Two years after the Haiti earthquake, a severe funding shortage is threatening recovery programmes in the country and putting children’s futures at risk.
Thursday 12 January 2012
We're urgently calling for the international community to fulfill its existing commitments to Haiti and increase long-term funding to build on the significant achievements made since the earthquake, as well as to scale up efforts to address the continuing cholera crisis.
Since the earthquake, Save the Children has reached 1.2 million people in Haiti – almost half of them children. This life-saving aid has taken many forms, including medical clinics and cholera treatment centers.
Water and schools
40,000 people were given long-term access to clean water. Save the Children’s work on schools, including the construction of 229 classrooms and the training of over 1,200 teachers, has enabled 30,000 children to get to school – many for the first time.
In addition, 3,500 families were given desperately needed cash grants to buy food, clean water and other essentials.
We've also helped reunify children with their families after the earthquake and planned and supported community efforts to protect children threatened by violence, abuse, and exploitation.
Find out more about our work in Haiti
But Haiti is a complex environment and massive needs remain.
Long term solution needed
“While we see signs of change in Haiti, there are still approximately 500,000 people living in makeshift tents,” said Gary Shaye, Save the Children’s Country Director in Haiti.
“Children living in these conditions are extremely vulnerable to events such as hurricanes and outbreaks of diseases. Only six months from the next hurricane season, a long-term solution needs to be found before another emergency occurs,” he added.