Haiti Earthquake Case Study

In 2010 the country of Haiti experienced a 7.0 magnitude earthquake and many lives were lost and buildings are slowly being rebuilt today. Through the years after this disaster, many countries from around the world have come to its aid in rebuilding.

Haiti is a prime example of how human needs in one area of the world are interdependent with social conditions elsewhere in the world. Haiti, for most of its history has been overwhelmed with economic

The Big Truck That Went By: How the World Came to Save Haiti and Left Behind a Disaster is an inside look into the realities behind international aid and intervention. The book answers the question of whether or not international efforts in Haiti really benefited the nation in the long term. The book argues that the international community failed in their efforts to rebuild Haiti due to their mismatched military approaches, failed monetary pledges and how the how billions of dollars were ineffective, having served only short term needs instead of, rebuilding solid foundations and institutions that would serve as the first step toward sustainable development.

Over the recent years the military has had a greater involvement with aid programs, this was most notable from her experiences in Iraq and Afghanistan. Militarization of aid politicizes it for something that shouldn't be political. As the author believes humanitarian aid needs to exist in a neutral humanitarian space in order to remain its legitimacy and maintain close ties to the community level. From one example mentioned in Damned Nations, during the 2005 earthquake in Pakistan, international aid agencies that worked closely with communities showed greater progress and effectiveness (Nutt, 92). In essence this administered a positive attitude towards westerners, and symbolized progress within hostile nations. Aid that is not militarized allows civilians to feel safe access to services and without the fear in putting themselves or their families at risk (Nutt, 92). In comparison military administered aid has proven to lack the same level of trust because civilians inherently become worried about being targeted as collaborators (Nutt, 92). In addition the militarization of aid proves to bring further danger towards humanitarian workers. “Over the past decade, attacks against aid workers have increased 177 percent, with reports of rape, violence, extortion, abduction, and killings” (Nutt, 94). The author states this was reflected from a misjudgment that involving armed militants into

The only housing option the population had was tents and bedsheet houses on sticks because it was advised by the government that it was not safe for anyone to sleep inside their homes, shortly after, many companies offered ways to rebuild the country by creating better housing, it took few months to get rid of some rubbles, since a lot of people lost their homes, tent cities became the new normal which later lasted long term. The Clinton foundation was a major figure in the catastrophe where they raised 30 billion dollars as earthquake relief fund, as stated by the national review ‘The devastating effect of the earthquake on a very poor nation provoked worldwide concern and inspired an outpouring of aid money intended to rebuild Haiti. Countries around the world, as well as private and philanthropic groups such as the Red Cross and the Salvation Army, provided some $10.5 billion in aid, with $3.9 billion of it coming from the United States. People noticed that very little of this

Attention Getter: Who here has heard of the horrible plight of Haiti? Haiti has been through constant suffering everyday due to economic difficulty, lack of food, lack of clean water, hurricanes, and possibly everything that could go wrong with the world. I’m sure no one in their right mind would want to be there now but does anyone know how Haiti became as it is now. Well that’s what I’m about to tell you.

However, in Haiti’s case, it is so entrenched in debt that the government has problems far beyond water and sanitation. In 2008, Haiti was $1.85 billion in debt to other countries, and that figure is only growing (Varma et al., 2008, p. 68). Additionally, countries that were helping reconstruct the physical water system and infrastructure, such as the United States, have been backing out because they know it is unlikely Haiti will repay them. Failed international involvement is a crucial side-effect of a government in disarray. Other nations do not trust Haiti and do not want to enter the scene of turmoil. Consequently, such a shortage of financial resources is harming multiple facets of Haitian lives. For example, the country does not even know how much water it requires for self-sufficiency because the government has not allocated funds to research and development (Stoa, 2015, p. 5). Moreover, water transportation is currently ineffective. The natural geographic location of individuals relative to the water supply puts the metropolitan areas at an advantage. Wealthier individuals have cisterns and can pay a premium for water whereas rural residing Haitians often travel on foot carrying their water in buckets (Varma et al., 2008, p. 70). However, developing more efficient water distribution procedures for the population at large is costly and requires funding the government cannot

The story of Haiti’s healthcare system is unfortunately tied all too closely to disaster, both man-made and nature-born. This paper will briefly discuss the pre-2010 earthquake healthcare environment in Haiti as the uncertainty that exists provides little opportunity to provide a reasoned understanding of its current national healthcare status.

