Haiti: Unanswered Needs in Gonaïves After Hurricanes

Several weeks after a series of hurricanes struck Haiti, people in the city of Gonaïves are still deprived of essential services.

While it has not rained in a while, many roads are still flooded. Mud is one metre deep in some parts of the city, making it extremely difficult to get around.

A boy carries his brother over dried mud from the storms in Bigeaux near Gonaïves. Successive storms in August and September covered most of the city in a metre of mud.

Many families are living on rooves, in tents or in fragile shacks made of wood debris and bed sheets.

Concrete measures for getting the victims of the cyclones back on their feet have been slow to materialise; there remains a lack of access to clean water, problems with sanitation, and a shortage of the most basic goods. In response, MSF is currently distributing water to over 100,000 people in the area.

Our teams are also seeing an increase in the number of malnourished children. Haitians face chronic food crises and nutritional deficits to begin with. The recent hurricanes destroyed crops and killed significant numbers of livestock, making people all the more vulnerable.

MSF has recently opened an 80-bed hospital in the north of Gonaïves in collaboration with the Health and Population Ministry.

This structure is the only one in the whole region that can respond to emergencies, obstetric and pediatric services in this town of 300,000 inhabitants, devastated by the recent hurricanes and the tropical storms.

During its first five days, the hospital had already received 108 patients in the emergency room and performed 19 deliveries, as well as eight minor surgeries and one major.

Mamont, a set of villages southeast of Gonaïves in the Artibonite region. The village is still partially submerged with water spilling over from a lake formed by the tropical storms.

Praville is just outside of Gonaives, partly elevated and so saved, in part, from the torrents of mud that have ravaged the fourth largest city in Haiti. Many families who have lost everything settled here on this rocky terrain. On October 16, they were nearly 2000 people living here.

Originally from Park Vincent, Viola Simeus is now 28 years old. She is alone here with her four children aged from one to 11 years. Following the hurricane, a friend had hosted her and her children but due to lack of space, she had to leave after a week. Unemployed, she does not know how she could pay for rent, even if minimal. Viola will not be able to send her children to school this year. But she is more concerned about their health as they are weak and feverish. On 23 September she received two pots of rice and two pots of beans but since then: nothing.

Regina Fatal is 67 years old and lives in a tent with her husband, children and grandchildren, a total of 15 people. Madam Fatal still remembers Hurricane Hazel in 1954 and Jeanne in 2004. But Hanna is the that took everything. Her house in the alley Roland, in the K-Sun area was totally destroyed, washed away by the mud.

Ms. Augustine is 40 years old and a mother of six. She expecting her seventh child in two months. Their home and shop in the streets of Liberté were completely destroyed by the sludge. Everything was ready for upcoming start of school: books and notebooks, Hanna has taken everything. It is unclear if her children will return to school this year. But it is the birth of her next child that worries her most as she has not received any food aid for her family.

Despite the significant presence of international organizations - with plenty of experts and publications to show for it - the people of Gonaïves have yet to see much benefit. MSF urges international organizations and the Haitian government to immediately re-examine their emergency aid response, and to prioritize housing and nutritional support for the youngest of the flood victims.

Haiti: Unanswered Needs in Gonaïves After Hurricanes

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Haiti: Unanswered Needs in Gonaïves After Hurricanes

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