HELP RED CROSS AND UNICEF HELP VICTIMS OF NATURAL DISASTERS

[nancyk58]

UPDATES OF THE SITUATION IN HAITI ON 16 JANUARY 2010

 

I visited Oxfam for news - and it said that you could support HAITI via dec.org.uk. DEC is short for Disasters Emergency Committee and I had never heard of dec before, so I checked it on Wikipedia and found this:

 

Disasters Emergency Committee (from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia):

 

The Disasters Emergency Committee is an umbrella group comprising thirteen UK charities. These charities are all associated with disaster related issues such as providing clean water, humanitarian aid and medical care.

 

The DEC was created in 1963. It brings together a unique alliance of the UK's aid, corporate, public and broadcasting sectors to rally the nation's compassion, and ensure that funds raised go to DEC agencies best placed to deliver effective and timely relief to people most in need.

 

In the aftermath of the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake, the committee provided 3000 telephone lines for people to give donations and ran television campaigns in order to obtain donations. It was instrumental in coordinating the efforts of the member charities so that all the areas affected received aid and that there was no overlap in the services provided in any one area.

 

The DEC is currently appealing for donations in support of humanitarian relief in the aftermath of the 2010 Haiti earthquake.

 

Member charities

ActionAid, British Red Cross , CAFOD,

CARE International, Christian Aid , Concern

Help the Aged, Islamic Relief, Merlin, OXFAM, Red Cross,

Save the Children , Tearfund , World Vision

 

On Oxfam (UK) you could DONATE TO HAITI - day and night - via dec.org.uk using the number 0370 60 60 900 (Disasters Emergency Committee).

 

 

 

 

UPDATES OF THE SITUATION IN HAITI ON 16 JANUARY 2010

 

WATER DELIVERY DISRUPTIONS IMPERIL HAITI QUAKE SURVIVORS

 

(01/16/2010 | 05:28 PM - GMA News.TV)

 

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Hundreds of thousands of Haitians are in desperate need of DRINKING WATER because of an earthquake-damaged municipal pipeline and truck drivers either unable or unwilling to deliver their cargo.

 

"Many drivers are afraid of being attacked if they go out, some drivers are still missing in the disaster and others are out there searching for missing relatives," said Dudu Jean, a 30-year-old driver who was attacked Friday when he drove into the capital's sprawling Cite Soleil slum.

 

The lack of water has become one of the greatest dangers facing Haitians in part because earthquake survivors stay outdoors all day in the heat out of fear of aftershocks and unstable buildings. While aid has started to pour in from around the world, supplies are not quickly reaching all who need them.

 

Even before Tuesday's quake, the municipal system in this city of 3 million people was unreliable. Haiti's poorest live in shacks with no plumbing and carry their water home in jugs from public wells. Most people depend on water delivered by truckers, who get their water with the help of diesel pumps that draw from a huge underground natural reservoir.

 

"There's no shortage of water, the water's here, the trucks are here as you see," said Jean, who said his attackers let him go unharmed after they recognized him.

 

Since the quake, at least one water treatment plant was shuttered because of a lack of electricity. Pipes for the municipal water system are believed damaged. No water is running in Cite Soleil, home to more than a million people.

 

Adding to the problem is that stores that have water and food to sell are not opening out of fear of violence.

 

Tom Osbeck, a missionary from Indiana whose Protestant-run Jesus in Haiti Ministry operates a school just north of Port-au-Prince, said a scarcity of drinking water and food is fraying the nerves of increasingly despairing survivors.

 

"Even distributing food or water is very dangerous. People are desperate and will fight to death for a cup of water," Osbeck said Friday from his home about 5 miles (8 kilometers) from the center of the quake.

 

Aid groups, businesses and governments from around the world are scrambling to meet the need.

 

OXFAM had water supplies in Haiti left over from a 2008 storm and has managed to get some 2,000 and 5,000-liter tanks into the capital city. U.S. military officials say helicopters are ferrying in water and other supplies from the USS Carl Vinson. Procter & Gamble Co. is sending 3 million water-purifying packets along with cash donations for earthquake relief.

 

Rebecca Gustafson, part of the disaster assistance team of USAID, said international agencies are assessing the best places for community water treatment centers. She said much of the focus of international aid for now is on rescue and recovery efforts.

 

"Once that wave subsides, in the coming days you'll see more and more aid coming in," she said.

 

While government agencies and troops worked to move supplies out of the jammed airport, some Haitians and far smaller organizations worked on their own to get aid to thirsty, hungry people.

 

Milero Cedamou, the 33-year-old owner of a small water delivery company, twice drove his small tanker truck 10 miles outside Port-au-Prince, paying $25 for each fill-up and then returned to a tent camp where thousands of homeless people were living.

 

"This is a crisis of unspeakable magnitude, it's normal for every Haitian to help," Cedamou said. "This is not charity."

 

Jean Ponce, a 36-year-old mason, was among 200 people holding plastic buckets who clustered around the truck — emblazoned with the slogan "Wait for God" on its side — when it returned. He lost one of his children in the quake and said the

bucketful he collected would be the first drinkable water his four surviving children tasted since the disaster struck.

 

"This is nearly like a miracle," Ponce said.

 

- AP

 

 

RP MEDICAL TEAM TO HAITI FORMED, LEAVES MONDAY

 

(01/16/2010 | 12:01 PM - GMA News.TV)

 

The Philippine government will send a 21-member medical team to Haiti on Monday to help in rescue and relief operations for "as long as needed."

 

Health Secretary Esperanza Cabral said Saturday that the team includes three trauma surgeons, two orthopedic surgeons, one internist, one pediatrician, five nurses, three epidemiologists, and two sanitary engineers.

 

Heading the team is Dr. Emmanuel Bueno, head of the emergency room of the East Avenue Medical Center in Quezon City.

