Real-time Evaluation of the ERU Psychosocial Support Component Deployment to Haiti Earthquake 2010

On 12 January 2010 an earthquake of a magnitude of 7.0 on the Richter scale struck Haiti, the epicentre being just 22 km from the densely populated capital of Port-au Prince. Haiti is the poorest country in the Western hemisphere, ranking 153 out of 177 countries in the UN Human Development Index. Following the earthquake the Red Cross Red Crescent augmented the relief efforts initiated by Haiti Red Cross Society and mobilized its biggest single-country emergency response operation ever. ERU deployments included two mobile hospitals which for the first time deployed psychosocial delegates who worked alongside medical staff, in order to provide an integrated health response.

The Norwegian RC, together with Canadian RC, deployed its rapid deployment emergency hospital to Port-au-Prince. It was initially set up at University Hospital in the centre of Port-au-Prince. After about one month the ERU Hospital moved to Petit Goâve, a town of about 200.000 inhabitants 75 km West of Port-au-Prince. The German and Finnish RC deployed a referral hospital which was set up in a sports stadium in the area of Carrefour in Port-au-Prince. The hospital served the camp that was set up next to the stadium and the area of Carrefour in general.

The present real-time evaluation (RTE) was conducted in order to document the effects of integrating psychosocial action in the emergency response. It took place from 19-28 February 2010 and was conducted by the IFRC Psychosocial Support Centre’s technical adviser. The psychosocial delegates, medical and administrative staff of the two hospitals are the main sources of information presented in the report.