distributions

(Forgive me if I've written about these things before. I lose track. I'm impressed how the more regular bloggers manage it. Perhaps I'll have to start keeping notes on each entry.)

Setting up a distribution takes time. It's not just a matter of loading the trucks, driving to a location, then unloading as people come to you. I've also written about beneficiary identification, and that is the first stage. Following that, we return and explain to the community about what we are going to do, and when, and who will benefit. Information is the most important resource here. Providing clear information what, when, who and how can save a lot of hassle. 

During that visit, we ask for a list of each family to whom we are going to distribute. In camp settings, very often this list exists already. Camps often develop internal political structure, with a camp leader or committee emerging. This makes our life easier. 

It isn't a good idea just to support camps, however. (Overpopulated camps become dangerous. Latrines and waste disposal are obvious problems. Health deteriorates. Security and safety concerns rapidly rise.) If we just give to the camp, people in the surrounding areas see that the camp is benefitting from aid, and move in. So we aim to give to the surrounding areas too. Lists which include these populations are far less readily available, and usually have to be generated at our request. 

Once we have this list, we can distribute tokens. Using the community leaders to help, we identify one representative from each beneficiary family and hand them a voucher whilst explaining, again, what that voucher means, when and how the distribution will take place, and what the rules of the distribution are. For an average-sized list of 500 families, this can be a lengthy process. Often, it's possible to ask the community leaders to do this part for us, but that has posed some challenges here. Also, the voucher step can often be skipped, but it is a recognised, familiar, and long-standing system in Haiti. Changing the system now is likely to create many more difficulties than it solves. 

Some of these steps can be amalgamated, but even then the process takes time. Two days is what we're allowing for. Within one day would be even better. 

In an ideal world, then you can just turn up with your truck and exchange one voucher for one set of whatever you are distributing. 

Things are not ideal. If people start seeing you're giving out free stuff, they're going to want some. Particularly if they're desperate. And so many of them are. With it raining hard at night now, and many still sleeping in the open, any handout that might give them something to cover their heads with is sought-after. I mentioned previously how distributions have the potential to turn nasty. That means you need to identify a site from which to undertake a distribution from, a site that allows for a safe distribution to take place. That, or you get the military in to act as guards. This is becoming more and more necessary unfortunately, but remains something that should be avoided (these two posts provide good explanations of why). A few of the criteria involved in finding a distribution site include: a secure, sealed compound; an entrance for beneficiaries; a space to undertake the distribution, which needs to be accessible by several trucks; an exit for beneficiaries, preferably away from the entrance; an exit for staff, so that if things go wrong you can get your staff out quickly and quietly, to hop into vehicles that are ready and waiting - this particularly should be away from the entrance for beneficiaries; somewhere for the beneficiaries to queue outside the compound, preferably shaded - people might be standing there several hours (I've heard of one distribution that caused people to stand in line for 8 hours, due to problems with the organisation). In Port-au-Prince, however, there's no spare land. We don't get to pick the sites we want, because they've already been turned into overcrowded informal settlements. Any location that fits some of our criteria is valuable. Then we get to find out if we can use it - we've had owners that are untraceable, owners that have already lent their property to other organisations, and owners who just tried to charge extortionate prices. Those three came in one, short 4 hour session trying to identify a distribution point. 

That there is no space left in Port-au-Prince, for distributions, for settlements, is just one of the reasons why Haiti is so difficult. I shall see if one of my upcoming posts can highlight a few of the others.