Caritas issues relief appeals for Haiti, Dominican Republic, and Sudanese refugees

Social justice news
June 2004

Amnesty International calls for inquiry into 'War on Terror' detentions
Bishops urge greater Cuban - U.S. contact
CAFTA signed with little fanfare; FTAA next?
Caritas in relief appeal for Haiti, D.R., and Sudanese refugees
Hopes are high for renewable energy in 2004
Religious leaders urge U.S. 'reengagement' in Mideast peace process

Caritas issues relief appeals for Haiti, Dominican Republic, and Sudanese refugees
Caritas Internationalis has launched a $500,000 appeal for aid to assist member organisation Caritas Haiti provide badly needed food and medicine to the victims of the devastating floods that have killed over a thousand people and destroyed countless towns and villages. The number of dead in Haiti is expected to reach 1,500.

Relief for the people affected by the flooding is arriving from Caritas, the international community, and neighbouring states, but more is needed in the immediate short term to stave off the inevitable spread of disease and water-born illnesses that go hand and hand with flood disasters. Corpses of flood victims unable to be retrieved and bodies buried in too shallow graves are a major concern of doctors fearing an epidemic. The U.S.'s Catholic Relief Services also seeks support to respond to the devastation, which began after torrential rains led to widespread flooding in the hemisphere's poorest nation.

Caritas also plans a separate appeal for flood relief for the Dominican Republic.

Caritas Internationalis additionally seeks over $2 million for aid to Sudanese refugees in Chad. Caritas Secretary General, Duncan MacLaren, recently visited the refugee camps in Chad and said the situation there is deteriorating into a humanitarian disaster.

Hunger and malnutrition among the growing number of people in the camps and those on the move are the greatest concerns. Secretary General MacLaren called the situation "dire" and reported that some refugees were forced to eat leaves off of trees in areas where there is absolutely no food available.

A humanitarian crisis of enormous proportions is now inevitable in western Sudan's Darfur region and up to one million people could die if aid cannot be delivered there swiftly, international officials warned on June 2. "We estimate right now if we get relief in, we'll lose a third of a million people, and if we don't the death rates could be dramatically higher, approaching a million people," U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) chief Andrew Natsios predicted after a high-level UN aid meeting.

Most of the refugees have fled violence in the Sudanese region of Darfur. It is estimated that at least 150,000 people have fled to Chad with one million people displaced in Sudan. International aid agencies have appealed for the creation of a humanitarian corridor to Dafur, to assist people affected by the violence and drought.

One Sudanese mother who fled the region five months ago with her husband and four children told Caritas workers in the camp that her family set out from their village on foot in the middle of the night after raiders stole all their cattle, leaving them with just one calf. They later learned that their village had been burnt to the ground, leaving nothing behind.

"We arrived with nothing apart from a bag of millet and a few cooking things," said the Sudanese mother. "Here they give us food because we don’t have any money to buy things. I don't know what the future holds for my family."

Caritas Chad is managing three refugee camps that host approximately 10,000 people each, with more arriving each day. Food supplies are a constant concern—at least 2,700 tons of food must reach the camps to feed the 60,000 refugees over the next three months. Trucking in clean water when water cannot be found near the camps is also a pressing need.

In a month, the rainy season will begin in Chad, putting further obstacles in front of aid workers as roads and bridges will inevitably be washed away and access severely hindered. Caritas is racing to secure supplies for the camps before the rains begin. In Southern Chad, camps are predicted to be inaccessible to vehicles for up to six months.

In Haiti, Caritas volunteers have distributed emergency aid materials such as clothes, food, mattresses, sheets and mosquito nets, as well as medicines to the hospital of the hard-hit town of Jimani. The floods have been particularly fatal for Haiti due to the systematic deforestation of the country.

Surveys have found that Haiti is deforested by as much as 90 percent, leaving the fragile island ripe for landslides. Torrential rainstorms have provoked mudslides that have buried entire towns. Some villages located at foothills, like the farming town of Mapou where 1,300 homes were destroyed, are now completely submerged.

Caritas Internationalis is a confederation of 162 Catholic relief, development and social service organisations working in over 200 countries and territories.

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