Emergencies

Blog Post: Posted August 24, 2010, 5:20 am by Pete O'Farrell

Homemade signs and help

Country: Pakistan

Topics: Water/Sanitation, Health, Emergencies, Displacement

This medical tent, operated by Mercy Corps' emergency team here in Sindh Province, is serving about 150 flood-displaced women every day. Photo: Pete O'Farrell/Mercy Corps

For the most part, it looked like all the other tents in this growing camp for internally-displaced persons (IDPs), currently populated by more than 3,000 people who've been driven from their homes by Pakistan's floods. The non-descript white canvas triangular tent was no more than eight feet by 10 feet, with some basic red carpets on the bottom keeping the dust at bay. The only thing that separated this tent from the hundreds of others was a small homemade sign saying, “Mobile Medical Unit.”

In the hundred-plus degree heat, a Mercy Corps team has set up mobile medical tents for women inside this burgeoning camp in Sindh Province. Our team works for days before moving to another camp to provide medical aid. The doctors — working with donated medicines — treat all different types of illnesses such as rashes, water-borne diseases, eye infections from the dust and symptoms of dehydration from the intense heat. Twenty-five women sat in the waiting room, which was no more than a tent with some basic floor mats to keep people out of the intense sunlight. Before the day is over, more than 150 women will be treated.

On the other side of the tent, another Mercy Corps colleague was leading 50 women in a two-hour hygiene lesson. These classes teach women basic hygiene for their new living conditions where the dust, heat, shared water sources, latrines and new surroundings present challenges very different from their home villages. At the conclusion of the course, the women received a hygiene kit with soap, bandages, cloths and other essentials.

The floods in Pakistan are the worst in well over 100 years. The UN says that more than 20 million people have been affected and at least four million are homeless and displaced. Thousands of camps just like these have been set up in cities and the countryside across Pakistan.

Mercy Corps has worked in Pakistan since 1986 and responded to previous disasters such as the 2005 earthquake and 2009 Swat Valley displacement crisis. The experience gained from those previous crises has allowed our teams to efficiently and effectively respond to the immediate needs of the people.

I arrived in Pakistan just two days ago from Portland to lend any and all assistance to our teams on the ground, and I am in awe of all they have done in such a short time.

Blog Post: Posted August 20, 2010, 12:45 pm by Lila Wade

Demystifying our work in North Korea

Country: North Korea

Topics: Agriculture, Economic Development, Emergencies, Food/Nutrition, Global Engagement, Health, Hunger

In North Korea, Mercy Corps programmes focus on alleviating hunger by expanding agricultural production. We also invite North Korean officials to the U.S. as part of building a humanitarian bridge between our country and theirs.

I recently talked about our work in North Korea (also known as the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, or DPRK) including what it's like to host North Korean officials here in the U.S. with David Austin, a programme officer responsible for managing Mercy Corps programmes in North Korea.  

Q: First, can you give us a little history? When and how did Mercy Corps begin working in North Korea?  

David Austin: Well, Mercy Corps has had programmes in the DPRK for about 15 years. Our work began in 1996 when a North Korean diplomat to the UN began reaching out to aid agencies requesting help with agricultural production as there was a famine occurring in the country. One of the calls he made was to the late Ells Culver, who co-founded Mercy Corps. His response: "Sure! Let’s get started."

Q: What kind of programmes do we have there?  

A large portion of our work remains centered on agriculture — improving  growing techniques and encouraging the bio-diversity of crops. In 2000, Mercy Corps supplied 35,000 apple cuttings to orchards in Qwail County to boost production, which began an ongoing project revolving around apple production.

Since that first shipment, we have sent an additional 200,000 apple rootstock which have been propogated into more than 900,000 apple trees. Our hope for the future is that Mercy Corps can help communities begin making value-added products like applesauce, apple cider or dried fruit bars.

We have also helped on smaller crop projects on an annual basis, such as grass seed, potatoes, poplar trees and fish farms.

When there have been extraordinary circumstances, Mercy Corps has helped in times of crisis, such as providing medicines during the floods of 2007, food crises in 2008-2009 and, most recently, Mercy Corps was part of a USAID-funded initiative to bring medical supplies and electricity to hospitals in North Korea.  

Q: What did this hospital initiative entail? 

