Caroline Gluck updates on the latest (Sat 23 Jan)
This is Caroline Gluck from Oxfam in Port-au-Prince in Haiti. The Government have now officially announced that it's an end to the search for survivors of the earthquake which happened over a week ago. But ironically on the very day that the announcement was made, the news channels reported that a man was actually pulled alive out of the rubble of a hotel where he'd been living, buried by debris and collapsed building, for the past 11 days. We believe that a stage of this disaster is over - it's an end for search and rescue, and the priority now has to be one of relief and recovery, providing essential aid to the people who survived this devastating tragedy. Giving help to the survivors, people who are sleeping in vast camps outside in parks and on the streets. People who have very little shelter, maybe just a tent or a plastic sheeting for cover, people who are having trouble accessing safe, clean, drinking water, and people who are finding it very difficult to get any food. One problem has been that people don't have any money, they left their money in the houses which collapsed, or they're too scared to enter, or money is in the banks. And actually, today, going to work, we saw huge queues outside many of the banks in Port-au-Prince. The government had announced that banks would be re-opening. People were clearly very eager to get some money out and start to be able to pay for things - a lot of people must have taken out loans just to be able to get by in the last week or so, so a lot of banks opening. And people were going to be restricted to getting $2,500 dollars maximum per person. Oxfam is continuing to step up its efforts to provide help. We're now targeting around 80,000 people in 7 camps across the city. We are distributing drinking water to people. We are very concerned that people who don't have access to clean drinking water are resorting to other measures - drinking water that isn't safe, which makes them prone to disease. We're also looking, and we've started installing, latrines in many of the camps. Waste management is clearly a serious issue. When I visited Petionville club for example, I saw people openly, in the middle of the field, go and use the toilet, in the open air a woman hitched up her skirt and croached down to urinate. I was quite shocked at this. On other occasions, women have been stripped down to their knickers taking a bucket shower. Oxfam believes that it's really essential to provide latrines and some kind of covered area where people can bathe. They can have some protection and they can have some dignity which is really essential for people, especially women, security and protection issues. In other work we're, for example, Oxfam Quebec has been today distributing bottled water, rice and some first aid kits. We're looking at distributing some bedding this weekend and next week they're going to be issuing kitchen kits to some of the displaced communities. We're also looking at starting some quite exciting work, cash-for-work - giving money to people so that they can help to rebuild their own communities. For example, paying people to remove some of the rubble, clearing some of the market spaces, helping to dig some of the latrines, so that not only it improves the community in which they're working, but they get some money and some dignity, can start planning their future a bit more than they have been able to do at the moment. Today was also a day of reflection for many of our staff. They went to attend the funeral of one of the Oxfam colleagues who was sadly killed in the quake. Taking buses with his family to his home town which is about 4 hours outside the capital. They haven't returned yet, but I'm sure they'll be very reflective and in quite a somber mood. Sad to say that we lost Oxfam workers in this disaster, and staff have experienced losses of homes, losses of friends and family. So while they're out and about helping people on a day-to-day basis, they're also nursing private grief and are among those suffering from the results of the quake. So I think that's pretty much a round up of what's been going on today. Hope to join you in the future, in the coming days. This is Caroline Gluck in Port-au-Prince saying goodbye.
This is Caroline Gluck from Oxfam in Port-au-Prince in Haiti. The Government have now officially announced that it's an end to the search for survivors of the earthquake which happened over a week ago. But ironically on the very day that the announcement was made, the news channels reported that a man was actually pulled alive out of the rubble of a hotel where he'd been living, buried by debris and collapsed building, for the past 11 days. We believe that a stage of this disaster is over - it's an end for search and rescue, and the priority now has to be one of relief and recovery, providing essential aid to the people who survived this devastating tragedy. Giving help to the survivors, people who are sleeping in vast camps outside in parks and on the streets. People who have very little shelter, maybe just a tent or a plastic sheeting for cover, people who are having trouble accessing safe, clean, drinking water, and people who are finding it very difficult to get any food. One problem has been that people don't have any money, they left their money in the houses which collapsed, or they're too scared to enter, or money is in the banks. And actually, today, going to work, we saw huge queues outside many of the banks in Port-au-Prince. The government had announced that banks would be re-opening. People were clearly very eager to get some money out and start to be able to pay for things - a lot of people must have taken out loans just to be able to get by in the last week or so, so a lot of banks opening. And people were going to be restricted to getting $2,500 dollars maximum per person. Oxfam is continuing to step up its efforts to provide help. We're now targeting around 80,000 people in 7 camps across the city. We are distributing drinking water to people. We are very concerned that people who don't have access to clean drinking water are resorting to other measures - drinking water that isn't safe, which makes them prone to disease. We're also looking, and we've started installing, latrines in many of the camps. Waste management is clearly a serious issue. When I visited Petionville club for example, I saw people openly, in the middle of the field, go and use the toilet, in the open air a woman hitched up her skirt and croached down to urinate. I was quite shocked at this. On other occasions, women have been stripped down to their knickers taking a bucket shower. Oxfam believes that it's really essential to provide latrines and some kind of covered area where people can bathe. They can have some protection and they can have some dignity which is really essential for people, especially women, security and protection issues. In other work we're, for example, Oxfam Quebec has been today distributing bottled water, rice and some first aid kits. We're looking at distributing some bedding this weekend and next week they're going to be issuing kitchen kits to some of the displaced communities. We're also looking at starting some quite exciting work, cash-for-work - giving money to people so that they can help to rebuild their own communities. For example, paying people to remove some of the rubble, clearing some of the market spaces, helping to dig some of the latrines, so that not only it improves the community in which they're working, but they get some money and some dignity, can start planning their future a bit more than they have been able to do at the moment. Today was also a day of reflection for many of our staff. They went to attend the funeral of one of the Oxfam colleagues who was sadly killed in the quake. Taking buses with his family to his home town which is about 4 hours outside the capital. They haven't returned yet, but I'm sure they'll be very reflective and in quite a somber mood. Sad to say that we lost Oxfam workers in this disaster, and staff have experienced losses of homes, losses of friends and family. So while they're out and about helping people on a day-to-day basis, they're also nursing private grief and are among those suffering from the results of the quake. So I think that's pretty much a round up of what's been going on today. Hope to join you in the future, in the coming days. This is Caroline Gluck in Port-au-Prince saying goodbye.
To view a fullsize photograph click the thumbnail below.
