By Dennis Sadowski
Catholic News Service

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (CNS) — Aid agencies mapping their responses to best meet the needs of hundreds of thousands of Haitians hurt and left homeless by the powerful Jan. 12 earthquake are facing challenges unlike any encountered in previous natural disasters.

A boy in a wheelchair is pushed along the street in front of the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Assumption that was destroyed Jan. 12 when a major earthquake hit Port-au-Prince, killing more than 200,000 people. Efforts have begun to remove the cathedral’s debris. CNS PHOTO/BOB ROLLER

Agencies such as Catholic Relief Services and Caritas Internationalis are widely credited for their expertise and rapid response to a variety of emergency situations. But the large-scale destruction in Port-au-Prince and the surrounding area and the tremendous number of people in need pose a daunting scenario even for veteran humanitarian workers.

Gaye Burpee, deputy regional director for Latin America and the Caribbean at CRS, said the challenges are the result of the instability still surrounding the lives of the earthquake victims.

A month after the earthquake, aid workers continue to focus on meeting basic emergency needs such as food, water, health care, sanitation and security, leaving little time to consider what next steps to take, Burpee said.

“No one wants to duplicate efforts because there is way more to do than any one agency or government is capable of doing,” Burpee said.

Working in conjunction with Caritas Haiti, Philippe Mougin, senior emergency officer at the Catholic Agency for Overseas Development, the development and relief agency of the English and Welsh bishops, said meeting immediate needs has stressed Caritas workers.

“This is challenging indeed. It can compare only with the response to the tsunami (in 2004),” Mougin said. “At the minute we’re focused on implementing the plan for the emergency response.”

With the emphasis still on meeting emergency needs, leading relief agencies meet daily under the auspices of the United Nations to discuss what’s working and what’s not. The meetings involve representatives of major agencies, including CRS, Partners in Health and World Vision, among others. All have large operations in Haiti.

As the response continues, Burpee has been charged with assembling a six-month plan of action for CRS. She is gathering information from workers spread throughout the 100-mile-wide earthquake zone and will deliver a report in the coming weeks of how the agency can better utilize its resources.

Longer-term planning is futile, she said, “because the situation is so fluid that to sit down here now in Haiti and to say this is what we’re going to be doing over five years is a bit of hubris.”

“What we’re working on for the first six months is survival and sustaining life,” Burpee added.

Looming over the meetings is the knowledge that the rainy season in Haiti starts in April, and not far behind that is hurricane season.

Isaac Boyd, an emergency shelter expert for CRS in Kenya who now advises the agency in Haiti, said numerous organizations are trying to determine how to move thousands of homeless Haitians to more secure locales, primarily outside of Port-au-Prince.

Admittedly, Burpee said, the movement of thousands of people can pose a problem for the rural communities and small towns receiving them. She said any plan must include funds for additional food delivery, health care and support for schools as the rural areas absorb hundreds or even thousands of people.

She also said she expects that CRS will have less of a presence in the capital at some point, leaving agencies with the expertise to lead the reconstruction effort.
“Our traditional expertise is in rural areas with latrines and potable water . . . with education, agriculture, livelihoods. So we can work in some of the rural areas that are overloaded with internally displaced people and help those people find livelihoods,” she said.

For now, for those staying in the city, CRS has contracted with a firm in the Dominican Republic to provide 400 portable toilets at various tent sites. The toilets are being provided under a $1.5 million contract that calls for the company to clean the toilets daily and has built-in penalties if toilets are found to be unsanitary, Burpee said.

The Haiti program is Catholic Relief Services’ largest.

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