While aid has started to flow into areas of Port-au-Prince, tensions among survivors seeking food, water, and basic necessities continue to be a serious issue among displaced populations, reported the Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) International.

“It’s been difficult finding food. People push you to get something to eat,” said Michele, a young woman who is eight months pregnant and currently living in a camp for internally displaced persons in Carrefour, a neighborhood of Port-au-Prince. In the last days, she has depended on camp neighbors to get food for her during distributions.

ADRA expects that increased access to food will help ease tensions. On January 25, ADRA provided nearly 100,000 pounds (45 tons) of rice, beans, oil, and salt for approximately 15,000 displaced survivors living on the campus of the Haitian Adventist University in southwest Port-au-Prince.

“ADRA’s food distribution can mean the difference between life and death for thousands who have been so severely affected by this disaster,” said Julio Muñoz, a member of ADRA’s emergency response team in Haiti.

The distribution was implemented with the security support of local police and Brazilian United Nations peacekeepers. This is the latest of several food distributions that ADRA has completed since a powerful quake hit Haiti on January 12.

This follows others distributions, including one on January 23 in which ADRA provided food, water, clothing, and medical supplies for 3,300 individuals throughout 11 sites in the disaster-affected area. More than 1,000 of these beneficiaries were children living at local orphanages in the Carrefour neighborhood. The affected children received basic food items, including bread, bananas, rice, crackers and milk, as well as diapers and more than 8,000 bottles of Pedialyte®, which replaces the fluids and electrolytes lost due to diarrhea or vomiting.

ADRA also distributed more than 12,000 pounds (5,488 kilos) of pinto beans, approximately 760 gallons (2,880 liters) of oil, and more than 1,100 pounds (500 kilos) of salt donated by the World Food Programme (WFP), and 20,000 6-ounce (200 milliliters) packs of nutritional drinks provided by the Spanish International Cooperation Agency (AECID), which will feed an estimated 2,000 children at two local schools for a week.

“In the capital city, millions remain in need of the most basic necessities,” reported Muñoz. “ADRA is committed to the people of Haiti, and will continue to respond to their needs.”

ADRA is a non-governmental organization present in 125 countries providing sustainable community development and disaster relief without regard to political or religious association, age, gender, race or ethnicity.

For more information about ADRA International, visit www.adra.org
In Switzerland: www.adra.ch
In Germany: www.adra.de
In Austria: www.adra.at