This study analyzes over 100 camps for Haiti’s internally displaced persons (IDPs), a random sample of one in eight of the 861 in the Port-au-Prince metropolitan area. Despite the billions in aid pledged to Haiti, most of the estimated 1.5 million IDPs are living in substandard conditions. For example, seven months following the earthquake, 40 percent of IDP camps did not have access to water, and 30 percent did not have toilets of any kind. Only a fifth of camps have education, health care, or psycho-social facilities on site. Services in the camps vary quite significantly according to a range of factors. Camps in Cité Soleil have almost no services, while those in Pétion-Ville are better managed. Smaller camps, with 100 or fewer families, have demonstrably fewer services. Camps situated on private land – 71 percent of the sample – are significantly worse off than those on public land. These conditions were prime breeding ground for the cholera epidemic, which as of the submission of the article claimed more than 1,700 lives. This article ends with recommendations to improve the quality of life within the camps.
This paper is about an archetypal organization for delivering a new form of emergency aid. Locally-Led Advance Mobile Aid (LLAMA) is to be deployed when civilians trapped in conflict are dying and the chance of reaching them in time with conventional relief and protection is unlikely.
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