Around 20 expatriate staff and their 130 Haitian colleagues are now involved in Handicap International's emergency response operation in Haiti, which includes caring for injured people, providing post-operative rehabilitation, fitting artificial limbs, and distributing humanitarian aid and temporary shelters.
These actions, which were launched by Handicap International in the days immediately following the earthquake of 12 January, will be extended over the long-term, with a continued focus on the most vulnerable populations, including its temporary shelter programme.
Health
Six mobile care teams have been working in four neighbourhoods of Port-au-Prince since Monday, providing first aid and stabilising the condition of injured people before they are able to access hospital care. They are supported by five rehabilitation specialists from Canada and the US. In addition, two physiotherapists from Handicap International , who arrived on Wednesday evening, are working in partnership with MSF. Handicap International is therefore in a position to intensify its efforts in hospitals and to identify and record injured people within communities, with the aim of ensuring they receive the necessary care on-site or to monitor their progress once they have been taken to hospital. Our post-operative follow-up care and emergency rehabilitation actions will also be scaled-up.
Hundreds of amputations are currently being performed in Haiti. Handicap International's goal is to start fitting preliminary artificial limbs from next March, leaving time for amputations to heal, with the aim of producing 300 to 400 emergency artificial limbs over the next three months. Before the earthquake, there were virtually no rehabilitation and fitting professionals in Haiti, which has heightened the importance of our work.
Logistics support
Two days after the earthquake, Handicap International was able to organise its first humanitarian aid convoy from the city of Gonaïves to Port-au-Prince. The redeployment of the fleet of 45 lorries managed by the organisation* has ensured a constant turnover of vehicles, helping reduce congestion at the airport, where most humanitarian aid is arriving. Handicap International also has an operational 3,500 sq.m. warehouse where it stores a proportion of this aid before it is sent out to secondary distribution points. This support mission, which benefits the entire humanitarian community in Port-au-Prince and the rest of the country, will continue for several months as required by the scale of current needs.
Temporary shelter
Handicap International will also intervene to the west of Port-au-Prince, primarily in the regions of Petit-Goâve and Grand-Goâve. Located around ten kilometres from the epicentre of the earthquake, these two areas were destroyed to an extent of 60%, with 50,000 people affected in these regions alone. Our organisation is preparing to distribute emergency kits containing sheets and rope, to provide the affected population with shelter, along with blankets, mats, water filters, jerrycans and cooking utensils. This represents practical and essential aid for those most severely affected.
* Handicap International has been managing a fleet of 45 off-road lorries since the end of 2008 in Haiti, in partnership with the World Food Programme.
> More information about our response to the earthquake in Haiti
