ActionAid has been in Haiti for 12 years, working closely with local people to help development in one of the poorest countries in the world.

We will continue to give people the kind of long-term support they need to lift them and their communities out of poverty.

The next 3 months: a race for shelter
Hurricane season will arrive in around 12 weeks. With 800,000 now homeless, the first priority is shelter.

In Mariani, a poor suburb of Port-au-Prince, people like Marcuse Lafalaise have started building small shacks of blankets, wood and rope. Up to 12 people at a time will sleep in a shack of around 4 square metres. These shacks will be of little protection once the wind and rain arrive at the end of April.

The next 3 years: rebuilding from the ruins
In Haiti, ActionAid will be focussing on a number of areas, including:

1)    Cash-for-work
With Haiti's economy destroyed, many Haitians have no jobs, and mothers like Ebrimé have no means of supporting themselves or their families. Cash-for-work programs, hiring Haitians to rebuild their country's infrastructure, will help restore people's incomes and aid  the reconstruction.

2)    Shelter
Rebuilding Port-au-Prince doesn't just mean putting a roof over people's heads – it means creating places where families can live and work without the risk of an aftershock destroying their lives again.

3)    Education
In 2009/10, education in Haiti was one of ActionAid's priority projects. The schools where we worked have mostly emerged unscathed from the earthquake, but we will be expanding our program to help free Haitians from the poverty trap that poor schools create. Our aim is to help people like Jeanne Sonel Elysée get their children back to school as soon as possible.

4)    Disaster risk reduction
Reducing vulnerability to disasters is at the heart of ActionAid’s emergencies work. If we rebuild Haiti in the right way, and provide education on how to prepare for and cope with disasters, we can ensure that families and communities in Haiti never suffer like this again.

5)    Psychosocial care
We will help people cope, personally and as a community, with what may seem an incomprehensible experience. Dealing with these issues from the outset helps people and communities recover their stability quickly.

It is only through the extraordinary generosity of our supporters all over the world that this reconstruction effort will be possible.