Concern Blogs

Child is treated for malnutrition at Concern's stabilization unit. Photo: Ed Kenney, Concern Worldwide

We know that distributions are only part of the answer and in our focus group discussions, women made it clear: jobs are a priority and work is seen as freedom. ‘If you work, you can have a house and not depend on others … you can eat regularly … Without work you are still a slave,’ said one.

So last week, our first teams (18 teams of 14 people) hit the street with a cash-for-work clean-up campaign that targets the poorest, most vulnerable women. The $5 a day which they earn will put desperately needed money straight into their pockets.

With funding provided from USAID, we will rapidly scale up recruitment to 7,000 workers in the coming weeks. In addition, we are providing a cash injection of $75 to 7,500 women to help them re-start their small market businesses.

Concern is also partnering with the telecommunications company Digicel – who has provided us with phones so that we can transfer cash directly into people’s hands. Similar to the system we have used in Kenya, this will facilitate cash distributions in the slums areas that could otherwise be highly risky.

Our team in Kenya has been a great resource, advising us on lessons learned and lending us one of its key staff members—who set up the cash transfer program there—to work with us in Haiti for two months.

Mothers enter one of Concern's newly set up baby tents. Photo: Ed Kenney, Concern Worldwide.

Chronic malnutrition was a huge problem in Port-au-Prince prior to the crisis. Concern has screened over 3,000 children under five and is referring those that are malnourished to one of the eight out-patient therapeutic centers that we have set up in the past few weeks.

Many women, who were sick, dehydrated and traumatized stopped breast feeding after the earthquake and to address this we have set up six baby tents where women can come and with gentle counseling in a safe, quiet place are encouraged to breast feed again. About 60 women are coming to each tent every day.

Some of the children that we have screened are really sick and acutely malnourished and have been transferred to the Nutrition Stabilization Unit which we opened at the General Hospital on January 30th. In the past few weeks 37 really sick and severely malnourished children have received 24-hour care.

The numbers are big, sometimes too big to take in, but lots of the people here wouldn’t stand a chance if Concern wasn’t here and we wouldn’t be here without the generosity of our supporters.

Haiti has faced tough times before but this is their biggest challenge and they will overcome it. Back at the end of 2008, a tough year for Haiti when three successive hurricanes hit the island, our staff made new Concern t-shirts with the words printed in bold lettering: We are the hope for tomorrow  -  working together for better future.

I noticed that many were wearing these t-shirts after the earthquake, and when I asked why, I was told something that has stuck with me ever since: ‘This is the spirit that will rebuild Haiti because this spirit can not be buried under the rubble.’