Red Cross Blogs

Unrest in Haiti as cholera crisis continues

By Sarah Oughton
November 17, 2010 at 5:07 pm

Mandy George, a Red Cross delegate in Haiti, reports back on the current unrest and developing cholera situation:

Haiti has had to put up with a lot recently. A major earthquake, constant tremors, a hurricane, a cholera epidemic….the list goes on. It is no wonder that there has started to be some unrest in the country.

Yesterday in Cap Haitien, north Haiti, an area that has seen many cholera cases over the past weeks, there were some violent demonstrations.   One aid agency working there has begun to pull out. This is very concerning because the needs in Haiti are huge – particularly in the worst affected cholera areas – and reports of violence towards humanitarian aid workers could prevent cholera response operations from reaching those so desperately in need. If no one is left to help this badly affected area, many more may lose their lives.

People are afraid of cholera and desperate for information. They want to know what are the symptoms, can it be cured, what do I do if I think I have cholera?. Cholera is a treatable disease – and is fairly simple to treat – but you have to know to get treatment early, and you have to know that it can be treated. I’ve heard reports of people not seeking help for their families because they think that cholera is always fatal and that there is no point. Lack of information is an underestimated tragedy.

Information empowers people, and we know for a fact that they are actively seeking it. The Red Cross is carrying out a massive awareness campaign with more than two million SMS sent to people living in Artibonite and Port-au-Prince, sharing simple messages about how people could limit their chances of becoming sick. An enormous 75,000 (and this is a conservative estimate) called a free Red Cross information line for more detailed advice on avoiding cholera after receiving these messages, over the course of two days. People want to know how to look after themselves.

The British Red Cross has recognised this need for information since right after the earthquake. A major part of our work in the camps in Port-au-Prince is hygiene promotion- raising awareness among the population as to how to keep healthy, and more recently, how to prevent cholera and how to treat the symptoms. Tragically, cholera has hit the camps in Port-au-Prince, including the enormous La Piste, home to at least 50,000 people. We have set up a cholera treatment centre and rehydration points, and have already dealt with over 300 cases. This two pronged approach of prevention and treatment has kept things under control so far.

People are not asking for a lot. Most do not have access to toilets or running water. The dire sanitation situation in this country is something that we recognise, and have called on the international community to support the government to work to improve this situation. It is shocking how many people bathe openly in the streets, and how many piles of rubbish there are on every street corner.

This is why the Red Cross has also been focussing on improving sanitation in the camps and in some urban areas as much as we can. Of course this is not a sustainable solution and is not something that typically falls under the remit of a humanitarian organisation as it is a municipal function. But for the moment at least we can say that the camps we are working in are clean and people are well informed.. As the cholera crisis escalates, we will be doing our very best to keep things that way.

Photo 1 credit: Severine Vanel/IFRC

Photo 2 credit: Mandy George/BRC

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 17th, 2010 at 5:07 pm and is filed under Emergencies, Health and social care, International. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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