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DISASTER MANAGEMENT
Local Haiti aid effort 'better everyday:' US Army

A man raises his arms in prayer at the former Petionville golf course which has now been turned into a makeshift camp in Port-au-Prince on January 27, 2010. Quake-hit Haiti will need at least a decade of painstaking reconstruction, aid chiefs and donor nations warned, as homeless, scarred survivors struggled today to rebuild their lives. Photo courtesy AFP

IMF to provide 114 million dollars in crisis aid to Haiti
The International Monetary Fund said Wednesday it was rushing 114 million dollars in emergency aid to Haiti this week to help it cope with the aftermath of a devastating earthquake. The IMF executive board approved Wednesday an increase of 102 million dollars to Haiti's Extended Credit Facility, the Washington-based institution said in a statement. The additional money "will help Haiti cope with the aftermath of the massive and disastrous earthquake that struck the country on January 12," it said. "With the approval of this additional financing, a total of 114 million dollars will be disbursed by the end of this week, constituting the largest amount made available so far to the Haitian authorities after the earthquake." Up to a million people were left homeless and destitute by the 7.0-magnitude January 12 quake, which destroyed much of the capital city of the impoverished Caribbean nation and left 150,000 dead.

The IMF said that the emergency augmentation would provide urgently needed financing for essential imports, and make cash available to banks and transfer houses. It also would enable the authorities to maintain an adequate reserves cushion in the face of massive import needs linked to reconstruction. The IMF said the aid to the poorest country in the western hemisphere was interest-free, repayments of principal were only due after a 5.5-year grace period, and the financing was not subject to any additional policy conditions. "Haiti's needs are massive and pressing. The international community has responded fast and has already mobilized substantial resources for the relief and recovery effort," IMF managing director Dominique Strauss-Kahn said. "The Fund's augmentation under the Extended Credit Facility provides urgently needed cash resources to the government, which will allow the authorities to acquire emergency imports without depleting Haiti's reserves."

by Staff Writers
 Tabarre, Haiti (AFP) Jan 27, 2010
 US soldiers and local Haitian officials said Wednesday food aid was becoming increasingly available to hungry earthquake victims in select areas outside the capital, as relief coordination improves.

"It's getting better everyday," US Army Captain Maurice Green told AFP, as truckloads of supplies from USAID (the US Agency for International Development) were transferred to Haitian pick-up trucks to be taken to smaller distribution sites.

"Coordination between us and USAID and other agencies will improve day-by-day -- and as coordination improves, so will conditions" for distributing food, Green said, praising Mayor Jean France in this town 10 miles (16 kilometers) east of Port-au-Prince.

"The people are frustrated for sure," acknowledged the mayor. But, he told AFP, "now they are seeing hope, because they can see we are getting them food."

France said he was having daily meetings with US soldiers to coordinate the distribution.

Port-au-Prince and surrounding areas were ravaged by the massive 7.0-magnitude quake on January 12. Haitian President Rene Preval on Wednesday said nearly 170,000 bodies had been counted so far, substantially higher than previous toll estimates of 150,000.

Another million Haitians were left homeless by the temblor.

The United States has poured in some 20,000 troops to the country, while dozens of aid agencies are on the ground distributing food and water.

Hundreds of thousands of Haitians, many of whom camped out in squalid tent shelters in city parks, often complain the effort is at best chaotic, and at worst not getting through at all.

The main obstacle to getting out the influx of aid backed up at the airport, said Green, who is part of the 82nd Airborne Division deployed in the country, has been "identifying the right people, and securing the proper routes that can distribute the aid."

"It took us a few days to find the local authorities we can work with, but now we know these guys," he said, gesturing towards the mayor and other local officials standing nearby.

"He knows where (the aid) needs to go and how to get it to the people who need it."

The 520 USAID "kits" -- each weighing 50 pounds (22 kilograms) and containing rice, pinto beans and cooking oil -- are intended to feed a family for 15 days, the mayor said.

The 40-strong unit of US soldiers, many busy securing the gates of the mayor's compound as some 200 desperate Haitians waited outside, picked up the food sacks at the airport earlier Wednesday and were splitting up supplies to be distributed in the community.

Total US contribution to the relief effort in Haiti, including Pentagon and USAID expenditures, stands at 379.7 million dollars, USAID said Tuesday.

In human terms, US military and civilian teams in Haiti have so far provided medical assistance to 11,600 people, many of whom needed amputations, USAID medical team leader Ronald Waldman told reporters in Port-au-Prince Wednesday.

The United Nations meanwhile said this week a total of 271.87 million dollars has been promised in its appeal for emergency aid for Haiti, intended to go towards food, medication, water and tents.

Scenes of chaotic aid hand-outs in Port-au-Prince have become a regular sight more than two weeks after the earthquake struck, as thousands of Haitians desperately seek food and water.

With Haiti's government all but incapacitated by the disaster, which leveled dozens of ministry buildings, Haitians are relying on foreign disaster relief agencies for supplies.


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DISASTER MANAGEMENT
UN warns of gangsters, traffickers exploiting Haiti chaos
 Geneva (AFP) Jan 27, 2010
 Gangsters and child traffickers could try to exploit the chaos triggered by Haiti's devastating earthquake to step up their criminal activities, the UN human rights chief warned Wednesday. Navi Pillay told the UN Human Rights Council meeting in Geneva of her fears that prisoners who had escaped from flattened jails, including hardened gang members, "may secure weapons and engage in violent c ... read more






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