Children at a Caritas food distribution in Sainte Marie Community, Port-au-Prince.
Credits: Mathilde Magnier/Caritas
Until today, Caritas has helped more than 1.5 million people with food in Port-au-Prince, Léogâne and its surroundings as well as 9 other dioceses. During the month of June, the distributions have benefitted more than 75,000 displaced people in Port-au-Prince and more than 100,000 people in the Nippes, Grandes Anse and the Southern provinces.
Food distribution continues as many people have not only lost their home, but also their source of income. Without a job, they and their families remain dependent on food aid. While Caritas still provides food for thousands of people every day, it is also trying to recreate incomes by employing people in Cash-for-Work programmes.
More than 40,000 people benefitted from Cash-for-Work incomes so far. Promoting agriculture will also be part of the Caritas five year rehabilitation programme currently designed.
At distributions like the one carried out at Pétionville Club camp in Port-au-Prince in April, there can be al lot of turmoil. Armed soldiers, human barricades and makeshift security services supervise the situation.
From a distance, the place looked like a huge anthill. Dozens of human chains were wiggling around, with crowds of people eagerly waiting to receive bags of bulgur, corn flour, peas and cooking oil. Each family got an over 80 kg ration with a month of supplies for a family of six. In some food distributions, priority was given to women.
The Cash-for-Work employees accomplish their work as support staff for food distributions with remarkable efficiency. Whether it is unloading the trucks, distributing the packages or checking the coupons that have been introduced to make sure distributions are fair, everything is working well despite heavy rains and other complications.
Caritas has started to release identification cards in order to overcome this problem of people moving from one camp to the next. The cards are certified by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the Haitian Civil Protection Department and allow migrating families to benefit from humanitarian aid, too. This way, Caritas makes sure that its food aid is distributed equally and especially targets the most vulnerable.