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UN: 75 Percent of Haitians in Tent Camps Could Move Out This Year

   VOA News 11 January 2011
   A  woman displaced due to the Jan 12, 2010 earthquake holds a child as
   she  rests  next to her tent and belongings before leaving the refugee
   camp at the Saint Pierre park in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Dec 14, 2010

Photo: AP

   A  woman displaced due to the Jan 12, 2010 earthquake holds a child as
   she  rests  next to her tent and belongings before leaving the refugee
   camp at the Saint Pierre park in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Dec 14, 2010

   The  United  Nations  humanitarian coordinator for Haiti said he hopes
   most  of the earthquake victims still living in tent camps can move to
   more secure housing by the end of this year.
   Nigel  Fisher  spoke Tuesday in a conference call ahead of the quake's
   first  anniversary on Wednesday. He said optimistically, the number of
   displaced  people  in the camps could be reduced by about 75 percent -
   from  its current level of 800,000 to about 200,000 - within the year.
   He stressed, though, that this is still a lot of people.
   Hundreds  of thousands of people already have left the camps since the
   earthquake  destroyed homes, leaving much of Port-au-Prince in rubble.
   The  U.N.  said  that  of  the 700,000 who have moved elsewhere, about
   100,000  have  been  relocated into 31,000 transitional shelters built
   since  the  disaster.  It  says  that  is  1,000 shelters ahead of the
   target.
   The  January  12,  2010 earthquake killed more than 200,000 people and
   left more than 1 million others homeless.
   Fisher said that speeding up the reconstruction and recovery effort is
   the  priority  for 2011. He said the humanitarian response already has
   made  progress,  from  providing  shelter,  clean water and sanitation
   facilities to creating short-term jobs.
   He  said,  however,  that  challenges remain, including the increasing
   sexual  violence in camps, which he called a symptom of the underlying
   problem  of  gender  inequity in the Caribbean nation. A spokesman for
   the U.N.'s Pan American Health Organization, Daniel Epstein, said work
   also is needed to improve Haitians' access to health care.
   Last  week, the head of the U.S. Agency for International Development,
   Rajiv  Shah,  called  the  earthquake one of the greatest humanitarian
   challenges the world has ever faced.
   Along  with  the  earthquake  recovery,  Haiti  also is dealing with a
   cholera  epidemic  that  began  last year, infecting more than 170,000
   people and killing more than 3,600.  More cases are expected.
   Epstein  said  the cholera situation is basically under control in the
   capital,  Port-au-Prince,  and  in  the camps. He said workers are now
   focusing on rural and remote areas that are hard to reach.

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