HUMANITARIAN CRISIS IN HAITI: PREMIÈRE URGENCE INTERNATIONALE SENDS A TEAM TO THE SCENE
Press release
Humanitarian catastrophe in Haiti: Première Urgence Internationale sends a team to the scene
Paris, 6th October 2016 – Hurricane Matthew, which hit Haiti on 4th October, has plunged the country into a new humanitarian crisis. The damage is considerable in the affected area. More than 350,000 people are waiting for humanitarian aid and nearly 14,500 people are displaced. In the face of this crisis, Première Urgence Internationale decided to send their teams to the scene.
After Hurricane Matthew had passed through Haiti, a new humanitarian crisis hit the country. The southern regions (Grand’Anse and Nippes) were the most affected areas. More than 350,000 people require humanitarian assistance and nearly 14,500 people are displaced. Heavy flooding has led to fishing boats and cultivated land being destroyed and a probably loss of livestock. A resurgence of pre-existing epidemics such as cholera, dengue fever and zika virus is also expected.
Première Urgence Internationale decided to send one of its teams to the affected area in order to evaluate the needs and to come to the aid of the affected communities. For Elsa Softic, in charge of emergencies at Première Urgence Internationale, “this particularly catastrophic situation in Haiti requires our NGO to act. The communities need aid to meet their basic needs. We leave for the site in order to evaluate precisely what these needs are as the current situation is preventing us from obtaining reliable data”.
About Première Urgence Internationale
Première Urgence Internationale is non-profit, non-political, secular non-governmental organisation of international solidarity whose vocation is to defend the fundamental rights of people, as defined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948. Our objective: to enable communities to sustainably recover their independence and dignity.
Our teams take action each day in order to cover the basic needs of civil victims in danger, marginalised and excluded by the effects of natural disasters, wars and situations of economic breakdown. In this way, we take action in related areas such as healthcare, food safety, nutrition, rehabilitation, construction of infrastructure, access to water, hygiene and sanitisation, economic boosts, education and protection. Première Urgence Internationale provides aid to more than six million people across 21 countries in Africa, Asia, the Middle East and Europe.
More information: www.premiere-urgence.org
Press contact
Sophie Odeh – [email protected] – 01 55 66 99 66
