Because of hurricane Matthew, which swept across Haiti on October 4 with speeds of up to 230 kilometres per hour, there are more than 1,000 deaths and hundreds of thousands of people need help. There was an acute lack of basic facilities such as shelter, sanitation, clean drinking water, food and medical aid. UN organisations and major international aid organisations such as the (International) Red Cross and Médecins Sans Frontières were massively present with troops and supplies to ensure dignified shelter. Afterwards, just like after the earthquake of 12 January 2010, there will undoubtedly be a big silence upon the struggling victims.
The Haitian Association in The Netherlands (www.hvin.nl) is greatly concerned and has organised fundraising events for the victims in the area which has been completely wiped off the map.
People are medically treated, but get traumatised afterwards. This is because money for the reconstruction, in a slimmed-down form, ends up in places it is not intended for and abundantly disappears in pockets that are not meant for that. Aid organisations are not the most transparent of organisations and tent camps for temporary shelter turn into swampy slums. They are trouble spots for crime and outbreaks of infectious diseases.