“Anyone focusing on simple highly-visible solutions in Haiti is living in dreamland,” says Concern’s Bríd Kennedy Recovery has been slow, there are some grounds for optimism but “no magic wand”
Concern Worldwide, Ireland’s largest humanitarian and development agency, was today critical of those with unreasonable expectations regarding the pace and depth of the recovery in Haiti but struck an optimistic note ahead of the third anniversary of the devastating earthquake which struck the country on the 12th January 2010. “Anyone focusing on simple highly-visible solutions in Haiti is living in dreamland,” said Concern’s Regional Director, Bríd Kennedy. “We’ve seen some commentators and critics of the pace of the recovery zone-in purely on issues like the number of people left in camps and roadside rubble. This does an injustice to the complex history and great resilience of the people of Haiti, as well as much of the effective work done by the international community and aid agencies.” Before the 2010 earthquake, Haiti was the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere with many complex historical and contemporary issues. Over three quarters of the population survived on less than $2 dollars a day. The unemployment rate was estimated at 40.6%. Ongoing climatic risks - many of them unfamiliar to Irish people’s experience of weather included seasonal battering by cyclones and hurricanes which regularly destroyed poor housing, crops and vulnerable livelihoods, as did intermittent and extended droughts. Then the earthquake struck, right at the heart of the densely-populated, and poorly-built crowded housing of the capital, Port-au-Prince. Over 217,000 people were killed. “For sure, the overall response has not been perfect and has been hit by a number of setbacks – not least a cholera outbreak, Tropical Storm Isaac and, most recently, Hurricane Sandy – but expecting Haiti to turn into some Caribbean holiday paradise is not facing the reality of what it was like before the earthquake,” added Ms Kennedy.
Of the 2.1 million people left homeless in the aftermath of the disaster, 360,000 people remain in camps, many as a result of issues over land rights. The rubble has now been largely cleared from the streets. A new government is now in place and making progress in a number of areas such as housing and schooling, taking over key areas until recently handled by NGOs. It has also taken a new key role in dealing with cholera. Ms Kennedy concluded: “Internal security issues, gender-based violence, the ruralurban population balance, the impact of droughts on crop failures and, therefore, rising food prices and food insecurity, international actors honouring in full their 2010 pledges of aid money, attracting foreign investment for jobs and stability - plus taking key actions that try to minimise the impact of future disasters - these make up just some of the complex challenges that remain. There is no magic wand here. Haitians deserve more balanced consideration of what they have achieved, and what they face.” “Concern Worldwide has been working in Haiti since 1994 and we’ll remain there for the foreseeable future supporting the government and the people on their path to recovery and the elimination of extreme poverty.”