The devastating impact of the 12 January earthquake, which killed between 217,000 and 230,000 people according to Haitian government estimates, injured another 300,000 persons and made homeless 1.5 million persons, continues to be felt throughout the island six months on, with many survivors still living in camps and spontaneous settlements throughout the country.

In order to collect as vital information as possible on the displaced, to better identify and prioritize their needs, IOM established in February a partnership with Haiti's Civil Protection Directorate to register displaced Haitian families. The aim of this ambitious programme was to identify specific short and medium term humanitarian responses to address the most urgent needs of homeless families.

In the Port-au.-Prince neighbourhood of Carrefour, a large crowd has gathered in the courtyard of a school run by Salesian brothers and sisters. All have come to be registered by IOM. They queue patiently under the burning sun, each with a story to tell.  

"I used to live in a little house with my two children", says Résia Elois who lost her house and all her worldly possessions on 12 January. "Three days after the quake, I found the body of one of my children in the morgue set up in the building of the Haitian Navy in the neighbourhood of Bizoton. He had suffered severe head wounds. The leg of my second child was badly wounded and he subsequently lost two toes. The little I managed to salvage from the rubble was stolen at the hospital. Today, I have nothing left".

Speaking to an IOM registration team, she said all she now needed was a safe shelter for her and her surviving child.

"For the past couple of months, we have been living under a tent. It's not ideal, but there's little choice. We have to stay in this camp for the time being".

The living conditions of many homeless families remain dire, and IOM has deployed teams to systematically register the displaced. Since February, more than 137,000 families or nearly 600,000 individuals have been registered in over 190 sites.

The registration takes place in three phases. Initially, IOM registration teams distribute coloured coupons to heads of families living in a camp or spontaneous settlements. Then, the teams meet family heads to register all family members living under the same roof. The collected information is then entered into a database, which is accessible by all governmental and humanitarian partners providing relief to quake victims.

"Registration allows us to collect vital information on the size and composition of the family and on their place of origin", says IOM's registration officer Jean Sébastien Jérome. "This is crucial to track secondary displacement. We also ask about their future intentions, which is important for planning purposes".

Overall, IOM registration staff has reported that most quake survivors say they wish to be sheltered in camps as close as possible to their former homes.

Resia Elois who comes from Belle Anse says she'd rather go to the nearby commune of Croix-des-Bouquets. Her neighbour, Michelson Denis who lives in the capital's district of Cote-Plage with his two children, simply wants his family to be registered. 

"We're ready to go as far as Léogane but no further as we would be too far from relatives. Ideally of course, I'd like to stay in the neighbourhood of Carrefour, because that's where I can find work".

IOM's Jean Sébastien Jérome notes that the initial stages of the registration process were plagued with misunderstandings. "Initially, some people thought we were registering them so they could get food or shelter. Others were reluctant to come forward because they simply did not understand the reasons behind the registration process. This is why it was crucial to set up communication strategies for our community mobilizers who regularly visit families in camps and settlements".

He says the oncoming rainy and hurricane season has put a special urgency on the registration programme. "We have to do as much as possible now because bad weather will seriously limit our operations", says Jean Sébastien Jérome.

The data collected is crucial in planning the relocation of quake affected communities away from areas at high risk of flooding or landslides. To date, it has contributed to the smooth relocation of vulnerable displaced families to the newly established sites in  Tabarre Issa and Corail-Cesselesse, located 10 and 20 kilometres respectively from the capital Port-au-Prince. 

When completed, the registration data will provide invaluable information to the government of Haiti and to all humanitarian actors who continue to seek appropriate medium to long term responses to the many needs of the displaced.