Mercy Corps purchased and installed five generators in five different hospitals in South Hwangae provinces with the help of volunteer electricians from here in Oregon. We then returned to monitor how the new generators were put to use and to assess the hospitals’ material needs. Finding the hospitals short on many basic supplies, Mercy Corps arranged for the delivery of several ultrasound machines, X-ray units, power conditioners and other needed supplies, such as operating beds and operating lights. I was able to visit the hospitals myself right after these supplies were delivered along with Nancy Lindborg, Mercy  Corps' president.  

Q: But there's a diplomatic element to our programmes as well, right?  

Yes, you might say that we deliver more than just direct assistance. Through our aid work, Mercy Corps plays a unique role as a relational bridge between people in the United States and people in the DPRK. The nature of our work helps create these relationships, because it creates common ground. For instance, most of our work centers on agriculture. Agriculture is a science, which is, by nature, apolitical. Cooperation on these non-controversial fronts creates a space for engagement that will one day, we hope, open a window for the political opportunity.

Q: Tell me more about what you mean by a "relational bridge." 

The relationship that Mercy Corps has built has been an incredible asset. By building trust, we have been provided with opportunities to take leadership in times of crisis, such as the famine in 1997 and most recently in 2008 and 2009. Normally, aid organisations don’t operate in the country, but because of our relationship with officials there, Mercy Corps and a few other non-governmental organisation (NGOs) were given unprecedented access. We were able to feed 890,000 people for eight months and crisscross the country visiting with the people who received the aid. We had open access to the areas we served, and in many cases we were
the first encounter North Koreans ever had with an American.  

Q: But constructing a bridge to such an insular country can't be easy.

That's true. Few North Koreans are permitted to leave the country, but we have had the unique opportunity of inviting members of the Korean American Private Exchange Society, part of the government’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, to visit the U.S. These visits have been enriching experiences. They have given us the privilege of facilitating dialogue between state and local officials. Through these trips, we are able to extend the hospitality of our organisation, present new ideas about our vision for the future and show that there are many similarities between our country and theirs.

Q: What do North Korean officials do when they visit?  

They visit our city, meet civic, political, business and academic leaders whose work or interests might inspire or assist the North Koreans. Over the course of their visit, we may take them to visit the World Forestry Centre, Oregon State University, and a national forest, the kinds of places where they can meet with experts on deforestation and agricultural productivity — two issues that the DPRK must address to reduce poverty. 

We aim to build relationships and to facilitate the exchange of information. Our hope is that when these officials leave they will have experienced a deeper connection to our organisation, our donors, our city and the vision we have. Hopefully, this helps them understand the many opportunities there are to expand our work into new areas in their country through a deeper partnership.

Q: What's the hoped-for result of these partnerships?  

Our hope is that the years and resources we spend in North Korea will relieve suffering today, and lay the groundwork for deeper relationships in the future. It makes a difference that we are a U.S.-based organisation because we invariably represent our country when we are there. Although we are not on a political mission, we are seen as Americans. Thus, our programmes and history in the country serve as a reminder of what is good in our country.

I have heard many survivors of World War II break down in tears of gratitude for the food and aid they received from the United States after the war was over. By providing aid in North Korea, who knows what kind of friends we’re creating for the future? But I'm sure that these relationships will be of lasting value. 

Blog Post: Posted August 20, 2010, 9:42 am by Shagufta Jeelani

Delivering aid to flooded-out families

Country: Pakistan

Topics: Emergencies, Displacement

Rasalat's father, Yaqoob, has an illness that prevents him from working. So the family completely depends on Rasalat's income as a day laborer. Photo: Raheel Ayaz/Mercy Corps

This was written by my colleague Raheel Ayaz, a monitoring and evaluation officer here in Pakistan:

Sixteen-year-old Rasalat Khan is a member of one of the 161 families who received emergency food and tool kits from Mercy Corps on Wednesday.

Rasalat's father, Yaqoob, has an illness that prevents him from working. So the family completely depends on Rasalat's income as a day laborer.

He tells us that water ransacked his two-room house, triggering the collapse of three side walls and washing away all items in the household -- including furniture, crockery and tools.

Across the Swat Valley in northern Pakistan, families are dealing with similar levels of destruction. Houses are filled with mud, water is polluted, bridges are washed out and there is no electricity available. People are struggling to survive.

We're distributing 330 tool kits to help Swat Valley families rebuild after the flooding. Each contains a wheelbarrow, shovel, hammer and other implements. Photo: Raheel Ayaz/Mercy Corps

Since Rasalat's neighbors are in the same situation as his family, he could not borrow tools like a shovel, a pickaxe or buckets to clean debris.

"Today I am very happy," he said, "as I have some food to feed my family for few days and also got some tools and equipment."