Ultimately, developed and developing nations strive to improve their society. Neither are perfect but developed countries are more adjusted than developing. The United States compared to Haiti has shown much more effective qualities when it comes to health care, economic structure and education. Every country should continue to work forward in assisting their civilians in order for them to

A few years ago, an earthquake struck Haiti causing complete destruction. Earlier last month, a hurricane struck Haiti causing another wave of terror. An already hurt country has been knocked back down. In response to this devastation, the United States is working with the United Nations to help Haiti recover. Money, supplies, and teams are being sent to bring Haiti back up to its feet. However, despite these actions, there are arguments as to whether or not the US is helping enough. Contrary to what some may believe, the US is giving enough aid to Haiti for the recovery process.

On January 12, 2010 on of the world’s deadliest earthquakes struck Haiti. In his book, Humanitarian Aftershocks in Haiti, Mark Schuller analyzes the presence of humanitarian aid agencies following the disaster. He discusses the impacts the aid had on the environment, development and globalization of Haiti.

One way that you can help Haiti is by donating money. This is, ordinarily, the quickest way to help Haiti, in behalf of the innumerable things the money can help pay for. All things considered, this can be inferred from the article, “#PrayForHaiti: 8 Things You Can Do to Help,” where the author implies, “The quickest way to help is to donate money that will be used to provide emergency funding for medical assistance, housing aid, food aid and the countless other rebuilding efforts that are

The response for the natural disasters that hit Haiti in 2010 was slow. Haiti improved the water supply of 340,000 people, supplied drugs to five cholera treatment facilities, provided free medical care to 39,000, and gave tools and seeds to help 23,000 people in farming households to help support themselves. These services not only improved shelters for 34,000 people but gave information to 116,000 people about disaster preparation. Volunteers ran literacy classes for 60,000 vulnerable women to help them support themselves and their families; additionally, they helped defend 25,000 residents from forced eviction. However, 3.5 years after the earthquake, the nation is still struggling with recovery with hundreds of thousands of people still living in tent camps.

What happens when projects and interventions undertaken by international NGOs go wrong? Although my scholarly source understands most of these organizations do not seek to do harm, nonetheless harm occurs. This article by global development believes with a few legal and regulatory frameworks setting out how communities can hold NGOs to account, and with even less support fro communities to engage in such a process, there is a significant accountability deficit at the heart of international NGOs. Here we talk about accountability in regards to how NGOs answer to donors or to the national governments of countries in which they are operating. NGOs should account for the money they spend as contracted agents of donors. And they should, of course, be working within the parameters of national regulatory frameworks and laws (although the fact that NGOs themselves often sit on the committees that draw up such regulatory systems is troubling). When development interventions go wrong, or do not work the way they were intended, it is often no one's fault, due rather to events beyond any individual or organization's control. But people's lives are affected, sometimes (as when cholera sweeps through a refugee camp) with the most tragic of consequences (Global Development). Systems for recognizing the "rights" of beneficiaries and the obligations of agencies do exist. The Sphere Project, for example, sets out in great detail the minimum standards to be expected in, say, a refugee camp. But there are few legal frameworks capable of holding NGOs to account, or setting out in detail exactly when, where and how communities might be able to hold an organization accountable for an intervention that has gone disastrously wrong (Global Development). Unless NGOs and humanitarian agencies can be legally challenged and held to account, such principles and minimum standards do not do enough to establish real

Working with over 80 partner agencies monthly to provide a “bridge” of support throughout Haiti