|PIC1|Norwegian Church Aid is radically changing the face of daily life for thousands in Haiti through a wide range of ongoing and soon-to-begin projects including the construction of 40 wells providing water for 70,000 residents, women's health activities, and HIV and Aids projects.

The charity has been aided in carrying out its work by a substantial grant from the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

A total of ten million Norwegian Crowns (nearly $1.7m) will fund the first ten months of the project as the NCA sees through a comprehensive and integrated development project in Bel Air, a poor area in the centre of Haiti's capital Port-au-Prince.

Work will be carried out in cooperation with Norwegian Church Aid's Brazilian partner organisation Viva Rio, the Soros Foundation and local Haitian organisations. Norwegian Church Aid has worked together with and supported Viva Rio's projects in Brazil since 1999, notably on an integrated development project in six districts in Rio de Janeiro that promoted culture, health and education.

Viva Rio will bring its expertise in reducing violence in Brazil to the streets of Bel Air.

"This project is a constructive initiative that will hopefully kick-start local development in the district of Bel Air, an area that is marred by poverty and violence," said Johan Hindahl, the NCA's programme coordinator for Haiti and the Domincan Republic. "It is most exciting to be able to draw on Viva Rio's experiences and knowledge base in Haiti. This south-south approach is relatively new to Norwegian development strategy.

"We aim to mobilise women in local networks, promote local development, reduce violence and weapons use and use this project as an example that the rest of Haiti may draw experience from," adds Hindahl.

The first phase of the project, divided into four modules, will see the renovation of a football stadium and the construction of 40 wells to ensure access to clean water for the district's 70,000 residents.

An initial assessment was carried out by two of Norwegian Church Aid's water engineers who travelled to Port-au-Prince last week and will now decide upon how best to provide the water solutions.

The Brazilian battalion of the UN peacekeeping forces in Haiti, MINUSTAH, will provide their technical expertise and manpower to assist with some of the drilling.