A council of leading Haitians has appointed the former Haitian Foreign
Minister, Gerald Latortue, as the country's new interim Prime Minister.
One of this most pressing tasks will be to try to stabilize the country
and organize elections.
ACT members in Haiti - Christian Aid (CAID), Fédération Protestante
d'Haiti (FPH), Lutheran World Federation (LWF) and Service Chrétien
d'Haiti (SCH) - report that in spite of the arrival of peace keeping
forces, the situation is still very tense and volatile. Armed supporters
of the deposed President Jean-Bertrand Aristide say they will rebel
against any attempt to erase the legacy of their leader, who is insisting
that he was forced from power by the United States and is still the
rightful leader of Haiti.
The UN has warned that health services and food are the most immediate
priorities in Haiti.
In spite of difficulties with communications in the country, the ACT
members have concluded their needs assessments. They are currently working
on an appeal which will comprise the following elements to assist the
most vulnerable of the affected population: Food security, first aid,
health and sanitation activities and legal assistance.
The implementation will be carried out by:
CAID partners: KORAL and Child Care in the north; LWF partners with
HAITI MED in the west, FOPLAB in the south-east, FNGA Grand Anse, National
Coalition for Haitian Rights (NCHR) in 9 departments;
SCH in the north and La Gonave Island and FPH in Artibonite and the
north-west.
Local ACT member in the Dominican Republic, Social Services of the
Dominican Churches (SSID), is in contact with the ACT members in Haiti
and is assessing the situation and needs of the refugees arriving from
Haiti.
The following is a summary of the response to date from the ACT alliance
to the crisis in Haiti:
9 January 2004: U$11,500 from the Rapid Response Fund (RRF) to the ACT
Forum in Haiti.
February to 6 March 2004: CAID deployed a staff person from London
to support ACT members emergency response activities.
18 February 2004: EU 45,000 (advance for forthcoming appeal) from
ACT Netherlands to the ACT Forum in Haiti
22 February 2004: U$38,500 from CAID - an advance to the appeal activities
of the ACT Forum in Haiti
7 March 2004: LWF intended sending a staff person from El Salvador
Program to assist ACT members in Haiti in the preparation of the appeal.
The closure of the airport prevented this from happening.
8 March 2004: CWS sent a shipment of 30 IMA medical boxes, 8 IMA disaster
boxes and 20 pallets of dehydrated food to the Dominican Republic. They
will transfer part of this shipment to the ACT partners in Haiti.
