HAITI / HURRICANE SEASON

Hurricane season began on 1 June and while experts predict that this year will be less fierce than last year, UNICEF and The European Commission Humanitarian Aid department (ECHO) are stepping up their efforts to provide support for the people of Haiti. Nearly 800 people were killed and about 800,000 people displaced in the storms of 2008. UNICEF

• Categories: News & Features / News Stories / Unifeed
• Video Length: 00:02:16
• Production Date: 4 June 2009
• Asset Language: Original
• Corporate Name: UNITED NATIONS CHILDREN'S FUND - UNICEF
• Subject Topical: DISASTER PREVENTION; DISASTER PREPAREDNESS; DISASTER RELIEF
• Geographic Subject: HAITI
• MAMS Id: U090604f

Description

STORY: HAITI / HURRICANE SEASON
TRT: 2.16
SOURCE: UNICEF
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / CREOLE / NATS

DATELINE: 27-28 NOVEMBER 2008, PORT AU PRINCE / 10 FEBRUARY 2009, CABARET, GONAIVES, HAITI / FILE

Shotlist

27 NOVEMBER 2008, PORT AU PRINCE, HAITI

1. Wide shot, Port au Prince skyline
2. Wide shot, Port au Prince harbour

FILE - SEPTEMBER 2008, GONAIVES, HAITI

3. Wide shot, flooded Gonaives
4. Med shot, flooded streets

28 NOVEMBER 2008, GONAIVES, HAITI

5. SOUNDBITE (Creole) Mother:
“On Wednesday morning I went to look for my house and I didn’t recognize where I was. The rains and flooding had destroyed everything.”
6. Pan, emergency water tanker with ECHO logo

10 FEBRUARY 2009, CABARET, HAITI

7. Med shot, pre-positioned supplies in warehouse
8. Med shot, workers loading supplies

27 NOVEMBER 2008, PORT AU PRINCE, HAITI

9. SOUNDBITE (English) Steve Abbott, UNICEF Water & Sanitation Specialist:
“Bad water is almost as bad as no water at all. Children once they get diarrheal diseases, dehydration can kill a child in hours, literally in hours, not days.”

28 NOVEMBER 2008, GONAIVES, HAITI

10. Wide shot, child walking through streets of Port au Prince
11. Wide shot, Camp Hanna de Pravaille
12. Wide shot, child carrying water on head
13. Med shot, child walking through flood waters

27 NOVEMBER 2008, PORT AU PRINCE, HAITI

14. SOUNDBITE (English) Peter Zangl, ECHO Director General:
“We have decided to come back more substantially to Haiti with a project dealing with malnutrition, health, water, which we have identified as one of the main factors.”
15. Wide shot, market, Port au Prince
16. Wide shot, people walk through piles of steaming garbage

10 FEBRUARY 2009, PORT AU PRINCE, HAITI

17. SOUNDBITE (English) Damien Berrendorf, Representative, ECHO Haiti:
“When you put all these factors together the situation became chronically alarming on humanitarian aspects so that has justified reopening the office to be able to assess the needs and the situation and to respond accordingly and to offer to the ECHO partners and the population a greater and closer monitoring from the humanitarian office.”

27 NOVEMBER 2008, PORT AU PRINCE, HAITI

18. Wide shot, market
19. Wide shot, market
20. Wide shot, child standing on deserted street

Storyline

As 2009’s storm season begins, Haiti holds its breath.

Tropical storm Hanna was one of several that battered Haiti last year. It devastated the city of Gonaives.

SOUNDBITE (Creole) Mother:
“On Wednesday morning I went to look for my house and I didn’t recognize where I was. The rains and flooding had destroyed everything.”

To prepare for this year, UNICEF is working with the European Commission’s humanitarian aid office, or ECHO.

Pre-positioned supplies will ensure that if a storm hits, emergency response can begin as soon as possible.

SOUNDBITE (English) Steve Abbott, UNICEF Water & Sanitation Specialist:
“Bad water is almost as bad as no water at all. Children once they get diarrheal diseases, dehydration can kill a child in hours, literally in hours, not days.”

Haiti is the poorest country in the western hemisphere and deforestation has magnified the damage that storms create.

And there’s a new sense of urgency for ECHO and UNICEF because of the suffering that remains in the wake of 2008.

SOUNDBITE (English) Peter Zangl, ECHO Director General:
“We have decided to come back more substantially to Haiti with a project dealing with malnutrition, health, water, which we have identified as one of the main factors.”

Soaring food prices and social unrest have added to those challenges, making a permanent ECHO presence a necessity.

SOUNDBITE (English) Damien Berrendorf, Representative, ECHO Haiti:
“When you put all these factors together the situation became chronically alarming on humanitarian aspects so that has justified reopening the office to be able to assess the needs and the situation and to respond accordingly and to offer to the ECHO partners and the population a greater and closer monitoring from the humanitarian office.”

UNICEF and ECHO are intensifying their efforts to ensure that if storms strike this year that they do not place a more intolerable burden on a country that even in the best of times struggles to meet the basic needs of its citizens.