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HAITI / FOOD AID
STORY: HAITI / FOOD AID
TRT: 2:39
SOURCE: WFP
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGES: ENGLISH / CREOLE / NATS
DATELINE: 18 OCTOBER 2016, TORBEK, SOUTH DEPARTMENT, HAITI / 18 OCTOBER 2016, PORT SALUT, SOUTH DEPARTMENT, HAITI / 18 OCTOBER 2016, LES CAYES, HAITI / 20 OCTOBER 2016, PORT AU PRINCE, HAITI / 22 OCTOBER 2016, PORT AU PRINCE HABOUR, HAITI
18 OCTOBER 2016, LES CAYES, HAITI
1. Wide shot, damage caused by Hurricane Matthew
2. Wide shot, people crossing stream over fallen coconut trees
18 OCTOBER 2016, PORT SALUT, SOUTH DEPARTMENT, HAITI
3. Various shots, WFP trucks driving on dirt road leading to food distribution site
4. Various shots, people gathering at WFP food distribution
20 OCTOBER 2016, PORT AU PRINCE, HAITI
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Alexis Masciarelli, spokesperson, World Food Programme in Haiti:
“The people we meet in the affected areas often tell us that they’ve literally lost everything. The agriculture is in shatters. There won’t be much production growing from this land for the next six to nine months. So here, as WFP, we are supporting the government to access the most remote locations. Everyday we manage to reach new villages, new population, to bring them much needed nutritious food, to tell them also that they are not forgotten and that we are here to help them rebuild their lives.”
22 OCTOBER 2016, PORT AU PRINCE HABOUR, HAITI
6. Various shots, food being loaded on a WFP chartered ship sailing from Port-au-Prince to the western tip of the peninsula devastated by Hurricane Matthew
18 OCTOBER 2016, TORBEK, SOUTH DEPARTMENT, HAITI
7. Various shots, Fortunée Mirlande, 28 year-old mother of two, resident of Torbek, preparing evening meal
8. SOUNDBITE (Creole) Fortunée Mirlande, local resident:
“We had lots of banana trees, coconuts, we grew rice, maize, millet here in our compound. But we have lost it all.”
9. Various shot, Fortunée’s mother serving food
10. Various shots, children sitting on a blanket outside eating food prepared from WFP rations
The World Food Programme (WFP) today (24 Oct) warned that some 1.4 million Haitians require food assistance in the wake of Hurricane Matthew, which wrought widespread devastation on supplies and crops across large swaths of the island nation. More than half – 800,000 people – are in dire need of immediate food aid.
An emergency field assessment which was conducted by the Government of Haiti, the National Coordination for Food Security (CNSA), the World Food Programme (WFP) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) the week after the hurricane, confirms the pressing need to provide immediate food assistance and help people start rebuilding their livelihoods.
The World Food Programme’s spokesperson in Haiti Alexis Masciarelli said that people in the affected areas have lost everything, adding that “the agriculture is in shatters. There won’t be much production growing from this land for the next six to nine months.”
On WFP’s work in Haiti, Masciarelli said “we are supporting the government to access the most remote locations. Everyday we manage to reach new villages, new population, to bring them much needed nutritious food, to tell them also that they are not forgotten and that we are here to help them rebuild their lives.”
Speaking about life affected by the hurricane, Fortunée Mirlande, a mother of two, who is a resident in Torbek in the south department of Haiti said “we had lots of banana trees, coconuts, we grew rice, maize, millet here in our compound. But we have lost it all.”
According to WFP, losses of subsistence crops in the Department of Sud have been near total. Almost 90 percent of the department’s forest and fruits trees were severely damaged; the remaining 10 percent are not likely to be productive this season.
In the Department of Grande-Anse, agriculture has been virtually wiped out, warehouses have suffered serious damage, and the availability of local produce is now reduced to fruit fallen from trees. Around 50 percent of livestock were lost in some areas of the department.
On Haiti’s southern coast, fishing activities are paralyzed due to nets, traps, boats and engines being washed away by flooding. As a result, income that families might use to buy food is nearly nonexistent.
WFP said that Haiti is in urgent needs of $56 million to meet the food assistance needs of people affected by Hurricane Matthew over the next three months.
The country suffered a massive earthquake in January 2010, in which more than 200,000 people lost their lives. Tens of thousands of people still live in tents or makeshift shelters.
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