Haiti Earthquake Update: August 2010

It has now been almost seven months since the devastating earthquake hit near Port-au-Prince, Haiti.  Over 220,000 people were killed by the earthquake, and over a million were left homeless.  Many children were left orphaned or on the streets, as their parents died and homes were destroyed. Seven months on, SOS Children continues to offer extensive services to the affected communities of Haiti, there are many positive steps being taken to help children and their families.

Of course, when the earthquake struck, SOS Children was already there. We have been present in Haiti since 1978 and have two Children’s Villages, in Santo (just outside Port-au-Prince) and Cap Haïtien (in the north of the country), which were already home to more than 400 children. We also have two SOS Youth Homes; two SOS Schools; one SOS Vocational Training Centre and four SOS Social Centres, from which Family Strengthening Programmes are run.

Below we cover the most recent updates provided by our staff from SOS Children's Villages Haiti:

Re-Uniting families and caring for unaccompanied children

• We now have a total of 408 children living in the SOS Children’s Village in Santo; 124 children who lived in Santo before the earthquake and 284 children that came after the quake.
• During the past months, we reunited 165 children with their families/relatives.
• 80 children are living in the temporary houses in the SOS Children's Village.
• The school year is coming to end and the village is working on a summer programme for the children (leisure and educational activities).
  

Helping in the community & wider earthquake-affected population

• We are continuing to provide our community based Family Strengthening Programme, running food distribution centres and community centres that are serving an average of 21,500 children.
• We are making more efforts to integrate community centres into the regular Family Strengthening Programmes; the community mothers attended several trainings and more structural follow-up is in progress.

Continuing to offer emergency relief to the people of Haiti

• The third phase of the emergency programme will begin in the middle of September.  It will consist of an international support team, led by Dionísio Pereira , currently director of SOS Children's Villages Cape Verde. The international support team will start its operation in the middle of September. They are planning to work in Haiti for between 6 months and two years.