Health officials and other emergency teams are still providing help for devastated Haitians and since the horrific earthquake hit Port-au-Prince on January 12, more than 300 persons from eleven CARICOM (Caribbean Community) countries and associate members have so far been involved in the response.
This was announced by CARICOM in a press statement yesterday.
As CARICOM continues its outreach, emphasis has been placed on ensuring the human rights of the people affected by the disaster are respected. It has since given priority to an appeal by the Haitian Prime Minister, to lobby the international community for Haiti’s long term recovery and reconstruction.
A Coordination Committee was created to organise an International Conference aimed at devising a Strategic Plan for the reconstruction of Haiti. The Committee held its first meeting on January 25 in Montreal, Canada. CARICOM Assistant Secretary-General Foreign and Com-munity Relations, Ambassa-dor Colin Granderson, Executive Director of the Caribbean Disaster Emer-gency Management Agency (CDEMA), Jeremy Collymore, former senior United Nations official with experience in disaster management Hugh Cholmondeley and former Jamaica Prime Minister P.J. Patterson attended the meeting. Patterson led the delegation.
A technical team comprising senior builders, electricians, and plumbers have already conducted inspections in five locations across Port-au-Prince.
Jamaica is the sub-regional focal point with responsibility for the northern geographic zone of CDEMA. This organisation is the regional response mechanism for natural disasters. Haiti and four other countries are included in this CDEMA zone. Jamaica responded to the Haitian disaster within 48 hours.
The CARICOM Contin-gent which has been providing support to Haiti consists of Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Belize, The Bahamas, Dominica, Guyana, Gre-nada, Saint Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines and the British Virgin Islands along with Jamaica. The contingent has concentrated aid in seven areas, the statement said.
The statement further reported: “CARICOM’s continuing interventions in Haiti include: Emergency Response Coordination; Medical Assistance; Logistics, inclusive of the distribution of relief supplies and engineers assessments; Security; CARICOM Civilian Evacuation and Resource Mobilisation.” These interventions have stretched outside of Haiti’s capital to locations such as Killick, Leogane, Archaie, Montrouis, lle de la Gonave and Gonaives.
Emergency Response Coordination delivers critical technical support to Haiti while establishing an in-country base camp for a CARICOM-coordinated operation. In the week following the quake, CDEMA had deployed a Tactical Advance Party (TAP) to meet with the Cabinet Minister of the Interior Ministry, Pierre Andre Paul to discuss Haiti’s immediate needs and to ascertain how CARICOM could assist. A Special Coordinator, Brigadier General (Ret) Earl Arthurs of Belize, was subsequently appointed to ensure that CARICOM’s response on the ground was effective and to establish a link between CDEMA and Haitian officials as well as international agencies and countries involved in the relief effort.
Three experienced personnel in Emergency Operations Management and Logistics were also allocated to support Haiti’s Civil Protection Department. They assisted in the coordination of emergency response actions in support of the national coordination arrangement – one of the priority areas identified by Haiti. Assistance, according to the statement, was also rendered to release the immense backlog of relief supplies and food at the airport which were accumulating, but trickling out. This team also assisted in preparing a comprehensive plan to facilitate better delivery of items to those most in need and establish a plan for sheltering the displaced population.
A team of 20 health personnel from the Jamaica Ministry of Health as well as from the military are still on the ground providing support to the Centre Sante Bernard Mevs and a Community Hospital in Feres. An action plan was formulated for the medical and health management of refugees/displaced persons/illegal immigrants and the team has provided medical care for more than 1000 patients. However, the Jamaica Fire Brigade and the Defence force returned home after Haiti called off the rescue mission.
A CARICOM Regional Logistics Centre was established at the Norman Manley International Airport, Kings-ton, Jamaica to process the inflow of relief supplies from around the region. Approxi-mately 2500 boxes of relief supplies have been delivered to Haiti. Arrangements are currently underway for the transport of additional supplies through an air bridge which has been established between Jamaica and Port-au-Prince. The CARICOM Disaster Relief Unit is being manned by a 26-member team which is assisting in the distribution of relief supplies.
Since the earthquake struck, CARICOM has facilitated the ongoing evacuation of its nationals who have made such requests. This facility is critical as it ensures that resources on the ground were directed to the Haitians in need.