- Making it Work (MIW) is a global multi-stakeholder initiative supporting the effective implementation of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD).
- Source is an international information support center designed to strengthen the management, use and impact of information on health and disability.
- The U.S. Campaign to Ban Landmines and Cluster Bombs, currently coordinated by Handicap International, is a coalition of thousands of people and U.S. non-governmental organizations working to convince the U.S. government to join the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty and the 2008 Convention on Cluster Munitions.
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“The biggest humanitarian crisis I have ever experienced”
Laurent Davy, 36, recently returned from Haiti, a country he knows well from the three years he spent there on behalf of Action contre la Faim. He was the assistant head of mission for Handicap International in the field for the two months following the earthquake. “The city of Port-au-Prince was the most severely affected area. The major highways and roads have been cleared, or are in the process of being cleared, while the houses and buildings destroyed are being cleared away gradually, by hand, since there is no heavy equipment. But more than two months after the disaster, what's really striking is the omnipresence of the “homeless”, in public areas, in stadiums, in the gardens. The lack of space is a problem, since there are only a very few open areas in Port-au-Prince - the city has some 2.5 million inhabitants, but it was built to house 300,000.
Although the working conditions are difficult and made worse by traffic problems and overcrowding, Handicap International has been able to implement its wide-reaching programmes. “It's the biggest mission ever organised by the association, with more than 70 expatriate staff involved. Because of the particular fields it operates in, Handicap International has an important role to play in this emergency situation. In terms of logistics, the inter-agency platform is a huge machine, with a major mobilisation capacity, enabling us to provide real support to other humanitarian stakeholders. In the field of health, the support provided in hospitals, disability focal points and the temporary prostheses workshop, in association with our partners, gives us a central role to play in meeting people's needs. Our operations in the Petit-Goâve area also respond to the acute needs of the population, which has been severely affected by the earthquake, and which had to wait to receive aid, while most NGOs were focusing on Port-au-Prince.”
Handicap International's operation requires a constant effort on the part of its teams. In two months, like everyone sent to Haiti, Laurent did not have a single day's rest. “The teams lived in highly precarious conditions for a long time, not counting the hours they worked, even though their accommodation was sometimes very basic. We gave priority to our actions, to ensure the programmes were implemented as early as possible to benefit the population.” The association is expected to remain in the field for several years in order to implement the programmes that it has launched. “It's a country experiencing a chronic crisis, with disasters that destabilise it a little more each time. To move forward, we really have to concentrate on our core activities and remain closely involved.”
