Emergencies in Haiti

The first three months – emergency response

Caritas started to send staff, aid and to donate money within hours of the earthquake. Caritas Haiti, Catholic Relief Services (a US member of Caritas) and Caritas Switzerland already had programmes in Haiti. They were on the ground assessing the situation and establishing what immediate needs were from the beginning In the first few months, ...

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Caritas providing long term help to rebuild Haiti

Caritas providing long term help to rebuild Haiti

Close to a year after the earthquake, Caritas relief and reconstruction programmes in Haiti are well-established throughout the country. Caritas will invest more than $217 million in Haiti over a one year period that started in May 2010. This aid will cover further emergency needs caused for example by hurricanes, floods or the cholera epidemic, ...

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Haiti: Providing children in camps with a safe place to play and grow

Haiti: Providing children in camps with a safe place to play and grow

Trócaire  More than a million earthquake victims in Haiti are still living in camps. Many of them are children as four out of ten people in Haiti are under 14 years old. Difficult living conditions in the camps and uncertainty about the future mark their daily lives. Irish Caritas member Trócaire provides children in camps ...

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Challenges in Haiti: Poor sanitation, fragile health

Challenges in Haiti: Poor sanitation, fragile health

Caritas Haiti  Crowded conditions in camps, limited access to water and heat poor sanitation combined to create a cholera time bomb for Haiti’s earthquake victims. The first cases emerged in the Artibonite region in mid-October. Two months later, over 2,300 people had died from the disease and over 100,000 had been ill. Cholera is spread ...

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A year in Haiti for one Caritas member organisation

A year in Haiti for one Caritas member organisation

Catholic Relief Services (CRS – an American member of Caritas) had been working Haiti 55 years before the earthquake struck. On 12 January, CRS had a staff of around 300 on the ground who had been working on existing programmes. Here’s how the year panned out: 12 January: When the earthquake hits in the afternoon, many ...

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Livelihoods – Helping farmers in Haiti

Livelihoods – Helping farmers in Haiti

With Port-au-Prince in ruins following the earthquake, hundreds of thousands of people fled to the countryside. Les Cayes, in the south or Haiti, is a rural zone. It is very vulnerable to heavy rains, floods and soil erosion due to deforestation. Enelio Teme is trying to help his relatives who arrived from Port-au-Prince following the ...

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Education in Haiti – Something solid in the uncertainty

Caritas Czech  Saint Louis Wilner is counting his blessings that his wife and children are alive. He lost family members in the earthquake and also his house and possessions. His wife lost her business and he lost his job as a result of the disaster. It’s been a tough year. He’s taking his three-year-old daughter, ...

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Action against Cholera in Haiti

Action against Cholera in Haiti

Preventing the spread of cholera in earthquake-wracked Haiti remains a chief concern for Caritas. New cases of the waterborne disease continue to be reported in much of the country, including the centre, north and northwest, and west. Cholera prevention and hygiene promotion are ongoing throughout the capital Port-au-Prince and in all the affected communities. Haiti ...

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From Haiti with love

From Haiti with love

Thank you letter by Bishop Pierre Dumas, President of Caritas Haiti  Today, Caritas Haiti continues to share the joys and miseries, the sorrows and hopes of this nation and its crucified history. Caritas manifests the Church’s active compassion and concern for this courageous people. Six months ago the devastating earthquake destroyed the foundations of social ...

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New hope for Haiti six months after the earthquake

New hope for Haiti six months after the earthquake

  Available in pdf  Introduction By His Eminence Óscar Andrés Cardinal Rodríguez Maradiaga, S.D.B., Caritas Internationalis President Half a year after the earthquake in Haiti, the most pressing emergency is over. Our priority in the first months was to get food, sanitation and shelter to hundreds of thousands of people in need. Now, we also ...

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