Each food kit contains rice, lentils, cooking oil and powdered milk. Each tool kit contains a wheelbarrow, shovel, hammer and other implements.

"I am not only able to clean debris of my house but can also help my neighbors who are facing same problem," said Rasalat. "Inshallah, soon I will rebuild walls of my house and we will have shelter again."

Blog Post: Posted August 13, 2010, 10:31 am by Brian Oakes

Bringing food to Haiti's hungry families

Country: Haiti

Topics: Food/Nutrition, Emergencies, Economic Development, Displacement

Since the first weeks after January's earthquake, the Mercy Corps team has been working with families in extremely poor villages like Sarazin, in Haiti's Central Plateau. Photo: Fabiola Coupet/Mercy Corps

Families in Haiti’s Central Plateau and Lower Artibonite have been going hungry – not because food is not available, but because they cannot afford it.

We know that it will take much more than seven months to get Haiti’s devastated economy to a stage where it can adequately support Haitians – providing the jobs they need to take care of their families. We know that even before the earthquake, these families struggled with food security. And we know that this situation must change.

With support from USAID, Mercy Corps is taking the first step to address the dire situation in the Central Plateau and Lower Artibonite. Families in these areas have generously taken in thousands of people who left Port-au-Prince after the earthquake - adding more mouths to feed when they already struggled.

A £8 million grant, under the new Emergency Food Security Programme in Haiti, will allow us to provide emergency food aid to families in need – and to support local economies by purchasing the food from nearby markets and vendors. We welcome this new effective and efficient food aid initiative.

Photo: Fabiola Coupet/Mercy Corps

Twenty thousand families, or approximately 100,000 people, will benefit from this programme. For nine months, we will give them vouchers for monthly supplies of staples like rice, beans, and oil. We estimate that nearly half of the people who receive this food will have been displaced by the earthquake.

One hundred thirty five small businesses will also benefit – providing food staples for these families and earning additional income.

This USAID-funded programme is a key element of Mercy Corps’ efforts in these underserved regions of Haiti. Separately, Mercy Corps is also providing emergency income to 20,000 families hosting internally displaced people through cash for work and cash grants. We will also run a voucher programme so these families can buy shelter supplies to improve their now-crowded homes, and we will help women buy supplies to start their own small businesses.

Long term, Mercy Corps is working to jumpstart these regional economies through improved agricultural production and small business support – so that families no longer go hungry, because they have the income to buy what they need.

Blog Post: Posted August 10, 2010, 7:52 am by Patrick Eckford

Getting entrepreneurs back on their feet

Country: Kyrgyzstan

Topics: Microfinance, Emergencies

Yesterday was a really good day. We approved over 130 “equity grants” (cash disbursements) to micro-entrepreneurs who suffered direct losses. Mostly their businesses or inventories had been burned or looted.

In more than half the cases their homes had also been burned. Our grants are up to £450, and while that amount will not nearly cover their actual losses it is still a significant amount of money here and will help many begin to reestablish an income stream to restart their micro business (like baking, sewing, carpentry and mini-shops).

Mercy Corps’ microfinance institution, Kompanion is also actively forgiving or restructuring loans for victims of the violence. It is really heartening to see how a little bit of good news lifts people’s spirits in spite of the horrific times they’ve been through.

Mercy Corps’ and Kompanion’s staff have also been under tremendous stress as they try to respond to the immense need. That we are now actually dispensing aid and disbursing money is a huge morale boost for them, too.

Blog Post: Posted August 9, 2010, 1:27 am by Teron Moore

Survey day

Country: Indonesia

Topics: Emergencies

A day like any other, in a small village near the equator in West Sumatra, begins at 5 o'clock in the morning with a call on the loud speakers from the muezzin. As villagers pray to Allah, daybreak brings the inescapable heat that will stay until after nightfall. Today however, is not like any other day, as today is survey day.

As part of a two-year disaster risk reduction programme, Mercy Corps is testing out an evaluation technique called cost-benefit analysis. The goal is to quantify in monetary terms the cost effectiveness of the awareness, education, skills training, capacity building and small infrastructure projects, which make up the Public Private Partnership for Disaster Management programme.

Now, my training is in the social impacts of disaster and is far from economics-based, so it’s a good thing I am working with an economist intern at my side. Bringing us to the days activities, we are conducting a survey to collect data on the effects of a short tsunami evacuation route built from a high risk village near the ocean’s shore to a village on higher ground a few kilometers away. This evacuation route will, in times of disaster, help community members flee from an incoming wall of water caused by an offshore earthquake.

A Mercy Corps staffer in West Sumatra conducts a survey with Siti. Photo: Teron Moore for Mercy Corps

This programme will not save houses or fields from begin damaged, but it will no doubt, reduce psychological trauma, injuries and lives lost in a tsunami. During normal times, this escape route will be used as any other road, bringing with it a route to transport goods, go to school, visit the doctor and talk to neighbors. For our purposes, these are the quantifiable economic impacts of our programme, with important results for this rural community.

Siti is 55 years old and the head of her family. She earns a living by renting a small plot of land near the new escape route to plant, grow, tend and harvest rice and corn. Hers is not a life for the weak of body or spirit. Siti relates the fact that, with this new road, she will be able to transport her crops to market in half the time it would have taken her previously. This is not only an added convenience, but the extra efficiency will allow her to add significantly to her earnings of about $4 a day to support her and her family.

Sarinah is a single mother of four and the owner of a small café (think food stall with fried rice and instant noodles). For her, this route will allow her children to get to school faster and allow her to gather her daily supplies for cooking much more effectively. This increases her wages as she is able to open her stall earlier in the morning and prevent closures due to running our of supplies. Not unconnected to this expected extra income, Sarinah is in the process of fixing her home, which was severely damaged by the earthquake in September 2009.

These, and many other stories like these, are what make my experience in West Sumatra so valuable. While we struggle at our computers trying to figure out how to put a dollar value on saving a villager's time, I think of all the Sarinahs and Sitis, whose daily struggle is just a little bit easier thanks to this programme. It makes the early mornings and oppressive heat a lot more bearable.

Blog Post: Posted August 1, 2010, 8:12 pm by Brad Myers

A day spent assessing the damage in Osh

Country: Kyrgyzstan

Topics: Emergencies, Conflict & War

Tanzilia Iliasova fills out a grant application with the help of a Kompanion loan officer on the burnt remains of her oven, which is now used to dry tomatoes. Photo: Brad Myers/Mercy Corps

I was feeling the heat by mid-morning in Osh, Kyrgyzstan’s second largest city. I took refuge from the sun under a slice of metal roofing. Less than a minute passed before a firm grip on my forearm gently escorted me away from my prized spot of shade.

Manzura Rasulova guided me back into the sun toward what she wanted me to see. She gestured to structural damage caused by the fire which destroyed her home. Her business and home account for two of an estimated 2,500 buildings destroyed during the June 11th clashes in southern Kyrgyzstan.

By lunchtime, we had visited half a dozen families — including Manzura's — who filled out grant applications with Mercy Corps, which is the first step in obtaining funding to rebuild homes and/or businesses. I was spending the day with Mercy Corps and Kompanion staff as they continue to compile names of potential equity grant recipients. Although undertones of fear and distrust remain in many neighborhoods, those we met expressed an eagerness to rebuild their communities.

Mercy Corps and Kompanion teams visit those who have had their businesses and/or homes destroyed by the clashes on June 11th. This gentleman holds up metal covering for a senior loan officer who was documenting the damage. Photo: Brad Myers/Mercy Corps

Late afternoon sunlight stretched across this once-thriving Silk Road stopover as we collected more applications. Powerful sights and sounds took hold with each damage assessment. The snap of debris underfoot, the leaden handshakes, tears absorbed by subtle dabs from a headscarf, and the lasting image of goodbye — a hand reverently placed over the heart.

At the dinner table sat an all-star collection of Mercy Corps and Kompanion staff. A small table was dominated by a platter piled high with plov, a traditional Central Asian rice dish. Armed with giant spoons, we dedicated ourselves to reaching the bottom but managed to exchange plenty of stories, ideas and concerns about our day between spoonfuls.

By nightfall, silence and a cool breeze greeted the 10:00 p.m. citywide curfew. It was the end of a full day crisscrossing a town in turmoil. Many residents were grateful to learn about Mercy Corps’ equity grants but balanced their optimism with concerns about the coming months. The slow encroachment of winter’s return only adds to the growing sense of urgency to restore livelihoods as soon as possible.

A group of Uzbek women standing with curiosity at the sight that was created when Kompanion and Mercy Corps staff arrived on the scene and began their assessments. Photo: Brad Myers/Mercy Corps

Blog Post: Posted July 22, 2010, 7:34 pm by Sandra Castañed...

Chile's first Comfort for Kids programs hold closing ceremony

Country: Chile

Topics: Children, Displacement, Emergencies, Health

Children and family gather for the closing ceremony of the first group of Comfort for Kids programmes in Penco. Photo: courtesy of EPES

On a chilly winter day in the community of Penco, we held the closing ceremony for the Comfort for Kids programme, implemented by the Educacion Popular en Salud (or EPES) Foundation with the support of Mercy Corps. Approximately 150 of the 200 children that participated in the programme in this community (there are more than 1,000 children participating in the entire programme) showed up for the celebration accompanied, for the most part, by a significant adult — mother, father, grandfather, grandmother or aunt.

Local authorities in attendance included representatives from the mayor´s office, the Talcahuano Health Service and The Lirquén Hospital Local Development Council, as well as a Senator and Council Representative of the community. The ceremony was covered by journalists from the local government as well as the Talcahuano Health Service.

During the ceremony, the coordinator of the Penco Department of Health and the community Senator offered a few words, and two children shared their experience of participating in the Comfort for Kids workshops.

Posters made by the children that read "After the storm comes the calm, after the rain comes the rainbow." Photo: courtesy of EPES

The Penco school hall was brightened with coloured balloons representing each group of children from the programme — in total, eight groups corresponding to the sectors of Nueva La Greda, Lomas del Conquistador, La Fech, La Ernita, Penco School, Jorge Montt School and Baquedano. Some groups came prepared with banners, thanking EPES for their support, others with drawings alluding to the hope for reconstruction after the disaster.

Each group was represented by one or two children who received, on behalf of the whole group, the diplomas made by EPES and handed out by the Senator and Council Representative and Department of Health. EPES also gave a certificate to and acknowledged the work done by the 13 facilitators who conducted the workshops, who after being voluntarily trained had the time and motivation to work in their communities with the children affected by the earthquake and tsunami. At this time a special atmosphere was created, as each facilitator was named, the children chanted the names of their “tias” or “aunts” as they were affectionately called.

Finally, the ceremony ended with a small celebration where all the children — together with their families and invited guests — enjoyed a delicious cake, juice and soft drinks.

Blog Post: Posted July 18, 2010, 9:40 am by Lisa Hoashi

Taking lessons learned from Nepal to Haiti

Country: Haiti

Topics: Emergencies

In late April of this year, fresh on the job managing Mercy Corps’ cash-for-work programme in Port-au-Prince, Kristina Carvonis was asked to go to Nepal. She left her native city, which had been devastated by the 7.0-magnitude January 12 earthquake, to attend a conference in Kathmandu on Disaster Risk Reduction.

Counter-intuitive? For countries like Haiti, which are prone to hurricanes, flooding and earthquakes, there is always more that can be done to help prepare people for emergency.

Kristina shares what she learned in Nepal and how she sees putting it to use in Haiti in the interview below.

Representatives from nine Mercy Corps country programmes — including Kristina Carvonis from Haiti (green shirt) — and three headquarters support staff visited the Kalili Risk Reduction programme in the Far West of Nepal and attend training sessions on Disaster Risk Reduction from April 25-20, 2010. Photo: Mercy Corps

Tell us more about the Nepal training.

It was a cross visit for Mercy Corps employees from around the world to see the programme in Nepal—a Mercy Corps country programme that has been very successful in Disaster Risk Reduction. Mercy Corps representatives came from Niger, China, Tajikistan, Indonesia, Georgia, East Timor, Myanmar, Nepal and Haiti.

Over the course of week, we shared with each other the issues that each of us faces in our country, including tsunamis, earthquakes, hurricanes, floods — these were the big ones. The majority of our countries had flooding. We exchanged ideas and techniques for reducing the effects of natural disaster for people living in our countries. And we talked about the effects of climate change as well.

What are some of ways you learned to reduce risk of disaster?

We learned about the Hyogo Framework for Action, a set of humanitarian guidelines for disaster risk reduction that was created in Kobe, Hyogo, Japan in 2005. It gives different steps that need to be implemented by a country or even a village to follow in order to be prepared for a disaster. One step might be to do what’s called a “vulnerability assessment,” which is to survey an area to see what the risks are and better understand what you need to prepare for.

If the evaluation shows that an area is vulnerable to hurricanes or flooding, then you could begin to put an early warning system in place to alert people when a storm is coming and give them instructions about what to do. Here in Haiti, we know that another earthquake is imminent. Unfortunately there’s no early warning for earthquakes. But you can still prepare people for them, and do drills. If there’s an earthquake coming, people need to know that they need to do to secure their homes and their belongings and get enough water.

What was it like to travel to Nepal?

I found it really exciting because in Nepal, the terrain is very similar to Haiti. They have lots of earthquakes, landslides, and floods. The floods come every year. Also, it seemed that the education level in Nepal is similar to what it is in Haiti, and yet in Nepal they were able to teach people a lot about how to take care of themselves in an emergency. I was encouraged, because sometimes in Haiti, we make the excuse that due to low levels of education, we can’t make the changes we need to. But in Nepal, the Mercy Corps team was able to really do a lot.

I noticed everything about the country! The smells, the trees. Like Port-au-Prince, there is noise and horns in the street. But the language is different and the people look different. But the things that were amazing to me was that when we went to villages, I saw that people live in difficult conditions there too, but they’ve been able to make real improvements to their situation. They live in mud houses, but they’ve also been able to come up with an evacuation system in case of flooding. They had built a shelter for the people in the village who were the most vulnerable to flooding, so they didn’t have to go so far from the village when flooding happened. I was amazed. I want to see my Haitian compatriots organise themselves like that.

People in these villages had also learned to save grains for the flood season. They had made sure it was enough for them to either eat or to sell, so that when the floods came they had food or could purchase things. They had collected all these before the floods. The mountains of Nepal have all these rivers that all join into one and that river gets engorged and floods the plain where everyone lives.

What was something that you saw in Nepal that you think would also work in Haiti?

You definitely have to take culture into account when you’re considering whether something will work in a country. In Nepal, they used street skits to educate people on emergency preparedness and teach them about safety. They would act out scenarios before an audience in a village and make it easy to understand and entertaining. Wherever you turn in Haiti, there is art and music — even when Haitians are protesting! I’m sure that we could do the same kind of street skit here in Haiti, using the Haitian love of art and expression to channel educational messages.

I go to the camps here in Port-au-Prince every day. I manage Mercy Corps’ cash for work programme here, which employs earthquake survivors in clean-up and rebuilding projects. It gives them income to use to provide for their families and improves camp conditions.

At the camps, I could see us doing Disaster Risk Reduction street skits. You could have a troupe that would go to site to site to do the trainings there. The trainings could be about natural disasters like earthquakes. They could also cover hygiene issues like the importance of washing your hands or avoiding HIV/AIDS. The majority of people haven’t been to school and they haven’t ever had this type of minimal information.

Many people didn’t even know what an earthquake was. Even now, I hear people on the radio saying that the earthquake was a punishment from God. People need to understand the natural causes of an earthquake, and that there are measures that they can take to help themselves during an earthquake, rather than just succumbing to it. Education is key. I recognize that I’ve had the opportunity to have an education. I can go online and research what I need to do to help my family during an earthquake. Many people don’t have that option. But we can help bring that information to them.

How have you started using what you learned in Nepal?

Right now I’m going to camps and speaking with groups of people about what kinds of things are happening in the camp. My goal is to help them link what is happening around them to the effects on their environment. For example, showing them how to properly dispose of garbage so it doesn’t cause health issues for the camp. Or to look at how water is flooding tents and looking at what needs to be done to prevent flooding in that area.

These days the main concerns in the camps are flooding, security and food security. Flooding is big because it’s rainy season and it’s raining every day.

Even before the earthquake flooding was a major problem. Houses in the slums of Port-au-Prince, called bidonville, were built right up on top of each other. They were built in any random place. Some were built even in beds of rivers. Flooding is even worse now, because so many are living in tents.

Education and training are the two most important things I see for Haiti in terms of reducing our vulnerability to disaster. I continue to look for ways to incorporate both of these things into my work.

Kristina Carvonis walks through Carradeux displacement camp with colleagues Claude Augustin (left) and Jean Bernard (right). At this camp, they have given earthquake survivors temporary jobs digging drainage canals, to help prevent the camp from flooding during the rainy season. Photo: Fabiola Coupet/Mercy Corps

Blog Post: Posted July 16, 2010, 10:19 pm by Lisa Hoashi

Photos from a busy day in Port-au-Prince

Country: Haiti

Topics: Emergencies, Displacement

Every day is a busy one for our team here, but today seemed especially so.

This morning, I headed out with Fabiola, our Haiti communications officer, to visit the camp called "MFD" (which stands for "Mobilisation Fraternelle Pour le Developpement"). Here Mercy Corps has given residents temporary clean up and rebuilding jobs. Over the last couple of months, when I've gone to visit sites where we've provided these jobs, the work has been mainly in the camps, digging drainage ditches and making other improvements to help prevent flooding.