Since the devastating earthquakes and aftershocks hit Haiti a month ago, Ctrl.Alt.Shift and its partner organisations on the ground have been working tirelessly to help address the immediate needs of those people who’ve had their lives literally turned upside down.

So far we have managed to help over 16,500 people in nine communities, working on sourcing and distributing relief items including food parcels, tents, plastic sheeting, hygiene and baby kits, blankets, cash, medical supplies and clothes.

Distributions are well underway and, with the advantage of our partners’ expertise and local knowledge of the communities where they work, we have been able to organise distributions that target those most in need.

Ctrl.Alt.Shift is working to ensure that our emergency relief work is as effective as possible. For example, the food in our parcels, including rice, beans, tinned sardines, vegetable oil and salt, is being sourced from local markets where possible.

This is very important as country manager for Haiti, Prospery Raymond, explains, “If we just hand out food that has come in from abroad, local farmers will not be able to sell their food and that will create a fresh problem for the farmers.”

Several of our partners are also arranging cash distributions, via banks, to help support local trade, and to allow people to buy what they most need. One of these partners, National Human Rights Defence Network (RNDDH), is working to reach 5,000 people in the town of Petit Goave, west of Port-au-Prince, distributing cash to families. Each family receives £50 to last for approximately a month.

Another partner, Koral, has also been distributing cash and hygiene kits to support families who fled the capital when the quakes struck, as well as organising a communal cooking system to ensure meals for everyone.

(Partner Koral distributing clothing, torches and batteries in Darbonne. These were emergency supplies that they already had stockpiled in Port-au-Prince.)

Ctrl.Alt.Shift and partners in the neighbouring Dominican Republic are also part of the Help Haiti coalition, a group of 23 agencies working together to channel aid overland to Haiti. The coalition has so far delivered around 26 trucks of food and medical supplies reaching more than 52,000 vulnerable people. Ctrl.Alt.Shift is specifically behind Help Haiti’s medical work in Port-au-Prince and the border town of Jimani to help those injured by the quake.

As well as providing emergency aid, we’re now beginning to focus on long-term rebuilding and rehabilitation work. This is a particular concern with the rainy season approaching and the hurricane season only four months away. It is crucial to start helping Haiti increase their ability to deal with natural disasters. Our partners are realising this as they start their reconstruction and recovery work.

Other longer term development work will include covering school fees for children, repairing and rebuilding homes, providing tools and seeds ahead of the planting season and distributing livestock.

It is thanks to people’s donations that we have been able to fund all of this work – enabling us to feed and provide basic relief items to those who have lost everything. The scale of this disaster has posed exceptional challenges and there will be much more to do in the months ahead.

You can donate to the Ctrl.Alt.Shift Haiti earthquake appeal here.