Dakar, February 14, 2024 – The humanitarian situation in Haiti is alarming.The World Health Organization (WHO) recently described this as the worst crisis in the Americas in 2024. [1]. ALIMA (International Alliance for Medical Action) is one of the few international medical humanitarian NGOs working in Haiti and can attest to the extreme severity of this crisis.
“In Port-au-Prince, the majority of medical facilities are dysfunctional. Two days after Arima visited the last private hospital in the Cité Soleil district, the hospital was attacked and looted by gangs and patients had to be evacuated. The only remaining public hospital in the area lacks everything: drinking water, electricity, equipment, medicine and staff,” said Dr. Rodrigue Alitanou, ALIMA's emergency manager.
ALIMA's arrival has been eagerly awaited by the country's health authorities. As emergency response experts, ALIMA plays a key role in combating cholera outbreaks. Haiti is grappling with a cholera outbreak that flared up again in October 2022, according to reports. At the end of last year, more than 70,000 suspected cases and more than 1,000 deaths were reported. To address this health challenge, ALIMA provides patient care and raises awareness through education and communication campaigns at the facility and community level.
ALIMA's mobile clinic, aimed at providing primary care to internally displaced persons, will also be operational. In addition, specialists will provide emergency obstetric and neonatal care in the maternity ward of the Chancellor Hospital in Cité Soleil. For more than a year, the majority of women have given birth outside health facilities without medical assistance.
The care will begin in the communes of Cité Soleil, Tabaret and Port-au-Prince, and will later extend to the communes of Carrefour and Croix-de-Bouquet.
In recent years, Haiti's capital has been ravaged by violence and poverty. The situation deteriorated rapidly, reaching alarming levels in 2023, prompting a United Nations-backed international security mission. While the mission's deployment has been delayed, residents continue to suffer from gang violence. In 2023, violence claimed the lives of his 5,000 people, including more than 2,700 civilians. [2]. More than 310,000 people have been forced to flee their homes, according to a United Nations report released in January, double the number of people displaced in 2023 and at least 15 times more than in 2021. Equivalent to.
This escalation in violence has severely hampered the ability of health authorities and organizations to respond to emergencies.According to projections, in 2024 he will require more than 5.5 million people, or almost half of the population, need humanitarian aid and protection [3]. As patient access is a potential challenge, ALIMA will rely on a tried and true partnership model and partner with Haitian NGOs to bring health services to the hardest-hit areas. This cooperation will strengthen emergency medical delivery capacity, enhance the development and support of educational campaigns and epidemiological research, and strengthen the overall response to this humanitarian crisis.
This emergency mission in Haiti reflects ALIMA's core identity of providing care where no one goes and ensuring the long-term effectiveness of its work.
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2024 Health Emergency Appeal, WHO, 25 January 2024
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Report by UN Secretary-General António Guterres, January 23, 2024
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Ocha, 2023
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melanie blonde
communication director
Twitter: @ALIMA_ORG
Email: melanie.blond@alima.ngo
