General Information...The latest figures from the Government of Haïti place the death toll at 212,000 persons (and could go as high as 230,000) with 300,000 persons injured, about 500,000 persons emigrating to the provinces (mostly those directly north and on the southwestern peninsula), and another 700,000 persons in camps or staying at others' homes (usually courtyards) in Port-au-Prince. 

There was a general day of mourning last Friday for those who were lost in the earthquake, it was the one month anniversary.  General activities are expected to be reduced through at least Wednesday (Ash Wednesday).  Dr. Fadoul found the paper I was taking notes on in his office at the time of the earthquake and gave it to me--he says we should frame it!  We actually were sitting together at exactly the same time 4 weeks later, but this time in the warehouse.  It's still hard to believe that so much could change in the matter of a few seconds.

Commercial air flights may begin by the end of the week as the number of relief flights continues to decline.  It's less than half of what it was, but still a good two times more than the usual number of daily flights before the earthquake.

Floating docks have been installed at the port and it is expected that up to 1,500 containers will soon be able to handled per day!  From what I gather, that is a good bit more than pre-earthquake.  If so, it is a great blessing, this is the main route for many supplies into Haïti.

Overland travel is still clogged at the border, but it is generally moving acceptably well.

Medical Donations...Many organizations have and would like to donate medicines or other medical supplies.  Unfortunately, only a portion of what have been received so far have been useful, for many reasons.  If your group is interested in donating, please download the recommended guidelines at: http://www.who.int/hac/crises/hti/appeal/medical_supplies/en/index.html

Here's another helpful briefing paper on how to donate if items were not specifically requested:
http://www.logcluster.org/ops/hti10a/briefing-unsolicited-donations

Below is a list of needed pharmaceutics and medical supplies for PROMESS, our national store for essential medicines (run by WHO).  Please remember that medicines should have at least a 1 year shelf life left by the time they arrive.  SCMS staff and consultants from our HQ are helping them with the enormous number of containers that have been received.
http://www.who.int/hac/crises/hti/appeal/haiti_most_needed_medical_supplies.pdf

Volunteers...Pan American Health Organization (PAHO, an arm of WHO) is creating a database of volunteers which is being shared among different groups. If you'd like to volunteer, in any capacity, you can sign up at: http://new.paho.org/haitivolunteers/

Camps and smaller sites....Drinking water seems to be in enough abundance, and there has been a 'surge' effort to provide two weeks' worth of staples for women of families.  The present surge will continue for about another week, and already about 1.2 million persons have received food staples (2.3 million since the beginning of food aid)--and now in an orderly fashion, too!  There are stories of families setting up the old 'lakou' system in the camps: one common cooking pot that then feeds several families.  I remember that when I was a medical resident I had a tote bag with a mouse dragging an elephant up a mountain, and below it was the saying, "Where there is a will there is a way."  That's the Haitian people!  They are never short on solutions, although some, well...:)

One of the solutions that is hard to come by is the latrine issue, there are just not enough to go around at the camps--not enough land to plant them on.  Catholic Relief Services has just been funded to help set up some latrines, however, so there will still be at least several more to be built.  Because of this issue, the Shelter Cluster is planning to 'decongest' key camp sites, that is, ask for volunteers to move to other locations that they will find.  This will not be an easy undertaking because the families will not want to either move away from their networks nor their homes since many still have their possessions under rubble. 

Along with a lack of latrines is the lack of adequate shelter against the spring rainy season that is about to begin (it's raining as I'm writing this).  On top of the problem of the tents not being watertight, they also require a significant amount of room to be able to be set up, and there simply is not the space.  The organizations are pooling resources to be able to provide at least one tarp per family by 1 May. About one third of the 250,000 families in PAP that are without homes have received either some plastic sheeting or tents, and that number is increasing fairly rapidly.  By Haitian ingenuity, the tarps are also for sale by the street vendors...200gds (about US$5)! 

