This is not much of a diary entry, but I thought it would be useful for the community to have knowledge of Relief Web
In my view the best source of updates on the humanitarian crisis unfolding in Haiti.
Link filtered for Haiti-updates only
All the humanitarian organizations of the world can – and mostly do – submit updates and status reports on their work in various disasters, whether man made or natural.
ReliefWeb is an information portal formed by OCHA in 1996 as a way to rapidly share humanitarian information across the world. It has offices in New York, Geneva and Kobe, Japan. OCHA’s 2005 budget was some USD 110 million, mostly received directly from UN member states.
The idea came from a UN ‘ReliefNet’ conference in 1995, and its mandate when it was launched in 1996 was “to strengthen the response capacity of the international humanitarian community through the timely dissemination of reliable information”. ReliefWeb’s $2M annual cost (2007) is funded by voluntary government contributions.[1]
The online collaboration platform chosen was Lotus Notes, which was used throughout the UN at the time.
Content is contributed by around 2,500 organisations and disseminated at the rate of 200,000 pages per day – at quiet times.
Follow the work of your favorite humanitarian organizations and stay up-to-date. The site has the following sections and information can be filtered by region or country:
- Latest Updates
- Countries and Emergencies
- Appeals and Funding
- Policy and Issues
- Professional Resources
- Maps
Don’t get addicted 🙂
My name is hari rud, and I am a ReliefWeb addict.
For those not in the know, ReliefWeb “is the global hub for time-critical humanitarian information on Complex Emergencies and Natural Disasters,” a website bought to you by the good people of the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. They have all sorts of useful information about people starving, living with AIDS or having their houses blown away by a hurricane.
Serious stuff. But the most important bit of ReliefWeb is its Vacancies page. They don’t give the data in their annual statistics report, but I’d wager a month’s unemployed salary that this is the most visited part of the site. What they do tell us is that in 2008 they posted 14,910 job adverts on behalf of NGOs, IOs the UN and, increasingly, those hard to name for-profit development companies. ReliefWeb is your one-stop shop for finding a job.
And as per above, also a great source for finding a job in a challenging environment.
Danger of information overload:
There are 634 latest updates in Haiti (Americas) posted by All Sectors, All Content Types, in the last 72 hours.
But reviewing the list you will easily be able to pick those of interest to you.
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I just viewed a news item reported from Port-au-Prince where 1,700 persons were gathered in an open square. In reference to BooMan’s remark, in a number of interviews the citizens complained no one has come to their assistance to care for the wounded or deliver water and food for the survivors. They called out for the Red Cross, the Haitian government and the United Nations. It’s clear the local people have nothing left and no news or means of communication, they themselves do not realize the extent of the disaster. Death and suffering is everywhere, rescue work had to be stopped because of the penetrating odor of decomposing bodies. All basic materials for rescue work is lacking, no organisation, no uniformed police, doctors or nurses. The Haitian population have to take care of one another, an impossible task.
In the studio discussion, apparently there are some 7,000 U.N. peacekeepers present on Haiti, their mandate has not been broadened to do rescue work. That’s why in some reports you do see U.N. blue helmets carrying arms patrolling the streets, not participating in any rescue operations.
Ask would you care to comment on this.
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."
As you point out, MINUSTAH does not have the mandate for humanitarian aid. The mission was set up to help bring security, stability and the rule of law to Haiti and is not specifically equipped for humanitarian work (whether Minustah has succeeded in its mandate is beyond the point, the mission has had its problems). That does not mean that it refuses assistance to the locals. However, the peacekeepers were hard hit themselves and must now cope with additional lawlessness such as looting.
The UN will mobilize its humanitarian work through (UN)OCHA (Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs).
There is no stockpile of equipment or supplies in the island and apart for immediate response teams (described in quote above), personnel must be mobilized. There are major bottlenecks in the infrastructure to bring resources to bear, even prior to the earthquake facilities were in many cases in a dismal state.
