More information

Alain Rodriguez

Communications Officer
Caritas Europa

Erny Gillen, President of Caritas Europa, visited Haiti last week. He is critical to the way the government of Haiti is handling the reconstruction of the country six months after being hit by a devastating 7.0 magnitude earthquake.

The purpose of Fr Gillen’s visit was to evaluate the current situation in Haiti, to see how it is developing and how the work of the Caritas network and its partners is being affected.

“I heard so many criticisms about the way the Haitian government is handling this crisis. I felt that I had to go there and assess the situation with my own eyes and form my own opinion,” explains Prof.Gillen.

Caritas staff in the field has complained about the negative impact the government’s poor response is having on their capacity to deliver planned relief actions. This inactivity from the State is not only seriously hampering the NGOs’ capacity to work efficiently but it is also refraining the people of Haiti from going back to “normal life”. At least, as normal as it can possibly be after having lived through such a terrifying catastrophe. “The first thing that struck me when I arrived to Haiti was the state of Port-Au-Prince. It looked like if the quake had only taken place the day before my arrival. You couldn’t imagine that 6 months have already passed!”, comments Prof. Gillen and adds “people are still living in tents provided by the NGOs. Port-Au-Prince is still covered by tons of rubble.”

Fortunately, not everything is bad. Outside the capital, things are improving. “In those places where reconstruction only depends on the inhabitants and the NGOs, people have a positive attitude and the whole process of recovery is functioning well” says Prof. Gillen. In these areas, Caritas staff is building quake-safe houses, helping families sheltering homeless displaced persons to cope with the economic burden of their solidarity, reconstructing schools and hospitals etc.

The people of Haiti and the NGOs need an active and engaged government.  The international community has pledged 75 billion dollars to help Haiti. The only requirement is for the Haitian government to present an action plan outlining the distribution of the funds. President Préval, however, argues the international community has no right to tell Haiti how the money should be spent. Meanwhile Haitians are still waiting.

“The international community is the only actor powerful enough to shake the Haitian government into action” says Prof. Gillen and adds “This government is putting its own interests before the interests of the people.”

European Caritas organisations

The Caritas network was very quick to react to the catastrophe. The European Caritas organisations involved in the global network’s relief action for Haiti are now looking back at the past six months to assess the impact of their actions.

In the immediate aftermath, the European Caritas organisations, along with the global Caritas network, provided food to 1.5 million people, sheltered more than 160,000 people in tents and delivered hundreds of thousands of emergency kits, such as cooking, medical and sanitation kits.

Millions of people were made homeless and relocated to camps. It soon became evident that these camps were not adequate enough to provide secure shelter. When the rainy season started the camps were transformed into huge and unhealthy mud pools with no clean water, latrines or sewerage systems. Caritas invested part of the funds collected in improving the sanitation conditions of the people in the camps. Caritas staff installed latrines, showers and hand-washing basins. They also improved the access to drinking water. “I don’t remember when CRS (CAFOD’s partner in Haiti) put in the bathrooms, but I do remember that we no longer had to go behind the trees. And with the water here now, we are able to bathe the babies and cook without having to go out and look for it,” says the mother of four, Lucienne Lampi, to CAFOD representatives.

Having killed over 230,000 people in some few minutes and wounded hundreds of thousands, the magnitude of the catastrophe required the quick delivery of medical assistance. Caritas staff has carried out thousands of surgical procedures and offered other medical services to hundreds of thousands of people in need. It is unknown exactly how many are in need of psychological support after this tragic experience, however,  Caritas has provided some psycho-social support to the affected, especially to more than 1 million children traumatised by the earthquake and its aftermath.

Reconstruction is also an important point on the Caritas agenda. European Caritas organisations are contributing to the reconstruction of schools, hospitals, quake-safe wooden houses and orphanages. The economic activity is also slowly reappearing. Several European Caritas organisations have launched specialised programmes to facilitate people returning to work and encouraging children to go back to school.

The European Caritas organisations are committed to the people of Haiti in both the short and long-term.  This disaster should be viewed as a chance to help Haitians build a better country. Such reconstruction however, will only be successful through the involvement of the people of Haiti themselves.

For more details about each European Caritas organisation involved in the global Caritas action for Haiti, click on the following links: