Caribbean Hurricane Matthew - Fact Sheet #13

November 22, 2016

Highlights

Relief actors in Sud address reports of forced evacuations from temporary shelters.

WFP provides emergency food assistance to approximately 590,000 people in Grand’Anse, Nippes, and Sud.

USAID/OFDA provides an additional $1.5 million for multi-sector interventions in Grand’Anse and Sud.

Key Developments

The UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) has suspended security support for humanitarian operations until November 24 due to the need for increased security during the first round of presidential elections, held on November 20. Response actors report that the elections proceeded without incident; large-scale food distributions remain on hold until MINUSTAH resumes security support.

Humanitarian stakeholders continue to report forced evacuations of displaced people temporarily sheltering in schools in hurricane-affected areas of Haiti’s Sud Department. To address forced evacuations and related protection concerns, response actors in Sud have formed a multi-sectoral task force to ensure dignified returns of displaced people, the UN reports. The task force—comprising departmental Government of Haiti (GoH) authorities and humanitarian representatives from the education, food security, protection, shelter, and water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) sectors—plans to pilot a coordinated approach to support the voluntary returns of displaced people from three schools in Sud in the coming days.

USAID/OFDA recently committed an additional $1.5 million to non-governmental organization (NGO) partners for health, protection, and WASH interventions in Haiti’s acutely-affected Grand’Anse and Sud departments, bringing USAID/OFDA’s total funding for the Hurricane Matthew response in Haiti to nearly $29.2 million. To date, the U.S. Government (USG) has provided nearly $64.5 million for Hurricane Matthew relief efforts in Haiti, The Bahamas, and Jamaica.

HUMANITARIAN ACCESS AND INSECURITY

Relief organizations continue to report security incidents targeting humanitarian convoys. On November 14, unknown assailants hijacked a Save the Children/U.S. (SC/US) truck transporting humanitarian cargo to a distribution site in Sud’s Aquin commune, resulting in the loss of approximately 250 hygiene kits, ropes, and taurpalins. SC/US is investigating the incident. Other response actors, including the UN World Food Program (WFP), report localized incidents of targeted attacks on humanitarian convoys by organized criminal networks operating in hurricane-affected areas. The USAID Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART) is monitoring the situation, and NGOs continue to adopt practices to mitigate risk, including engaging more closely with local community actors in the planning and implementation process and deploying advance teams to identify potential risks ahead of planned distributions.

MINUSTAH has suspended security support for humanitarian flights and relief distributions until November 24 due to the need for increased security during the first round of presidential elections, held on November 20. Response actors report that the elections occurred without incident, but continue to monitor the security situation in anticipation of election results, tentatively scheduled for announcement during the week of November 28.

FOOD ASSISTANCE AND RELIEF COMMODITIES

Post-hurricane assessments conducted by the GoH National Food Security Coordination Agency, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), and WFP indicate that Hurricane Matthew caused significant damage to local food production and livelihoods in acutely affected areas, including bean, cassava, corn, millet, and yam crops and an estimated 90 percent of fruit and forest trees in Sud. In coordination with WFP, FAO plans to provide severely impacted communities in Grand’Anse, Nippes, and Sud with black bean, pea, sweet potato, and other vegetable seeds in advance of the winter planting season. FAO is targeting more than 25,000 households—including 15,150 households in Sud and 5,400 households in Grand’Anse—in hurricane-affected areas with seed distributions and also plans to distribute fishing equipment to fishers who lost their livelihoods. WFP will conduct concurrent distributions of food assistance to reduce the likelihood that food-insecure households consume FAO-provided seeds.

WFP continues to support GoH-led relief and recovery efforts, including addressing the immediate food needs of hurricane-affected communities. As of November 18, WFP and implementing partners had distributed 6,200 metric tons (MT) of emergency food assistance to approximately 590,000 people—74 percent of the 800,000 people targeted—in Grand’Anse, Nippes, and Sud. To date, USAID/FFP has contributed more than $19.2 million to support WFP’s efforts to deliver critical food assistance to hard-hit communities.

HEALTH, NUTRITION, AND WASH

The GoH Ministry of Public Health and Population (MSPP) extended the oral cholera vaccination campaign— originally scheduled to end on November 15—through November 18 due to delayed vaccinations in Grand’Anse. Preliminary MSPP results indicate that the campaign, which began on November 8, reached nearly 651,200 people, including more than 338,800 people in Sud and nearly 312,400 people in Grand’Anse—approximately 79 percent of the 820,000 people targeted for vaccination. Final results remained pending as of November 22.

U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) staff continue to support cholera-related epidemiology and surveillance efforts, including through case investigation, specimen collection, and training for laboratory technicians.

The GoH National Directorate for Water and Sanitation (DINEPA) continues to facilitate the distribution of calcium hypochlorite (HTH) to water service providers in hurricane-affected areas to mitigate the risk of cholera and other waterborne disease transmission. As of November 18, DINEPA had facilitated the chlorination of 23 piped water systems, including 13 in Sud, six in Nippes, and four in Grand’Anse.

To strengthen treatment for waterborne illnesses, USAID/OFDA is supporting International Medical Corps (IMC) and SC/US to establish oral rehydration points (ORPs) in hard-to-reach areas of Grand’Anse and Sud. Staffed by trained nurses, these points provide initial triage, rehydration and treatment, and referral services to people with suspected cholera or other waterborne diseases. As of November 15, IMC had established 10 ORPs in Sud, while one SC/US-managed ORP in Grand’Anse was operational.

