More than 1.3 million people in Haiti still find themselves with no permanent home more than nine months after the January 12 earthquake, relying instead on 1,354 refugee camps for shelter. But most of the camps provide little in the way of support, other than water. It is estimated that 70% of them offer no food or information from the government, forcing residents to fend for themselves.

 

One relief official said government officials asked humanitarian organizations months ago to stop handing out food to refugees. The lack of food has added to the burden of a people who have long struggled to meet even their basic needs. “Malnutrition is unfortunately something that has been here since the 1980s,” Deborah Hyde, a United Nations official working on the shelter issue, told the Inter Press Service.

 

It is unclear how many Haitians were killed in the January earthquake, although the number is thought to be more than 100,000.

-Noel Brinkerhoff

 

Haiti's 1.3 Million Camp Dwellers Waiting in Vain (Inter Press Service/Haiti Grassroots Watch)

What is the Plan for Haiti's 1.3 Million Homeless? (Haiti Grassroots Watch)

Haiti: Still Trapped in the Emergency Phase (Refugees International)

Weary of Debris, Haiti Finally Sees Some Vanish (be Deborah Sontag, New York Times)