40 families living in the southeastern department of Haiti were the first beneficiaries of the cash transfer delivered by Plan International in response to the food crisis in the country. At least 90% of the deliveries were done to women heads of households. The next distribution is expected to be carried out the following week for 373 families.
To select the beneficiary families, house-to-house visits were made and they were assessed on the impact of the lack of food in their homes, prioritizing pregnant women, nursing mothers, elderly or disabled people, and families with children under five years of age.
Our rapid response includes the support of communities to access food and clean water through cash transfers, the provision of water storage kits, purification tablets and the improvement of collective water systems. In addition, we will work on child protection in contexts of food insecurity and on covering basic needs in menstrual hygiene and promotion of sexual rights, issues that are usually invisible in these contexts.
At least, 4.3 million people have experienced high levels of acute food insecurity in Haiti and require urgent assistance. These include more than 1.3 million people in Emergency and nearly 3 million people in Crisis.The impact of the crisis on families and children also affects other rights such as health and education, labor exploitation and child labor, sexual exploitation, early forced marriages and unions, early pregnancies, as well as limited or no access to menstrual hygiene.