The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and WFP have deployed a nutrition specialist to ensure that the nutritional needs of hurricane-affected populations are being met. WFP is also conducting a blanket supplementary feeding program to prevent malnutrition; as of November 18, the program had reached approximately 3,300 children ages six–59 months in Grand’Anse and Sud. In addition, WFP and implementing partners are supporting moderate acute malnutrition (MAM) services at 16 health facilities in Grand’Anse and Sud.

Through assistance to the Global Nutrition Cluster, USAID/OFDA supported the deployment of an infant and young child feeding in emergencies (IYCF-E) specialist to provide technical assistance to the GoH and relief organizations, including encouraging exclusive breastfeeding to prevent diarrhea in children. Additionally, USAID/OFDA partners IMC, Médecins du Monde/USA (MDM/USA), Première Urgence Internationale (PUI), and SC/US are conducting IYCF-E interventions and malnutrition screenings and referrals through nearly 20 mobile clinics in Grand’Anse and Sud. As of November 15, SC/US-operated mobile clinics in Grand’Ase and Sud had performed approximately 3,980 health consultations and nearly 570 individual counselling sessions with pregnant and lactating women.

USAID/OFDA recently committed $750,000 to MDM/USA to conduct health and protection interventions— including operating mobile health clinics, strengthening disease surveillance, and providing psyschological first aid—in Grand’Anse and Sud. Between November 5 and 19, MDM/USA-operated mobile clinics screened nearly 170 children younger than five years of age for malnutrition and referred nearly 15 children—including five SAM cases and nine MAM cases—for treatment. MDM/USA also provided oral rehydration treatment to nearly 80 children experiencing acute watery diarrhea.

In recent days, USAID/OFDA also committed $750,000 to PUI to provide health and WASH assistance, as well as emergency relief commodities, to hurricane-affected households in Grand’Anse. Through USAID/OFDA support, PUI is conducting awareness-raising sessions related to health and hygiene promotion, installing water chlorination points, and providing basic and reproductive health services through two mobile clinics. To date, USAID/OFDA has provided partners with more than $6.1 million in funding for health, nutrition, and WASH interventions in hurricane-affected areas of Haiti.

EDUCATION

More than 1,200 schools in Grand’Anse, Nippes, and Sud that closed in the aftermath of Hurricane Matthew had resumed classes as of November 19, according to UNICEF. The total includes approximately 60 percent of schools in Nippes and 55 percent of schools in Sud, but only 4 percent of schools in Grand’Anse due to widespread damage in the department. At newly reopened schools, approximately half of children enrolled prior to the hurricane have returned to classes, UNICEF reports.

The effects of Hurricane Matthew damaged more than 700 schools in Grand’Anse and Sud, according to the GoH Ministry of Education. As of November 19, rehabilitation efforts remained ongoing in nearly 40 schools, which serve approximately 20,000 students, UNICEF reports. An estimated 65–85 schools in Grand’Anse and Sud continue to serve as temporary shelters for diplaced families, according to the UN.

SHELTER AND SETTLEMENTS

Initial GoH and UN estimates found that Hurricane Matthew displaced approximately 175,500 people in hurricane-affected areas, with an estimated 141,500 people in temporary shelters as of late October. With support from USAID/OFDA, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) is registering displaced populations and identifying urgent needs and protection gaps through its Displacement Tracking Matrix. As of November 9, IOM had registered nearly 33,600 displaced people in Grand’Anse and Sud; registration and verification of displacement data remained ongoing as of November 21.

From November 12–17, the American Red Cross (AmCross) distributed USAID/OFDA-procured plastic sheeting and shelter repair kits to nearly 170 households in Nippes. AmCross has also completed a shelter repair training-of-trainers initiative in three of four targeted communes in Nippes, reaching nearly 30 Haitian Red Cross volunteers and 16 community leaders.

PROTECTION

Response actors continue to report forced evacuations of displaced people temporary sheltering in schools in Sud, despite November 10–11 visits to Grand’Anse and Sud by GoH Prime Minister Fritz Jean to discourage premature evacuations. On November 15, nearly 1,000 people were forcibly evacuated from a school in Les Cayes, according to the UN.

In response to ongoing tensions and reports of forced evacuations, response actors in Sud have formed a multi-sectoral task force to ensure safe, voluntary, and dignified returns of displaced people, the UN reports. The task force— comprising departmental GoH authorities and humanitarian representatives from the education, food security, protection, shelter, and WASH sectors—plans to pilot a coordinated approach to support the voluntary returns of displaced people from three schools in Sud in the coming days. The task force intends to roll out the approach, prioritizing safe and dignified returns, to additional schools in Sud based on lessons learned from the initial pilot. The task force also plans to coordinate with local service providers to assist vulnerable populations—including women, children, and disabled persons—who remain in shelters.

Between October 31 and November 4, USAID/OFDA partner the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) and the GoH Ministry of Women’s Affairs and Women’s Rights (MCFDF) assessed coordination gaps affecting protection activities—particularly sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) interventions—in Grand’Anse, Sud, and Nippes. UNFPA and the MCFDF plan to support a four-member coordination team to bolster the integration of SGBV priorities in multi-sector coordination activities.

OTHER HUMANITARIAN ASSISTANCE

On November 18, Canadian Minister of International Devlopment and La Francophonie Marie-Claude Bibeau announced $2.65 million in additional humanitarian assistance from the Government of Canada to help meet the immediate needs of populations in Haiti affected by natural disasters. The total includes $1.6 million in funding for WFP to address emergency food needs throughout the country, including in hurricane-affected areas. The announcement occurred during Minister Bibeau’s two-day visit to Haiti to meet with Canadian and international humanitarian partners in acutely hurricane-affected areas, as well as GoH officials in Haiti’s capital city of Port-au Prince.