The initial activities will be financed through the CERF (Central Emergency Response Fund), but the CERF is not funded to a level to do all that is needed in a case like this. Instead (as is common practice for major crises), OCHA will rely on a so-called Flash Appeal for the longer term humanitarian/rehabilitation work.
There is a link to the full appeal at the bottom of the linked page.
Despite weak appeals to the contrary, Haiti is already our protectorate and I suspect will remain so in reality for quite some time.
Logistical nightmare hampers Haiti aid effort
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WASHINGTON, Jan. 14, 2010 – President Barack Obama said today said he’s made helping Haiti in the wake of a crippling earthquake the top priority of every U.S. government agency.
Obama called the quake an unimaginable tragedy, and said the United States has launched “a swift, coordinated and aggressive effort” to help.
“I’ve made it clear [to Cabinet officers and government agency heads] that Haiti must be a top priority for their departments and agencies right now,” Obama said. “This is one of those moments that call out for American leadership.”
The United States is deploying a Marine expeditionary unit, the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson and the hospital ship USNS Comfort.
US sending 10,000 troops to earthquake-hit Haiti for food distribution
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."
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Teleconference on Emergency Response to Haiti Earthquake
As a result, in all three locations we’ve established temporary shelters and moved our operations outside of those referral hospital settings. The challenge, therefore, for our team, is that the level of care we can now provide without that infrastructure is very limited. So where we’re focusing our energy is on the rapid influx of patients from the neighborhoods who know of our services.
The best we can offer them at the moment is first-aid care and stabilization. The reality of what we’re seeing is severe traumas-head wounds, crushed limbs-severe problems that cannot be dealt with at the level of care we currently have available with no infrastructure really to support it. So our major priority and focus is to re-establish as soon as possible a secondary level of surgical capacity in the country.
That, I think, gives us a general snapshot of where we currently are. We have altogether around 800 medical staff working in Haiti. Thirty of those are international. We’re currently putting rapid response plans into place based out of North America and out of Europe to have another 70 international staff available over the next few days with specialties to be able to respond to these more immediate emergency medical needs. Likewise, we’re prepared now and have prepared freight, including an emergency inflatable hospital so we can set up exactly those services we’re currently missing.
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."
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An Australian TV crew pulled a healthy 16-month-old girl from the wreckage of her house Friday – about 68 hours after the earthquake struck. In a collapsed house, neighbors and reporters heard a cry and found an air pocket: part of the top floor had been held up by a cabinet.
“I could see a dead body that was there, sort of on top of the cabinet; I could hear the baby on the left side of the body screaming,” said David Celestino of the Dominican Republic, who had been working with the TV crew.
Although her parents were dead, Winnie Tilin survived with only scratches and soon was in the arms of her uncle, whose pregnant wife also was killed.
The government in Haiti has given the United States temporary control of the airport in the capital Port-au-Prince in an effort to get aid supplies moving more quickly to survivors of Tuesday’s earthquake.
More than 30 countries are contributing aid and helicopters from a US aircraft carrier have begun delivering supplies to the capital.
A boat carrying bananas and coal arrived today, but the joyful event did little to change the overall grim situation.
Aid begins trickling in to Port-au-Prince
State Department spokesman Gordon Duguid says aid is starting to get through.
“You need supplies in sufficient numbers that it will start to meet the need. We do need to clear the roads, we do need to have networks. We need to find places that are safe for people to congregate,” he said.
As the city waits for desperately needed aid many have now resorted to scavenging through the rubble and rotting corpses to look for food, and the queues for fresh water are growing.
The mood of patience and resilience is being replaced by anger and frustration.
PORT-AU-PRINCE SURVIVORS MOVING OUT
For many of the homeless there is now only one option – getting out of Port-au-Prince – but they have no destination in mind, they just want to get away.
People fight over goods scavenged from the rubble of buildings collapsed
during Tuesday's earthquake in Port-au-Prince. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."