The question is are these donations being sold or 'new' merchandise?  That's what I mean by some of the 'solutions' not always being ideal--though it's hard to quarrel since it efficiently meets a need that the organizations themselves have not been able to do with professional logisticians.  Moral of the story: hire Haitian staff instead of importing experts.  An honest Haitian person will not only figure out the way to do it, it'll be done while the others are still planning!  Its not always well organized, but the job does get done quickly.  We've benefitted from that ingenuity many times in the last few weeks.  The only problem is that I now have to clean up the after-effects in the warehouse database...sigh...but it's a small price to pay.

Temporary Shelters...Once everyone has protection from the rains, the next step will be to provide temporary housing kits--poles of either wood or metal, plastic sheeting and corrugated iron for the roof.  These shelters are 18m2 (194 sq ft), have an expected lifespan of about 3 years, and will cost about US$1,000-1,500 for a family of five.  The Shelter Cluster is looking for donations to purchase these kits.  Finding enough space for these is another issue.  The Haitian Government is looking at expropriation of land around PAP for temporary settlements--the camps do not have the space for these, as you can imagine.  Below is a picture of the shelter kit assembled.

Building New Homes...For those of you interested in the shelter/housing issues, here is the web site for the Shelter Cluster where they discuss long term plans:
http://groups.google.com/group/shelterhaiti2010

The organization CHF has hired quite a number of Haitian people to clear rubble, especially around the government buildings downtown.  They are working with another organization to see if the rubble can be crushed and then used in rebuilding.  YEAH!  I've been very concerned about what would happen with all this rubble.  It is much more than could be disposed of.
 
One aspect that will need more reflection, however, is that an intensely populated urban area like Port-au-Prince will not be able to support single family dwellings.  The downtown area is 14.7 sq miles and had over 2 million people living there--that works out to about 136,000 people per sq mile.  As a point of reference, where I lived in inner city Chicago had a population of 30,000 per sq mile and almost everyone lived in an apartment building.  Single dwelling homes, especially any larger than these temporary structures, would be impossible.

I just looked at the data from the 2003 census (actually the newest figures suggest that 3.7 million instead of 3.0 million persons were affected by the earthquake with 1.2 million losing their homes).  Metropolitan Port-au-Prince had over 400,000 families in 2003.  Of these, about 28% owned their land and their home; 17% owned the home only (often built on government-owned property without any official arrangement); 32% were renting; and 20% were leasing the land and/or home.  Thus, only a small portion actually have clear title to land to rebuild.  It seems that this is not just the case in Haïti, other countries suffering disasters ran into this kind of problem.  But I'm not sure any disaster has had to confront this magnitude of population density.  Imagine, for example, doubling the entire population of Philadelphia and jamming it into 1/10th its space!  That's what it would be like.

Some of the relief groups are talking about trying to resettle the Port-au-Princians back into the rural provinces.  Unfortunately they are missing a key factor here: all of the jobs are in PAP.  In fact, a large portion of money transfers are actually from within the country and go from PAP to the provinces.  The bottom line: if the folks don't return, no one will have any money to live on.  The money transfer system is what has kept the Haitian people afloat. 

On a more personal note...I'm still waiting for electricity to be re-established in my neighborhood, it's nearly 5 weeks.  At least the new electrical poles are up!  By the way, if anyone knows of how to adjust a WINCO HPS9000VE 9KW generator, will you let me know?  It'd just arrived before the earthquake, and we were in the process of installing it.  It's a tri-fuel (propane, natural gas, and gasoline), but it seems to need a richer fuel mixture when I run either gas or propane (no natural gas here).  It's giving only a fraction of output and takes about half the fuel that it should.  Yes, I went to the web site--it only gave me the manual I already have.  Yes, I've read it.  Yes I translated it for the installer.  It says to adjust the fuel mixture but gives neither a picture to show where the regulator is, nor describes how to do it.  Just remember, Physics was my weakest course, my sister got all that gene in the family!  So, any help would be most appreciated.

Three old colleagues are here in country now and another two are on the way!  Yes, there is a lighter, nicer side to this heavy event.  Some are asking how I'm holding up.  Actually, I'm fine!  It's been a lot of stress, as you can imagine; but I cannot describe the incredible peace I have.  I realize that all these years of heavy trial to live and work alone in Haïti are now paying a dividend that I could not have imagined.  I am very grateful.  God's plan is indeed perfect for each one of us.

Blessings!
Judith