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Article Artículo

Dangers in IDP Camps Underscored by Deaths of Two Boys, New Report on Rapes
The death of two young boys after a brief storm swept through their makeshift camps is "another reminder of the perilous conditions of an estimated 1.6 million people living under tarps and tents on dangerous ground," reports the Associated Press. A ten foot wall in the Terrain Acra camp in the Delmas neighborhood collpased onto a row of tents and tarps yesterday following what the AP described as nothing "more than an isolated squall."

With the Hurricane season underway, and rain a near daily occurence, improving shelter for the some 1.5 million displaced must be immediately ramped up. Thus far only about 6,000 transitional shelters have been built of a planned 125,000 and as the AP notes, of $5.3 billion pledged "less than 10 percent has been delivered. On Wednesday, the U.S. Congress passed a bill to partially fund the administration's $1.15 billion pledge to Haiti and sent it to President Barack Obama." The clearing of rubble, necessary for the construction of new shelters, is moving at a glacial pace; after 6 months, only about 2 percent of the estimated 20 million cubic yards have been cleared.

Jake Johnston / July 29, 2010

Article Artículo

Paul Farmer: Haitian Government Must be Strengthened
Yesterday the Congressional Black Caucus held a hearing, "Focus on Haiti: The Road to Recovery - A Six Month Review," featuring Rajiv Shah (USAID), Dr. Paul Farmer (Deputy Special Envoy to UN, Partners in Health), Loune Viaud (Zanmi Lasante), Camille Chalmers (Haitian Platform to Advocate for Alternative Development), and Ira Kurzban, Esq.(Chair, Board of Directors, Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti). To read more about the event and to see reports and issue briefs that were presented, please see the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti.

The Boston Globe reports on Paul Farmer, whose complete testimony is available at pih.org. Farmer focused on the need to strengthen the Haitian state, an issue this blog has written on previously. The Globe reports:
Too often, Farmer argued, proliferating aid agencies and foreign nations have failed to establish enduring partnerships with Haiti’s government.

“Our historical failure to do so is one of the primary reasons that trying to help the public sector now is like trying to transfuse whole blood through a small-gauge needle or, in popular parlance, to drink from a fire hose,’’ Farmer, a UN deputy special envoy for Haiti, said on Capitol Hill.

“How can there be public health and public education without a stronger government at the national and local levels?’’ Farmer said in prepared remarks.

Jake Johnston / July 28, 2010