PORT AU PRINCE, Haiti, CMC -The World Food Programme (WFP) says more than a month after Hurricane Melissa slammed the Caribbean, devastated communities still require assistance.
“We cannot forget Haiti,” said WFP regional director, Lola Castro, speaking from the capital, Port-au-Prince, while also appealing for Jamaica, Cuba, and the Dominican Republic.
More than 80 people were killed, and an estimated six million were affected by the category five hurricane, regarded as among the most intense in the Atlantic on record.
The WFP official placed particular emphasis on Haiti, which is already grappling with challenges, including gang violence, mainly in the capital, and food insecurity. Roughly 5.7 million people, over half the population, are going hungry, and 1.4 million nationwide are displaced.
Hurricane Melissa dumped heavy rains on southern Haiti, impacting 1.2 million people. Castro has just returned from the town of Petit-Goâve, where the river burst its banks and “people had to escape from their houses in the middle of the night through rivers of mud.
At least 25 people are reported to have died, and the WFP official said she met “women and men in total distress” who are trying to rebuild their lives after losing their loved ones, homes, livelihoods, crops, and cattle.
WEP, alongside other UN agencies, NGOs, and the government, was on the ground “from day one,” providing food and then cash transfers that allow people to make their own purchasing decisions.
Women told her they would use the cash transfers to buy food, soap, and other immediate necessities.
“We also talked with a group of youth who are organized, trying to help these communities to restart their lives. And what they ask is, ‘Please don’t forget us. Don’t forget us, because a month-and-a-half ago we were in all the news, but now we need continued support.’”
The hurricane also caused catastrophic damage in western Jamaica and eastern Cuba, and the WFP has reached more than 725,000 people across the four countries.
“We are trying now to really work on recovery and rehabilitation through several tools,” Castro said, such as school feeding programmes and supporting government efforts to boost social protection through registering everyone who has been affected by the disaster.
“But what is very clear in Haiti and in the whole region is that we need to invest much more, as we have done this time, on anticipatory action.”
WFP undertook extensive emergency preparedness work before the hurricane hit.
These measures included sending messages advising Haitians of the impending storm, reaching some 3.5 million nationwide, and distributing advance cash transfers to more than 50,000 people. Teams in Cuba also moved food aid from the east to the west of the island.
“But we need to do much more of that. We also need to ensure that our simulations and preparedness mechanisms are ready.”
Castro highlighted examples such as microinsurance payments, which enable smallholder farmers in Haiti – who provide food used in WFP’s “homegrown” school meals programmes – to keep on producing.
“These are new mechanisms and tools that we need to do much more in the region, in the Caribbean, because we know every year there will be hurricanes or earthquakes, like we saw last year in Cuba,” she said.
“We really need to work harder to build the resilience of these populations that are permanently affected so that food insecurity doesn’t become a trend but is reduced, with the communities working for themselves and building their own resilience.”
WFP is seeking $83 million to reach 1.3 million people across the Caribbean affected by Hurricane Melissa. And roughly half the funding has been received.
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