Approaching Port-au-Prince on the fourth day after the earthquake was quite an experience in itself. The first thing that struck us was the overwhelming smell, the smell of death, and the scene of dead bodies lying by the side of the road, something I did not like to see and I do not want to see, despite having seen this on several occasions before (e.g. Iraq, Aceh/ Indonesia and Mozambique).
The capital was in a very chaotic state. Everybody was living in the street. This was no wonder as there was no place to go or no roof to hide under, especially with the risk of aftershocks. A huge number of young men and women queuing by the UN Peace Keeper offices looking for a job. I stopped over and recruited Michael, an English teacher, so that he could take us around and help with translation. In the heat we drove over to the heart of the city, Port–au-prince downtown. No single building had been left standing. The smell of death was killing us; everyone was using something to cover his nose and mouth. Looting was ongoing. Some call it surviving, people fighting to survive, which I can accept in many cases. However, what I have seen in this downtown with aggressive fighting and anarchy for surviving, we felt in extreme danger as people started to fight with each other using machetes, steel bars and all other possible means.
Public parks, car parks and even the main roads are occupied by makeshift shelters made from bed sheets and people sleep under it. I have seen so many cases where people made their makeshift accommodation in the middle of the road either to attract attention for help or as a sign of protest against the government and everybody else.
In the base log, based in the airport, from where the UN Peace Keepers and the international humanitarian community are operating, we set up our small camp (2 small tents). The camp was overcrowded and facilities poor due to the overcrowding, as the UN Peace Keepers who used to live outside the camp in houses or flats had moved inside the camp after their houses were destroyed (and it's safer inside).
Humanitarian agencies face a significant dilemma in trying to get the balance right between looking after their own safety and fulfilling their duty, in particular the principle of the humanitarian imperative. As the street in not safe enough and very challenging to deliver aid to the most needy. During the first week, aid workers were in a survival mood, trying to make sense of it all and settling themselves in, finding out where to sleep, where to wash.
Although I've been an aid worker for almost twenty years, each disaster has unique aspects, for example the media scrutiny is now much more intense and immediate (where journalists sometimes have limited understanding that for them to arrive is easy - just take a plane -, getting significant quantities of appropriate response items cannot be achieved so instantly), and each context is different, for example Haiti already had a most weak infrastructure and significant lack of law and order before the quake hit it. Due to the humanitarian situation, many players were already there, but also suffered significant losses themselves, including the head of the UN.
Haiti Aid Efforts: Agencies must Strike the Right Balance
http://www.newscentre.bham.ac.uk/press/2010/02/Haiti_Aid_Agencies.shtml
Posts
