As many as 6 million children throughout the Caribbean were in danger as Hurricane Matthew passed through the region. The storm has devastated the lives of 1.2 million people in Haiti alone. The rain has not abated causing school’s banks and shops to shut their doors. Unicef was there on the ground as it happened and had very little access to information, but was able to cobble together some kind of picture thanks to satellite phones and its NGO partners. The heaviest damage occurred in the South and the Grande Anse department with thousands of people losing their homes.
The situation is grim
Haiti’s three biggest cities (aside from Port Au Prince) Les Cayes, Aquin and Torbek were submerged under water and to put that into context, that is an estimated 300,000 people affected by flooding. These people have lost what little they had to begin with. Roads have disappeared and trees and cattle have all gone. The situation is similar in other parts of the country and if Unicef is to mount an effective response it will need at least US$ 2 million in order to deliver lifesaving assistance. As the impact of the storm becomes clearer additional needs with be required.
Supplies reaching children
The good news is all the supplies that Unicef sent before the storm hit were distributed amongst many of the most affected families. This is a good place to start from, but more needs to be done obviously and Unicef is working with both the government and its partners to cover the basic requirements of families that are in need. The current priority is making sure that children and their families have access to safe water so there is no outbreak of any epidemic. Emergency supplies such as hygiene kits, water bladders and chlorination tablets have been delivered to the site. The most important priority right now is keeping children safe from disease however, this is just the beginning.
Infrastructure is poor
Children’s lives have been affected in many ways. Education has been disrupted obviously because the schools have been closed with many acting as shelters. Children have also been separated from their families and there is almost no access to healthcare. Unicef sent two teams to the South to get a better picture of what is happening there. The whole of Southern Haiti has been cut off from the rest of the country after a bridge collapsed following relentless lashing by Hurricane Matthew. Haiti’s infrastructure is both fragile and sparse and the bridge is the only one that links the capital to the Southern peninsula.
