Home  News Regional News Food stays in ports, Haitians still hungry
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Food stays in ports, Haitians still hungry |
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Written by Dr. Garth A. Rose
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Friday, 25 July 2008 |
According to an associated press report, tons of food donated to rescue Haiti’s hungry are still locked in warehouses and ports in Haiti. The food, which was donated following the riots that raged in the nation’s rural areas and its capital, Port-au-Prince, last April due to food shortage and rising food prices, came from all around the world including here in South Florida.
After the riots it was reported that the U.S. government and United Nations World Food Program promised a combined total of $117 million this year in food and agricultural aid. The food aid included 40,000 tons of beans, rice and other food staples, of which 16,000 tons were sent to Haiti and should have been immediately distributed to quell the ravaging hunger affecting some areas of the country’s population. But according to the AP report the USAID has reported that up to early June less than 2 percent of this supply has been distributed.
More than 11,000 tons is still in Haitian ports, and except for 724 tons, the rest is languishing in World Vision International and Catholic Relief Service warehouses. World Vision, contracted by the U.S. government to distribute the food, replacing the previous distributor, Save the Children, is in turn blaming USAID for the delays claiming that there was a hold up by Congress approving funding to facilitate distribution. The U.S. Embassy has said there were also delays in distribution due to the hand over of the distribution process from one agency to the other.
Some Haitians believe that a special facility should have been provided to receive the massive supply of food sent to the country outside the country’s ports because the country has been experiencing congestion at the traditional ports as the government customs agency tries to stop drug smuggling and improve the collection of import duties. “The distribution of the food in the ports will be bogged down for a long time, unless the government provides special amenities to store the food supply,” Louise Schtainne, a Haitian merchant in Port-au-Prince told the National Weekly.
The distribution of food is worse in the rural areas of Haiti where World Vision said that delivery has been affected by logistical problems and the high cost of fuel in Haiti which stands at approximately $6 per gallon. As a result, because of the complications existing in getting food to the rural areas, the focus has been on distribution in the urban areas.
According to the AP report, aid workers are urging immediate help for the poorest families, especially those in the rural areas where over 4 million people, almost half of Haiti’s population of 8.7 million, reside. Malnutrition is rife, especially among children in the rural areas. It is claimed by a Haitian hospital, Albert Schweitzer, in Deschapelles, that one in three children are malnourished.
Farmers, besides needing food, need assistance in growing food to break the dependency on imported food. However, farmers that lack the necessary equipment to farm effectively, have to resort to eating the seeds that they should have planted.
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