Haiti Orphan Appeal: Children in Safe haven

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Temporary shelter (safe haven) for children

As at midnight 25 Jan, sixteen lone children have been placed with SOS families in our village to date. SOS  relief workers are now starting to visit camps and orphanages to assess the needs and numbers of especially vulnerable children; giving priority to lone children under five years old. This is going very slowly because of the strict and thorough registration of children in the emergency camps, mainly conducted by UNICEF and Save the Children. Indeed whilst this registration has been going on children have already been reported as disappeared from hospitals and camps where they are most exposed to abduction.
We have started putting up tents for the temporary shelter for additional children; still more quality tents are required.

Reactivation of the family strengthening programmes

575 children from 2 to 8 years old were previously identified in the community needing support to keep their families together; these children and others up to the age of twelve are back receiving day-care in our centres. Food packages being distributed through three new community centres, bringing the total to nine in operation and to the families of the children care for in the community centres (estimation of 100 families, of average ten people each).

Safety for all the SOS families

Twenty four young adults who had reached independence from us have returned to the village villages, two out of three youth shelters for older children (rented flats) are in good condition. Former SOS children are also coming to the villages seeking help and safety, some of them with children (in total 40 people). Their main need is shelter and jobs as little is operating. We did not anticipate this arrival and are working out how best to help them within limited means.

Temporary shelter and support for the SOS  relief workers

A need assessment with staff is in process; so far eight of our staff have said that they have nowhere safe to live. We need to rely on these staff in the weeks to come. We have provided food for all of the 80 co-workers placed at Port-au-Prince (staff from the National Office and the SOS Children's Village Santo) and material to build tents. We have had a request to set up a temporary shelter (tent) on the village compound today from two other co-workers (at the moment four co-workers are living in the village grounds). We have already worked out that whilst we can provide shelter for our staff and some support with food for families we cannot accomodate the extended families of everyone.