credit Talia Frenkel/American Red Cross.
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As advocates and activists, a lot of our support comes from actions that we take in front of our computers. Once we type in our names for a petition or click on a link, the issue is gone — unless we take the steps to stay connected, of course.
Screenshot of the site — pretty cool, right?
That’s why we’re really excited about Water.org’s latest project, my.Water.org. It’s an interactive online resource that allows people to see firsthand how water projects unfold in the real world, particularly in Haiti. You can choose a community and get weekly field reports — in the form of photos, videos and updates — from local certified partners as they deliver water solutions to the villagers.
In the Haitian village of Logalit, for example, you can find out how many households there are (60), how many of those households have latrines (46) and how many minutes it takes them to get to the nearest water source (up to 30!). You can even take a look at a photo of a villager grinding millet that reporter Kiki took just a couple of days ago.
If you have a moment, sign up for my.Water.org and play around on the website. It’s easy to use and you can even use your Facebook account to log in. And let us know what you think of the site in the comments below.
The latest situation briefs from the Pan American Health Organization are grim with reports that the cholera outbreak in Haiti continues to worsen, 18,382 people have been hospitalized and 1,110 have died. As many feared, the outbreak has spread to additional regions in Haiti, including the capital Port-au-Prince where many earthquake survivors remain particularly vulnerable to infection due to crowded living conditions, poor sanitation and lack of access to potable water. The outbreak has also spread to the Dominican Republic.
The Government of Haiti has established an emergency response center at the National Palace with representation from UN agencies and bilateral organizations. The Haitian government, humanitarian community and aid agencies have responded quickly, over thirty cholera treatment centers are operational nationwide. Officials warn that the outbreak will continue to spread and the infection and death toll will continue to rise dramatically. In the last week, there have been reports of civil unrest and anti-UN demonstrations across Haiti. The UN has responded that the demonstrations are politically motivated as Haiti faces elections on November 28. Civil unrest has hampered the latest cholera response efforts by restricting the distribution of necessary health supplies and delaying healthcare worker training and health promotion campaigns.
