* Any views expressed in this opinion piece are those of the author and not of Thomson Reuters Foundation.
Alex Haxton is CEO of World Emergency Relief UK (WER), an international relief and development organisation working to protect poor children all over the world. He recently visited Haiti to evaluate the ongoing WER response to the earthquake.
Poor sanitation, hunger, collapsing homes. These were the conditions in Cite Soleil, Haiti, before the earthquake stuck. And yet fears over safety and a lack of local knowledge mean that many aid agencies have ignored the area.
This massive slum on the edges of Port-au Prince is home to over 1 million of the poorest Haitians. The people of Cite Soleil have long been ignored by a corrupt and inefficient government, left to provide infrastructure and services for themselves.
Everyone lost somebody in the earthquake. Many more were injured. The total collapse of the economy means that even those previously lucky enough to have a job are now struggling to feed their families.
Major aid agencies warn their staff against entering the slums out of fear of the gangs. The slum is a maze of rubble and makeshift camps, dirty water flows everywhere. I was horrified to see a child drinking from the gutter.
But the strength of Cite Soleil is in its people's determination. They will not simply lie down and die. Grinding poverty, floods, violent gangs, corruption and the biggest natural disaster of our times, Cite Soleil has borne it all but its spirit has not been crushed.
Local involvement
WER has long standing links with partners in Cite Soleil and, due to the slums urgent need, has chosen to concentrate its response to the earthquake in there. It is thanks to these links that WER is able to work in the heart of the area without fear of interference from gangs.
The message needs to get out: "It is safe to work in Cite Soleil and we have a responsibility to be working there."
Aid to Haiti should not focus just on disaster recovery or returning the country to its former dismal state but instead should have as its ultimate goal a country that is better able to support ordinary Haitians.
WER strongly believes that the only way to achieve this is to involve and empower Haitians themselves at every stage of the process. An all too familiar site in Haiti is a queue of thousands waiting at a central distribution point for food, overseen by a line of soldiers. An expensive four wheel drive jeep speeds by with a well known charity logo emblazoned on its side.
A different kind of aid
In Cite Soleil I was lucky enough to take part in a very different kind of distribution based at the site of the Good Samaritan School, run by Pastor Astral Vincent. The schools buildings were severely damaged in the earthquake but since then the site has served as a focal point for help to the beleaguered slum dwellers.
There are around 1000 people camped on the grounds, and the school is running a medical day clinic for the survivors. In addition the school is trucking in safe water supplies and has even managed in the last month to begin classes again in a local church, whilst waiting for the school to be rebuilt. It is one of only a handful of schools working in the Cite Soleil area.
The distribution I observed was a simple, well organised process. Nobody waited more than an hour, nobody walked more than a mile. There was no need for armed guards. Because the organisers knew the people, they knew who was in need, and could guarantee that aid was going to the right people.
Later that same day, in another part of the city, I spoke to a lady carrying a 20 litre jerry can full of water. She told me that it had taken her 5 hours to fill the can because the water tank near her home, provided by the Red Cross, had been empty for days. The 5 hours she spent walking and waiting to get water is time not spent supervising children, rebuilding her home or looking for food.
It is local groups like the Good Samaritan that will be in place long after the main aid effort has gone and aid agencies should see it as a responsibility of theirs to strengthen these groups and ensure that they are sustainable.
I met another Pastor, Freddie Hebron, who runs a network that has been working with WER, Cross International and other agencies to give local people access to food and medicines. He is currently working with over 700 local pastors and community leaders from the slums.
Because his network is made up of people with local knowledge who themselves live in Cite Soleil, the agencies can hand over goods knowing that they are reaching the right places. The network is also able to provide up to date information and feedback about what the ongoing needs are. This locally developed effort is proving invaluable.
Prestige projects
In addition to supporting the development of local action groups, aid agencies must ensure that reconstruction efforts are focused wisely.
Prestige projects such as large hospitals, the airport and a new harbour have a place but the best way to help the most people is through localism and supporting small scale projects that will bring long-term benefits to the poorest Haitians.
Schools, local medical centres, water cleaning programmes and income generating projects such as small-scale farms will all contribute towards improving the lives of the ordinary citizens of Cite Soleil. It is through concentrating on these kinds of small scale projects that aid agencies can ensure a deep and lasting impact.
En route back to the airport, we drove past the UN compounds. I looked up at the camouflaged towers and the gun turrets, an aid operation that resembles an occupation. It doesn't have to be this way.
I urge all relief and development agencies to get into local communities in hard to reach places like Cite Soleil and form partnerships with local people.
Local people both want and have a right to be involved in the massive aid operation that is taking place. It is only through their participation that we can ensure that the Haiti that rises from the rubble is a better place for the poor.
