The earthquake that struck Haiti one month ago is by far the worst disaster zone I have ever seen. The massive scale of the emergency has prompted the Red Cross's largest relief effort for any single country in the organisation's history. Port-au-Prince looks like it has been bombed to a pulp; the city is the epitome of Ground Zero.
The most basic needs still have to be catered for, although steps towards the longer-term recovery of communities are already being taken. Haiti's problems are historic, entrenched and clearly cannot be solved by aid agencies alone. However, at this critical stage, agencies must take the time to consider how their actions in the upcoming months – and in the case of the Red Cross, years – will impact on a society already on the brink.
Not only has this disaster devastated hundreds of thousands of lives and destroyed the country's physical infrastructure, it also threatens to create divisions between and within communities, breaking up under this time of extreme stress. Communities are being relocated to camps, shelter is in short supply and the air is thick with the palpable tensions both created by and exacerbated by this disaster.
Social networks are known to sustain people during disasters and can stop natural disasters spiralling out of control and turning into complex political emergencies. This danger is particularly acute in a politically fragile country like Haiti. In Port-au-Prince these networks are even more important as they often take the place of the strong family networks more associated with rural communities.
Keeping communities together also protects vulnerable groups such as women, children and the elderly, and is even more important if they are relocated to camps. If possible, transitional shelter should be located as close as possible to the sites of their homes, so that materials can be salvaged and previous community support networks maintained. Conditions in camps are dire: many are littered with human waste and you can see women bathing in the open, their dignity severely compromised. This is something that the Red Cross can, and is, solving by providing sanitation and shelter.
Through the death and destruction shines the sheer strength and resilience of the courageous Haitian people. It is incredible to see how they are finding ways to cope with the disaster and support each other. Even in the middle of a disaster, communities still have the ability to start rebuilding their livelihoods, stimulating the local economy. We are already seeing small businesses get back on their feet amid the rubble. This is why injections of cash, for example through cash distributions or cash for work schemes, are so important. Cash stimulates the local economy and keeps prices low. Crucially, it empowers people to contribute to their own recovery by giving them choice and buying power.
Aid agencies must take care not to feed into notions of Haitians as helpless and passive victims. This image could not be further from the truth. For example, despite many of them losing everything, I saw Haitian Red Cross volunteers sleep in the streets at night and then return tirelessly to the camps every morning to assist with the relief effort. The country is full of local heroes.
But what does this mean for the long term? Can Haiti ever recover from a disaster of this magnitude? There is no simple answer but we know from our long experience of working in disaster-stricken countries that keeping communities together is one of the most important factors in building resilience to future disasters. And, in the short term, we can help to give people back some of their dignity by providing the essential basics such as toilets, clean water and temporary shelter – as the Red Cross already is for hundreds of thousands of displaced people.
For a country that sits on a fault line and has a long history of humanitarian crises, the need for communities to be able to prevent and cope with disasters is a concrete way to save lives, protect livelihoods and prevent such shocks from crippling development. This will also help to ensure that Haiti does not become dependent on handouts for decades – something we need to avoid at all costs – but is left safer and stronger.
Clearly the relief needs are urgent and more needs to be done now. But in the rush to give people the help they so desperately need it's vital that our support strengthens and unites communities instead of weakening and dividing them, helping them down the road to a better future.