President of Parliament Drs. Gracita Arrindell says one year (January 12) after a devastating earthquake struck Haiti, more than one million people – 380,000 of them children – still live in crowded camps despite extraordinary relief efforts by Haitians and the international community, according to a United Nations (UN) report.
The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) report, "Children in Haiti: One Year After – The long road from relief to recovery," says that the recovery process is just beginning.
Water, sanitation and hygiene were on the decline prior to the quake, with only 19 per cent of people having access to basic sanitation facilities in 2006, down from 29 per cent in 1990.
UNICEF provided more than 11,300 latrines serving over 800,000 people. Every day, over 600 latrines are de-sludged as part of ongoing efforts to maintain safe sanitation standards.
Overall the quake affected 1.5 million children and 63,000 pregnant women, UNICEF said. The UN World Food Programme (WFP) is currently reaching close to two million people with various aid programmes, including hot school meals for over one million children every day and cash-for-work programmes and nutrition.
"The rebuilding of Haiti will be a long process. It is not going as fast as people had anticipated, but there are still individuals and organizations there who are working to help rebuild. I encourage persons and organizations from the grass roots level to still donate to help rebuild Haiti.
"In the last quarter of 2010, the people of Haiti also had to contend with the outbreak of cholera. This is a second disaster that the country is being confronted with. On January 12, the day of the earthquake one-year ago, I call on the nation to say a prayer for the children, women and all the people of Haiti as they continue to rebuild," President of Parliament Gracita Arrindell said on Tuesday.
As of 29 December, 3,481 people had died of cholera and over 157,000 cases had been reported, according to Haitian Health Ministry statistics. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) warned recently that the epidemic threatens 2.2 million school children due to the lack of clean water and sanitation facilities in schools throughout the country.