Top Ten Critical Needs Facing Those Displaced by the Earthquake in Haiti

The Women’s Refugee Commission has identified 10 pressing needs that must be met during the first weeks and months of an emergency to ensure the safety and well-being of people displaced by the emergency.

1. Keep displaced persons safe. Ensure that they are settled in a secure location.
2. Provide safe access to basic needs, including food, safe and appropriate cooking fuel, potable water, sanitation and shelter.
3. Communicate with the people most affected and ensure their safety whether or not they have legal status or official documents. Ensure every adult is provided with individual documentation that allows him or her to access key services.
4. Provide life-saving health care, including reproductive health care. Ensure there are enough health workers and all necessary medicines and supplies to prevent and respond to infectious diseases and other health needs. Establish the following priority reproductive health services for women and girls.
5. Prevent and respond to sexual violence. Protect women and children from sexual violence by ensuring safe access to food, cooking fuel, water, latrines and other basic necessities. Offer medical services and psychosocial support to survivors of sexual violence.
6. Reduce the transmission of HIV. Enforce use of infection control measures by health workers; make condoms freely available; and ensure blood for transfusion is safe by screening it for HIV and other blood-borne diseases.
7. Prevent excess maternal and newborn mortality and morbidity. Ensure skilled birth attendants and supplies for normal births and mangament of obstetric and newborn complications at health facilities; establish and inform communities of emergency referral system 24 hours per day 7 days per week; provide contraceptives to meet demand and distribute clean delivery kits to visibly pregnant women.
8. Identify vulnerable individuals with specific needs, such as unaccompanied minors, child- or women-headed households, pregnant women, victims of trafficking and persons with disabilities. Secure their care and physical security. Monitor, report and respond to violations against children.
9. Provide education to children and young people. Offer structure for children and restore hope and a sense of normalcy in a safe, adult-supervised space. Teach basic literacy and numeracy skills, and provide vocational training for young people.
10. Provide economic opportunities and preserve existing economic assets. Build on displaced persons’ skills, taking into account local market needs, to provide the best chance for a sustainable income. Protect women and girls from sexual exploitation by providing them with economic opportunities.

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About the Women’s Refugee Commission
The Women's Refugee Commission advocates vigorously for laws, policies and programs to improve the lives and protect the rights of refugee and displaced women, children and young people, including those seeking asylum—bringing about lasting, measurable change.