CARE provide shelter for families following the devastating earthquake. © CARE / Sabine Wilke.
In the initial phase after an earthquake killed more than 220,000 people in Haiti and displaced another 1.5 million, CARE reached more than 310,000 people.
We distributed food, PUR® water purification packets, water, jerry cans, hygiene kits, shelter kits, emergency housing repair kits, mattresses, blankets, newborn kits, clean delivery kits, latrines, bathrooms and other projects promoting hygiene and sanitation.
CARE has completed construction of 2,474 transitional shelters, enabling families to move into the more secure, stable structures from tented camps. CARE is also distributing hundreds of thousands of shelter reinforcement kits, containing wooden planks, nails, rope, hurricane straps and other materials. Strengthening self-built structures will be particularly critical during hurricane season.
In camps of displaced people, CARE has supported the formation of volunteer committees that, like the camps themselves, tend to have more women than men. In many cases these women have stepped into leadership roles, assuring CARE reaches those most in need and spreads life-saving information about hygiene, health and psychological support for children. These women leaders also are helping raise awareness about the prevention of gender-based violence.
CARE is implementing a five-year disaster response plan to help people recover and rebuild. Haiti faces many challenges in the aftermath of the earthquake, including a major outbreak of cholera. CARE is responding to this by raising awareness about cholera prevention, so far reaching over 1.7 million people, and with treatment and distributing life saving basic sanitation tools. CARE has chlorinated water in the Port-au-Prince region - which has enabled 500,000 people to have safe water every day.
Whenever possible, CARE is helping families move out of camps and back into their communities. Building on its 56 years of experience in Haiti, the humanitarian group is providing economic opportunities, strengthening governance and improving health and educational services -- both in earthquake-affected communities and outlying provinces.
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