Project Title: Support to food security and livelihoods of rural people affected by raising prices, the rehabilitation of the environment and support sustainable management in Haiti – GCP /HAI/024/EC

Area of Intervention: Haiti | North-East

Implemented by: Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)

Three quarters of Haitian population suffer from extreme poverty and chronic food insecurity. FAO is working on a two-year EU Food Facility project launched in May 2009, to support the government’s strategy to improve the food security and livelihoods of some 300 000 rural households living in the country’s north-eastern province. The aim is to contribute to the growth and diversification of agriculture, livestock and agro-forestry and improve natural resources management for the municipalities of Fort Liberté, Capotille, Ouanaminte, Ferrier, Mont Organizé.

Project Title: Seeds of Future

Area of Intervention: Haiti | Acul du Nord

Implemented by: Vento di Terra Onlus

Six months after the devastating earthquake that hit the southern part of Haiti, the situation on the island is still critical. Not only around the city of Port au Prince, the epicenter of the quake, which remains in a state of extreme emergency health, food and housing, but also in the decentralized areas where tens of thousands of families have fled in the weeks following the earthquake. Although the emergency has drawn the attention of many international agencies, which are currently involved in the very limited area of the capital Port au Prince, the most remote regions have so far not received any substantial help.

Following the earthquake Acul du Nord, about 50,000 people, found himself suddenly having to “guest” more than 15.000 refugees from the capital, of which over one third are children. Currently, refugees are accommodated at the home of relatives, but the huge and sudden increase in population has created many problems and, in general, a situation hardly sustainable. The already precarious economy of the host family was in fact completely depleted by the arrival of new “mouths to feed”, creating a situation in which the already low quantity of food reserves, set aside by households resident, are finishing very quickly, pushing the entire population of Acul du Nord, refugees included, in a very precarious and worrying economic situation. The feasibility study carried out by Vento di Terra in April 2010, noted the widespread intention of returning refugees to Acul du Nord to stay in that area in order to rebuild their life, considering the total lack of opportunity to return in Port au Prince.

Is therefore a priority to support economically the refugee’s families, enabling them to not depend entirely on host families. This will allow them to get self-subsistence resources and this support would have a positive impact on the entire community. The presence of a high percentage of children in the refugee population, approximately 30%, then generated an emergency situation within schools that are only partially able to host them. Currently, only 586 children were included in the existing schools which are already suffering from a lack of supplies and space, and moreover are unable to respond properly to all refugee children needs arrived in the area. It follows that the vast majority of refugee children has not yet access to education. It must be underlined that in Haiti, 80% of the schools is made up of private colleges, whose tuition fees are not sustainable for families arrived from Port au Prince.

It seems therefore a priority to an intervention that goes to support the current emergency situation on access to education of children, first through the provision of educational materials for children who were placed in schools and, on the other , through animated educational pathways aimed at children which have no access to schools.