Some smaller groups find better way to feed Haiti

Many food distributions since the Jan. 12 quake have been  uneventful, but U.N. troops at some of Haiti’s largest refugee  camps have fired warning shots and sprayed tear gas to try to  control desperate crowds.

The U.N. World Food Program, which has been coordinating  many of the handouts, acknowledges problems, but says its main  priority is to reach as many people as possible.

The WFP could wait until better systems are in place,  agency spokesmen David Orr and Marcus Prior said in a written  response about the chaotic distributions.

“But we — along with the Haitian authorities and our  humanitarian partners — think it essential to get the food out  quickly to those who need it most, while at the same time  putting in place a more robust distribution system,” they  said.

At the food handouts, young people quickly claim their  places in line, laughing and joking as they know they will be  the first to be served. But as the crowd presses, people start  to push and shove, forming scrums that have repeatedly turned  ugly and dangerous.

The old, the sick and mothers carrying small children are  often left empty-handed.

“You have to be strong to fight for food,” said Olivia  Alexi, 70, who waited near the back of a line of thousands of  people, hungry and despairing, at a camp in downtown  Port-au-Prince, while groups of young men walked away with bags  of food. “It is not easy for an old woman.”

More than two weeks after the quake that killed as many as  200,000 Haitians and left up to 1 million homeless, the  U.S.-led relief operation is struggling with how to supply food  to everyone who needs it and keep hungry people’s anger from  erupting into violence.

Water, an even more immediate need, has largely been taken  care of — an achievement aid groups point to with relief. But  hard-pressed aid workers acknowledge that food is a persistent  problem.

“I think there is sufficient food,” said Lewis Lucke, a  retired U.S. ambassador serving as the American coordinator for  relief and recovery in Haiti. “The issue there is distribution  and security, and security is part of distribution.”

Smaller relief organizations say there is a better way.

Sarah Gillam of ActionAid said her group was keeping its  distributions small and calm by making use of camp residents  and local police for security.

So far, ActionAid has distributed flour, rice, sugar and  corn flour, cans of mackerel and cooking oil to 4,000 people in  Port-au-Prince, and plans to supply another 4,000 in the next  four days.

Aid agency CARE feeds the hungry by giving ration cards to  women, which ensures the food will get to families because men  are more likely to sell it, CARE’s director in Haiti, Sophie  Perez, said. The system has been orderly.

One of the biggest — and calmest — camps in the capital  is in an upscale section of town, on what was once Haiti’s only  golf course.

The camp at the former country club is overseen by, at any  time, by 200 to 400 U.S. soldiers who, with Catholic Relief  Services, Oxfam and other aid groups, are protecting, housing  and providing food and water to 40,000 to 50,000 Haitians.

“We’ve got a function that works,” said Army Captain Jon  Hartsock.

He said the soldiers had developed a program for feeding  the quake survivors since they arrived on Jan. 16, making ample  use of Haitian volunteers and community leaders, and techniques  from sitting down and refusing to hand out more food if anyone  became unruly, to sending anyone who acted up to the back of  the line.

“It’s kind of tough love,” Hartsock said.

This week, Catholic Relief Services began handling the camp  food distributions. They distribute multicolored cards that  entitle each woman head of household to a large bag containing  a two-week supply of food — bulgur, rice, cooking oil and  other products.