Haiti earthquake 2010

On 12 Jan 2010, Haiti was hit by the most powerful earthquake to strike the country in 200 years.  More than 220,000 people were killed; 300,000 injured and more than one million made homeless.  

In 2011, Oxfam reached 532,000 beneficiaries: providing safe water and sanitation facilities; supporting small businesses; rebuilding communities and carrying out advocacy work with communities and partners on governance and protection issues. 

Our main focus is now on recovery and rebuilding; transitioning from humanitarian to development work with existing and new partners to find sustainable solutions to Haiti’s problems.

With your help we have provided:

• Clean drinking water and sanitation facilities to 400,000 people
• Over 300 million liters of clean water to the camps every month
• Public health education for over 210,000 people
• Shelter for 94,000 people
• Livelihoods and food security programs to 209,095 people
• Cash-for-work and cash grants to over 125,000 people.

The situation in Haiti now

Shelter

Today, 519,000 people are still living in tents and under tarpaulin in more than 758 temporary camps.  96,000 transitional shelters have been built.

Rubble

The earthquake created approximately 10 million cubic meters of debris. It is estimated nearly half of this has been removed.

Cholera

For decades, there had been no documented cases of cholera in Haiti. That changed after a serious cholera outbreak in October 2010. Today, Haiti has the world’s highest cholera infection rate, with more than 5% of the population have been affected; more than 6,700 Haitians have died as a result of the outbreak.

Food insecurity

According to Haiti’s National Food Security Coordination nearly one in two people (4.5 million) is food insecure; an increase from an estimated 2.5 - 3.3 million people thought to be food insecure in 2010.

Unemployment

An estimated 70 percent of the population are not in salaried employment; job opportunities remain very scarce

Poverty

Even before the earthquake, Haiti was the poorest country in the Americas, with almost 80 per cent of its population living below the poverty line.  Its social indicators are among the lowest in the world:

• 80 out of 1,000 children will die before they reach the age of five
• Haiti has the highest maternal mortality rate outside of sub Saharan Africa
• Less than half of Haitian adults can read and write;

Basic services

Before the earthquake, only 30 percent of the population of Port au Prince had regular access to clean water, and just over 50 percent had access to sanitation.

Political context

Michel Martelly was inaugurated as President in May 2011, campaigning on a platform of change and promising to implement an ambitious programme including free primary education and a new strategy to address the problem of internal displacement. However, lacking a legislative majority, he couldn’t form a Cabinet until October 2011. Furthermore, the mandate of Interim Haiti Recovery Commission has expired in October and has not yet been renewed.

Protection issues

The poorest are the most vulnerable to crime and violence (including sexual violence, which increased in the camps after the quake), with women, children, the elderly and disabled particularly at risk. Furthermore, a study by the IOM (International Organization for Migration) in July found that forced evictions increased by 400 per cent between July 2010 and July 2011; and that 175 camps (about one fifth of all sites housing displaced families) are threatened with forced eviction.

Oxfam's progress after 2 years

In 2011 Oxfam reached 532,000 beneficiaries: providing safe water and sanitation facilities; supporting small businesses; rebuilding communities and carrying out advocacy work with communities and partners on governance and protection issues.

As we moved our focus from emergency response to reconstruction, Oxfam, along with many other international aid agencies, began phasing out direct activities in the camps and by the end of 2011 activities had ceased in all but two camps, Corail (in Croix des Bouquets) and Golf (in Delmas), which were particularly complex due to their large populations.

Moving forward, our programs will focus on recovery and rebuilding in inner-city neighborhoods and rural areas outside Port-au-Prince; working with existing and new partners to find sustainable solutions to Haiti’s problems.

Read the Oxfam Haiti Progress Report for 2011

> Blog: How Oxfam is helping families get back on their feet with work projects, grants and loans

Explore Oxfam's response to the Haiti earthquake

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Read more about Oxfam's humanitarian relief work in Haiti

More progress needed on reconstruction

After two years Haitians continue to grapple with the effects of the devastating earthquake that killed more than two hundred thousand people and rendered more than one million of them homeless. The future of Haiti hangs in the balance, with the road to reconstruction proving to be a slow and arduous one. While billions of dollars of aid have been pledged, only half of the funds have been disbursed.

Read Oxfam's recommendations on rebuilding Haiti: Haiti – The Slow Road to Reconstruction: Two years after the earthquake (January 2012).

Haiti earthquake response: thank you

As we reported in the one-year progress report, Oxfam raised approximately $98 million for its three-year earthquake response program. A further $8 million income was raised in 2011, bringing total income raised to $106 million. By the end of 2011, we spent approximately $96 million. These funds have been used to meet the basic needs of earthquake survivors and to establish more durable solutions to people’s long-term poverty.

• Intermon Oxfam (Spain)

Oxfam has 33 years of experience in Haiti. At peak we had nearly 1000 staff in Haiti, 90 percent of them Haitian. We have worked with over 100 community organizations in the implementation of our programs. At one point, 1.5 million people fully dependent on shelter aid, we'll be here for the long-haul, to help the Haitians rebuild.

Read more

Read the Oxfam Haiti Progress Report for 2011

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Updated 10 January 2012