©InfoAfca Village in central Port-au-Prince may not have sustained as much damage as some areas, but Camp Afca is a busy place. People from surrounding districts poured into the camp, which is now home to over 500 families.
The camp is split into ten zones, reflecting the communities that its inhabitants came from originally. This is a good way of keeping communities together, and retaining a sense of identity.
Pasteur Renes Decine is the camp administrator and local pastor for this area. He has been working closely with the Haitian and Danish Red Cross, who have organised a distribution of shelter materials for the camp.
Practical help
©InfoJesper Bertilson, from the Danish Red Cross, said: “We met with the pastor, and he gave us a tour of the camp, introducing us to the leaders of each of the ten communities. Through him, we have 25 representatives from these communities who are helping with today’s distribution.
“The Red Cross is providing shelter materials for 502 families – that’s 2,618 people in all, and covers everyone in this camp. The shelter kit consists of two tarpaulins, one tool kit and two lengths of timber."Each family nominates one person from their household to collect and carry the tarpaulins and tool kit, and a volunteer from the camp will carry the timber for them, taking it all the way back to their shelter.”
The shelters at Camp Afca are packed together and made from anything people can lay hands on – sheets, cardboard, blankets. Providing materials and tools is a practical solution to help provide some strength and waterproofing to the existing structures, especially in a context like Afca where people have moved with and re-built their communities. Erecting lots of tents would mean moving families and the tents wouldn’t be as resilient as structures built with tarpaulins and wood.
Looking to the future
©InfoJesper explained: “Sometimes tents are not the best solution. But you have to think about the context. We are providing some tents, for example for elderly people’ and we have family tents we are putting up for the orphanage.”
Pasteur Renes said: “People have been using their own materials to build anything they can, but now we can give them these materials to build with. Right now, things are very difficult in Haiti, but our country has had problems for a long time."This can be a great moment to start reconstructing a new Haiti.
“I hope that now, with partners such as the Red Cross, we can work together to build a new future. Hopefully, in another 20 years we will have rebuilt a lot of the country and helped the Haitian people to realise their dreams.”
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In the event that we raise more money than can be reasonably and efficiently spent, any surplus funds will be used to help us prepare for and respond to other humanitarian disasters either overseas or here in the UK.