11 January 2011 04:47 PM GMT
Haiti – Twelve Months on from the Earthquake
IN just 37 seconds on 12 January 2010, Haiti was changed forever when a devastating 7.0-magnitude earthquake struck the country.
Before the shocking destruction of the earthquake Haiti was already struggling with 70 per cent unemployment, a 15 per cent infant mortality rate, a fragile government plagued by corruption and few public services for its citizens.
After the earthquake, Haiti was confronted with a homeless population of 1.5 million, a death toll of 250,000, unimaginable suffering for 300,000 injured and minimal resources with which to respond. In the following weeks 200,000 severely injured people required limb amputations, creating a new generation of disabled persons in a culture where, at the best of times, even the healthy struggle to survive.
The Salvation Army immediately responded with emergency relief – something it has been doing in Haiti since 1950 when it commenced its Christian ministry there. Today, the country is home to the largest Salvation Army in the Western Hemisphere with more than 60 corps (churches), 11,000 students in 48 Salvation Army schools, clinics and children’s homes as well as many community development programmes.
During the ensuing year The Salvation Army’s international emergency earthquake response in Haiti has included medical care to more than 26,000 victims and distribution of more than seven million meals, as well as the provision of 1,500,000 gallons of purified water, cooking oil, thousands of tents, cots, tarpaulins, and hygiene and cleaning kits.
Electricity has also been provided to 20,000 people who sought immediate shelter on a sports field adjacent to the Army’s Port-au-Prince compound. This ‘tent city’ soon came under Salvation Army management and for 10 months the Army partnered with other non-government organisations to provide relief and security for these internally displaced people (IDPs). It is still ‘home’ to 13,000 people who remain homeless – but not abandoned.
In addition, The Salvation Army built more than 600 temporary shelters in Jacmel, 40 miles from the capital city, providing families with an opportunity for a new start in life.
In the following months, continued unmet needs and indescribable human suffering led the Army from its emergency response to a recovery and development phase. The recovery phase, directed by the International Haiti Earthquake Response Office at International Headquarters in London, involves the leadership of The Salvation Army’s Caribbean Territory, the Haiti division and the Haiti Recovery and Development Office.
The recovery initiatives are intended to build up Haiti through community development-based projects. These projects include continued support to the ‘tent city’ in Port-au-Prince, emotional support for children and adolescents in five earthquake-affected communities, financial support to children who were displaced after the destruction of a Salvation Army children’s home and counselling and financial support to victims in six communities.
Although government permission to begin rebuilding homes in Port-au-Prince is still pending, strategies for the construction of permanent housing for earthquake victims in the city and surrounding communities, as well as a number of smaller projects designed to develop the long term capacity of the Haitian people are being developed.
Because all Salvation Army buildings in Port-au-Prince were damaged beyond repair, plans are underway for the rebuilding of 10 Salvation Army schools and the renovation (including the provision of handicap accessibility) of 30 other schools. Additional work will include the rebuilding of the Port-au-Prince Central Corps, a health clinic and staff homes, as well as the purchase of new administrative offices for the Haiti Division.
In the year since the earthquake struck a total of US$47.7 million was donated from around the world for The Salvation Army’s work in Haiti. Of this, more than $17 million was used during the emergency response, allowing the Army to provide food, water, shelter, medical care and other essentials. The remaining funds are committed to use in long-term community development and reconstruction projects.
The impact of the Army’s recovery and development phase has been significant and encouraging. However, the aftermath of Hurricane Tomas, the continued fight against Haiti’s first cholera outbreak in more than 50 years as well as the violent aftermath of the recent presidential elections have slowed the rebuilding progress and left the Haitian people even more vulnerable.
In spite of the overwhelming challenges our Haitian brothers and sisters face, one year on from the earthquake they humbly remind us of the resilience of the human spirit and that, for them, hope is life!
Salvationists in Haiti continue to gather for worship every Sunday morning, as they have done every Sunday since the earthquake, and the source of their strength can quickly be identified, as strong voices combine with their hearts to sing to God about standing on Christ, the solid rock: ‘His oath, his covenant and blood, support me in the ‘whelming flood; when all around my soul gives way, he then is all my hope and stay.’
Long after the cameras have gone home and Haiti’s plight has disappeared from the news, the rebuilding will continue, one block of hope upon another. And The Salvation Army will be there, sharing in that hope as it upholds its commitment to ‘build back better’ in the months and years to come,
While it is unmistakably true that in 37 seconds Haiti was changed forever, it is just as true that the Haitian people’s hope in God’s steadfast love has remained.
Report by Lieut-Colonel Heidi Bailey,
International Haiti Earthquake Response Director,
International Headquarters
(article taken from www.salvationist.org)