Haiti children face healthcare emergency

With the rainy season just around the corner, world Vision is warning that children in camps across Haiti are at risk of being infected with serious diseases.

The imminent heavy rains are threatening an increase in malaria, dengue fever and diarrhoea among the camps’ children.

Thousands of people are still living in makeshift camps following the massive earthquake that struck Haiti on 12 January.

World Vision said children, who make up roughly half of Haiti’s population, were already at particular risk in the camps because of crowding, filthy conditions, exposure and a lack of nutritious food.

“When it comes to healthcare, the emergency is most definitely not over,” said World Vision’s Claire Beck in Port-au-Prince.

“Children in Haiti were facing a chronic health emergency even before the quake. This massive disaster has created even greater challenges.

“Now the rains will bring more unsanitary conditions, more mosquitoes, more fevers for children. I’m extremely concerned.”

World Vision is appealing to the Haitian government to save as many lives as possible by continuing its waiver on public hospital and clinic fees, a measure which has proved vital for most Haitians who cannot afford basic medical care. The waiver expires on 12 April, around the start of the rainy season.

“It’s an expense displaced communities are just not in a place to afford right now,” said Beck.

World Vision and other aid agencies have been rushing in the last few weeks to prepare camps in anticipation of the rainy season.

A major task has been the implementation of flood prevention measures to ensure that camps are not deluged with flood water and raw sewage.

In a recent report, World Vision said that recovery efforts needed to focus on reducing the impact of future disasters in Haiti, the poorest country in the world.

It warned that Haiti was at “high risk of impact by natural disasters” and that the threat was compounded by high levels of poverty, social vulnerability and severe environmental degradation. It also called for affected communities to be involved in deciding the direction of the recovery process.

More than 220,000 people died in the January earthquake, including the Archbishop of capital Port-au-Prince Joseph Serge Miot. With much of the city’s cathedral in ruins, the Easter service was held this year in the churchyard. Thousands more celebrated Easter within their camps.

The new Archbishop, Joseph Lafontant, paid tribute to the people of Haiti for coping with the tragedy.

He said: “After the earthquake, the Haitian people had kept their faith.”