AID workers face a race against time to safeguard the future of the victims of the Haiti earthquake.

That’s the view of Oxfam worker Ian Bray, who has just returned from a month in Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince.

As the world’s attention turns to the victims of the earthquake in Chile, Mr Bray said aid workers still in Haiti would continue to work hard for those affected by the January 12 disaster.

Mr Bray, 56, of Riverside Road, West Oxford, a press officer for Oxfam, arrived back at the charity’s Cowley office on Sunday after working with 150 staff based in Haiti.

He said Oxfam’s aid programme was now reaching about 200,000 people in Haiti.

But he said: “There’s only four weeks to go before the rainy season starts in Haiti, so everyone needs to work as fast as possible.

“Some people are sleeping on curtains or on pieces of cardboard and everyone is hemmed in together.

“It has rained a couple of times already and when the rainy season starts, waterborne diseases could rip through the camps.

“As a result, we need to remove as much rubble as possible in Port-au-Prince and free up space to provide more latrines.

“We are also working with structural engineers to check people’s homes to see if they are safe. If those people can go home, it frees up more space in the camps.”

He added: “I felt a real sense of people coming together and rallying together, and there was never any hostility in the camps.

“People are extremely good-humoured, given the terrible situation they have faced. There are now 350 people from Oxfam working in response to the Haiti emergency.”

Mr Bray said earlier that the long-term rebuilding operation could take 10 years.

Oxfam’s headquarters in Port-au-Prince was virtually destroyed by the quake, and one member of staff was killed.

Mr Bray and his colleagues then took over a school as their headquarters so they could continue to administer aid.

The charity aims to help 500,000 people over the next six months. Oxfam has raised about £5m towards an aid effort so far totalling £77m.