CARE staff in Haiti interview local people who lost their homes in the 2010 earthquake. © CARE / Evelyn Hockstein.CARE began working in Haiti in 1954, providing relief assistance to people affected by Hurricane Hazel.
In the years that followed, CARE began to shift its focus towards long-term development. We established projects in maternal and child nutrition, community development, education and health for preschool children, health care, water and sanitation, agriculture, income generating activities, small enterprise development, and also emergency response.
Since 2007 CARE's focus had been on discovering the root cause of poverty: weak governance, social exclusion, lack of economic opportunities, and insufficient access to quality education.
Emergency Response
The 7.0-magnitude earthquake that struck Haiti on January 12, 2010 killed more than 222,000 people and left nearly 1.2 million people homeless.
Tens of thousands of homes and businesses were damaged or destroyed in the capital of Port-au-Prince and surrounding areas.
CARE responded immediately with food, water, emergency supplies and shelter, health support, and water and sanitation facilities.
CARE’s has completed construction of 2,474 transitional shelters - enabling families to move out of tented camps. The people who receive the shelters help with their construction, so that they feel more of a sense of ownership.
CARE is implementing a five-year disaster response plan to help people recover and rebuild. Haiti faces many challenges in the aftermath of the earthquake, including a major outbreak of cholera. CARE is responding to this by raising awareness about cholera prevention, so far reaching over 1.7 million people, and with treatment and distributing life saving basic sanitation tools. CARE has chlorinated water in the Port-au-Prince region - which has enabled 500,000 people to have safe water every day.
Previously, CARE responded to a series of natural and man-made disasters in 1998, 2004, and 2005 and 2008.
Governance
CARE runs projects in a number of areas which encourage better governance, encouraging community participation. These include youth parliaments promoting children's rights, and especially those of girls.
CARE also works with community radio stations, strengthing the stations technologically and enabling journalists at the stations to develop their skills.
We work with local governments to encourage transparency, accountability and inclusiveness.
Local Development
Through enabling access to small savings and loans (particularly for women), as well as tools and training, CARE aims to improve economic opportunities and increase families’ incomes.
Focus is placed on strengthening self-reliance, social demand, and reinforcing the voices of the poor to claim their rights, in the end reducing poverty.
