Haiti's Recovery Efforts
A grim reality has been effecting many of the nine million people that live in Haiti. The country, ravaged by the earthquake disaster in January of 2010, saw the lives of nearly a quarter of a million people lost. The country had been plagued by natural disasters before including hurricanes and other earthquakes due to the country's location atop a significant fault line. The poor conditions of most of the people accerbated the situation as housing consisted of shanty homes along steep hillsides. No resilience was afforded to the homes of the majority population given inadequate construction, so as the ruble and concrete slabs got destroyed victims were burried. The large relief efforts that began immediately were adminstered by the local Interim Haiti Recovery Commission which drew support from countless global agencies but stalled due to bueracrtaic delimnas and difficulty with debris removal. The agency had an eighteen month monitoring period that ended in July last year and since then it's accountability has been minimal. This has left the efforts in the hands of international army commanders and NGO's to dictate the situation. The former president who had held office for a short time was seen as more of a hinderance despite working with Bill Clinton who helped oversee a large part of the recovery. Current President Michael Martelly, elected last May, has been of a stronger ability to lead the centralization of teams to get the rebuilding that is needing to be accomplished to stabalize. Nearly 50% in the country consists of children and the rebuilding of schools has been stymied, a reflection of the education system as a whole where before the disaster only about a quarter of schools were public. The majority of grade and highschools are still only available to those who can afford it.
Of the several million who were displaced, 400,000 have been in either tent settlements built at a cost of 1/2 billion dollars or selective housing constructs. The conditions are disastorous particularly among the tent cities as a lack of access to water is standard and people share single rooms for up to a dozen people. Some more foundational locations have been built through relief agencies but the numbers are a fraction of the majority who seek shelter. Many families though have taken initiative to restore what may have been left of their batterred homes and have chosen to occupy about 65% of the 80,000 residences that had been designated as too hazardous to reenter. Others have started completely over in their individual rebuilding efforts without assistance and have claimed a better outcome than reliance of the larger volunteer efforts. The actor Sean Penn, has been a strong part to the rebuilding project. The largest tent settlement in the country that he's contributed on is in a remote location described as arid and lacking of activities but remains better organized than most. Coordinating food and supply shipments from the United States has been part of his contribution through the long term residency he's offerred.
Many signs though of improvement are worth mentioning. Electricity and water to towns and in the capital are mostly functional and in places where they weren't prior to the earthquake. A large South Korean clothing manufacturer has proceeded with plans to develop a new factory in a coastal area that is predicted to bring about 20,000 jobs within the next year. All said, much has yet to be done for the livelihood lost due to such immense damage. The country had been in long term need of rebuilding, just not under the accerbated conditions that it has had to deal with these past two and a half years. The people possess a reputation for maintaining a jubilant outlook despite many hardships effecting them for centuries. The continued effort may hopefully accomplish a quicker fix to the unforgiving situation.
A longer discussion of the situation is available form 8/16 NY Times.