Caricom boosted its assistance to Haiti with the deployment of a tactical mission on Sunday.
In a release issued yesterday, Caricom said “the tactical mission is seeking to determine the way forward in the provision of more health related services to Haiti and will provide up to date information as to the situation on the ground”. The mission will also identify logistical arrangements which would facilitate the entry and accommodation of more personnel and supplies.
According to Caricom, the area of health was identified as the sector that would receive a targeted response by the community following a meeting on Thursday evening involving Caricom Chairman, Dominican Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerritt, Barbados Prime Minister David Thompson, Jamaican Prime Minister Bruce Golding and Secretary-General Edwin Carrington. This meeting took into consideration discussions that Haitian President Rene Preval and Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive had with Golding.
“Caricom assistance in the area of health includes the provision of additional medical and support personnel as well as medical and emergency supplies and security for those engaged in the provision of the services,” the release said. Meanwhile, the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA), in this effort, continues to work closely with the Pan-American Health Organisation (PAHO), the Caricom Implementation Agency for Crime and Security (IMPACS), the Regional Security System (RSS) and the Caricom Secretariat, the release added.
Yesterday President Preval and members of his cabinet, together with Prime Ministers, Skerritt, Thompson, Golding, Hubert Ingraham of the Bahamas and Patrick Manning of Trinidad and Tobago and Carrington, participated in a meeting in the Dominican Republic on the crisis arising out of the earthquake. The meeting sought to identify and resolve problems of co-ordination of the aid and relief effort in Haiti and was convened by Spain in its capacity as current President of the European Union and was attended by other countries and international agencies.
Caricom leaders expressed concern over the future of tens of thousands of children who had been made orphans by the tragedy and agreed that this problem needed to be addressed urgently.
“All participants acknowledged the major logistical difficulties in the situation including the almost insurmountable challenge of reaching communities outside Port-au-Prince which had also been devastated by the earthquake, and recommended ways to tackle this issue,” the release stated. Caricom’s role and rapid response to the crisis came in for praise at the meeting, the release said.
Last Wednesday, less than 24 hours after the earthquake struck, Jamaica deployed medical personnel and security forces to Haiti as a first response. Jamaica is the sub-regional focal point in the area that includes Haiti, The Bahamas and the nearby Associate Members under the system established by the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA) the regional response mechanism to natural disasters.
