The 7.0 magnitude earthquake that struck Haiti on Jan. 12 brought suffering and destruction to a country that was already facing major development challenges. The situation on the ground changes daily as Haitian and international relief efforts try to help the millions of citizens who now lack food, water, medical care and shelter.
In response, members of a Haitian network of community organizing groups, or Initiative Committees (ICs), are mobilizing to support national and international relief efforts. Developed over more than a decade with NDI support, the ICs are present in 179 municipalities across the country and involve 35,000 Haitians and 3,500 civic organizations, including 400 women's groups. Prior to the earthquake, the IC network organized their communities to conduct post-hurricane damage assessments, repair roads, facilitate medical treatment, provide potable water, and promote transparency in government development projects.
Shortly after the earthquake, NDI began hearing from the ICs who had begun mobilizing in some parts of the country, including the Port-au-Prince area. Despite their personal losses, IC members were eager and committed to help international and Haitian government rescue and relief efforts connect directly with communities to assess damage, target relief and assist with the temporary resettlement of displaced persons.
In the greater Port-au-Prince areas of Bel Air, Solino and Carrefour, IC members helped families evacuate their houses and establish camps for displaced people in schools and outdoor areas. In the earthquake-affected western city of Petit Goâve, the ICs are working with local authorities and non-governmental organizations to facilitate the distribution of aid to affected populations. The IC in the northern port of Cap Haitian is working with the local government to select the sites where thousands of people leaving devastated Port-au-Prince will be hosted, as many of the displaced do not have relatives in the region. In Gonaïves, northwest of Port-au-Prince, a regional grouping of ICs is conducting a census of displaced people and the injured in hospitals and health clinics.
Women's organizations that make up many of the ICs are mobilizing to help earthquake victims in four cities: Martissant/Fontamara, Leogane, Petit Goâve and Marigot. In addition to helping women and children find food, these groups are working in displaced persons camps to raise awareness about potential violence against women, prevention of HIV/AIDS and the need for special health and safety measures to protect women, such as separate sanitation facilities.
By improving the Haitian government's ability to respond to the crisis, the committees are hoping to build Haitian support for, and confidence in, the rebuilding efforts.
"The extraordinary Haitians who comprise this network of community groups are grassroots activists, leaders in their own cities, towns and villages, who are uniquely positioned to identify and coordinate emergency community needs with local Haitian authorities and international aid organizations," said Jim Swigert, NDI's senior associate for Latin America and the Caribbean.
In the aftermath of the quake, NDI's Port-au-Prince office remains open and program operations are continuing. NDI is supporting the ICs as these community groups work on two levels — helping to facilitate and maximize the reach of relief efforts in areas directly affected by the earthquake and assisting other communes to respond to the influx of large numbers of displaced people.
In the coming weeks, NDI will provide technical and financial assistance to ICs in the target communes to establish more structured citizen-run Relief Coordination Centers. These centers will play several roles — collecting names of orphaned children and missing people, including contact information of relatives abroad; developing a list of earthquake victims with the most urgent needs; liaising with aid workers and agencies at the national and local levels to direct aid to those in greatest need; and helping create community assessments to inform long-term rebuilding efforts. Through the centers, the ICs will also help defuse potential conflicts between displaced persons and host commune populations affected by the sudden influx of people.
The Institute has made its office available to Internews, a group with which NDI has worked previously, to provide emergency support to journalists and community radio stations across the country.
NDI Haiti Director Gerard Latulippe talks about surviving the earthquake and NDI’s ongoing work»
NDI offers profound sympathy to Haitian people»
Contribute to the NDI Haitian staff and family disaster assistance fund»
Pictured above:NDI Initiative Committees in Haiti by commune
Published February 3, 2010
