Haiti: UN continues relief to nearly 15,000 families displaced by storm

United Nations agencies are providing additional relief to nearly 15,000 families in Port-au-Prince after last week’s deadly rainstorm in the Haitian capital left residents of more than 160 temporary settlements in urgent need of shelter materials.

The affected families are among the 1 million internally displaced Haitians still living in tent camps or makeshift housing – eight months after January’s catastrophic earthquake struck the country, killing an estimated 200,000 people.

The UN Office for Project Services (UNOPS), the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) are working with non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and other aid providers to bring relief.

Just over 5,000 families have benefited from the distribution of 1,349 tents and more than 8,000 tarpaulins since the weekend. Another 3,800 families are expected to receive tents and tarpaulins.

To replace medicines lost in the storm, a delivery of emergency health kits and replacement vaccines took place today for a hospital at the temporary Petionville Golf Camp, which houses more than 50,000 people. Minor repairs to latrines and showers damaged by the storm are ongoing.

Relief agencies conducted rapid telephone assessments of 108 schools on 27 September, and found that five schools reported damaged tents. UNICEF is assessing the need to redistribute tents to these schools before the start of the school year on 4 October.