Two months on from the devastating earthquake of 12 January, Haiti is beginning to rebuild itself.

Thanks to your continued support, ActionAid is at work distributing food, non-food items, shelter and healthcare to the people who need it most.

However, now that the rainy season is due to start, the dangers are even greater for the estimated milion people who have been made homeless.

We are currently providing relief in six camps in the Mariani area of Port-au-Prince, as well as support in Philippeau (south-west) and Jacmel (south-east) through our partner organisation CROSE.ActionAid is distributing tarpaulin sheets to 3,000 families – 18,000 people – in earthquake-struck areas of Haiti.

The sheets have already been given out to more than 800 families in the Mariani district just outside Port au Prince where ActionAid is working in six camps and the rest will be distributed this week.

The United Nations has advised that tarpaulins rather than tents are more suitable in the crowded urban areas of Port-au-Prince where more than a million people were made homeless by the earthquake on January 12.
Dorcilien Donald, 18, lives with his pregnant girlfriend in a camp in Mariani where ActionAid works.

“Before getting tarpaulin sheet from ActionAid, we used a bed sheet over our heads to sleep at night,” he said. “Now with the tarpaulin, we have been able to make a small shelter with a bed. We no longer have to run from the rain.”

Daniel Gedeon, ActionAid’s Emergency Response Manager in Haiti, said: “The rains have started in Port-au-Prince and people will find it very difficult to cope without tents or tarpaulin sheets. It is extremely important that the people get plastic sheeting or tarpaulins to waterproof what little shelter they have, otherwise they will find it very hard to cope through the next few months.”

ActionAid is continuing to distribute food to 18,000 people in Mariani and in Jacmel, a city in the south of Haiti which was also hard hit by the earthquake.

In addition ActionAid has distributed other emergency relief items such as blankets, kitchen equipment, toothbrushes, towels and clothing to thousands of families. More than 1,300 people have received basic health services through a link up with Cuban-trained doctors and 12,000 people are being helped with emotional care through ActionAid–trained community volunteers.

• On the ground: ActionAid staff blog from Haiti
• Real Lives: More stories from the survivors of the earthquake
• Staff in Haiti have been working around the clock to provide life-saving emergency aid
• Haiti Crisis Relief Homepage

We urgently need your help to stop this terrible disaster from turning into a long-term catastrophe. We have set up Emergency Appeal pages where you can help the thousands of Haitians who desperately need your support:

• In Brazil
• In the United Kingdom
  If you live in the UK, you can also donate through the multi-agency "Disaster Emergency Committee" (DEC)
• In the United States
• In Italy
• In Australia
• In Spain
• In Sweden

Image note:
Seasonal rains and hurricanes spell trouble for Haiti in the best of times, but with hundreds of thousands of people living in flimsy makeshift shelters after last month's earthquake, this year the dangers are much greater. ©REUTERS/Carlos Barria Courtesy of www.alertnet.org