 

'As long as needed'

Cabral said that she expects the team to be in Haiti for at least two weeks, but may extend their stay depending on the needs of the people there.

 

When asked how long the team is expected to help out in Haiti, she said, “We estimate two to three weeks." “But we cannot be certain about that. It will depend how long they are needed there," she added.

 

Team to take commercial flight

In an earlier interview on dzRH radio, Cabral said the team will take a commercial flight, as Haiti will be too far for a government C-130 cargo plane.

“By Monday we expect that they will be cleared to go to Haiti," she said on government-run dzRB radio. She said they are still coordinating with the Department of Foreign Affairs to address the visa needs of the medical team’s members.

 

Cabral also said that she is coordinating with the United Nations on where the 21-member Philippine medical team will be assigned.

 

More Pinoy peacekeepers to be sent

For his part, Press Secretary Cerge Remonde said that a new peacekeeping contingent will likely go to Haiti with the medical team.

 

“The team is assembled and ready to go. Remember, we've always sent medical teams to other countries when disasters strike. This team will go to Haiti next week," Remonde said in a separate interview on dzRH radio.

 

A Philippine contingent to a United Nations peacekeeping force in Haiti is already helping in rescue and relief operations there.

 

“The medical contingent and the new peacekeeping contingent will go to Haiti together," Remonde said.

 

Consulate tasked to look after Pinoys

Meanwhile, Remonde said that Philippine consular officials will continue to coordinate in accounting for Filipinos there in Haiti.

 

“The consular officials have instructions from the President and the Department of Foreign Affairs. They will look after the welfare of our Filipinos there, particularly those who are undocumented," he said.

 

- TJD, GMANews.TV

 

 

DFA MISINFORMED, SECOND FILIPINA IN HAITI STILL MISSING

 

(Mark D. MerueÑas, GMANews.TV - 01/16/2010 | 12:43 PM)

 

Just the night before, the Fabian household had broken into tears of joy after learning that a family member trapped in a supermarket in quake-hit Haiti had been rescued.

 

But their jubilation was shattered the next day, Saturday morning, when they learned that Grace Fabian's supposed rescue had been misreported.

 

In an interview with GMA News, military spokesman Romeo Brawner Jr said they received new information from Lt. Col. Lope Dagoy, commander of the 10th Philippine Contingent in Haiti, belying earlier reports that Fabian had been pulled out of the rubble.

 

'Some confusion' -AFP

"Ms. Fabian has not yet been rescued. There had been some confusion," apologized Brawner in a Balitanghali interview.

 

The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) had announced to media on Friday night that Fabian was the second Filipino to be rescued from the Caribbean Supermarket, which collapsed due to the 7.0 magnitude quake that hit Haiti Tuesday (Wednesday in Manila).

That was just hours before the same agency reported the rescue of Aurora Aguinaldo, another Filipina inside the supermarket when it gave way.

 

GMANews.TV tried, but failed to reach DFA spokesperson Ed Malaya for comment.

 

Pointing fingers?

A radio dzBB report had earlier quoted the DFA as saying they got the news of Fabian's rescue from Grace's father, Arturo, himself.

 

Asked by GMA News to react on DFA's claim, Arturo said he had learned about the supposed rescue from the news, prompting him to call up a certain "Judy Razon" from the DFA to confirm if the reports were correct.

 

"She told me, 'We haven't received any reports, the only name listed as rescued is Aurora Aguinaldo'," Arturo recounted.

 

It was only on the morning of Saturday that the bad news would finally be confirmed by the military.

"That's what hurts me the most because I still read on TV that my daughter had already been rescued," said Arturo.

 

Sibling: Grace is still missing

Arturo said that he was able to talk to his other child in Haiti on Friday, who called him up to say that Grace remained trapped in the rubble. Arturo would later that night learn about the supposed rescue, leaving him and their other relatives hugely relieved.

 

But now that the good has been reversed, all Arturo coulld do was appeal to the government to exhaust all efforts to rescue his daughter and the six other Filipinos known to be trapped in the ruins.

 

Arturo broke into tears while delivering his appeal. "I beg for your help. You are parents too, just as I am," he said.

 

'We're doing everything we can'

Brawner said that, despite the misinformation, the government is unfazed in helping with the search and rescue operations in Haiti.

We're not saying that Ms. Fabian is in any danger... Grace's family can rest assured that we and the whole Philippine contingent are doing everything we can," Branwer said.

 

Apart from Grace, five other Filipinos are confirmed still trapped in a number of establishments in Haiti's capital of Port-au-Prince.

 

The missing Filipinos include Jerome Yap, Geraldine Lalican, Petty Officer 3 Pearly Panangui, Sergeant Janice Arocena, and Sergeant Eustacio Bermudez.

 

Brawner said that backhoes and bulldozers have already arrived at the United Nations Peacekeeping headquarters at the Christopher Hotel to help dig out rubble that might be weighing down on trapped victims.

 

The Philippines will be sending 155 more soldiers to Haiti in February to augment rescue forces there. The Department of Health will likewise be sending a medical team on Monday.

 

- TJD, GMANews.TV

 

 

Read also today’s Daily Mail article posted here on coldplaying.com: “Haiti earthquake: The hope and horror as boy, two, is found alive after 48 hours in the rubble” – a very descriptive article with very moving pictures – some of them full of hope (2 small children saved and a man saved) and some very terrible pictures showing dead bodies and the rubble of collapsed houses).

 

Daily Mail's article can also be read on: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worl...#ixzz0clhYy7qa

[nancyk58]

UPDATES OF THE SITUATION IN HAITI ON 17 JANUARY 2010, PART I OF III

 

http://www.care2.com/causes/human-rights/blog/how-to-help-haiti/

 

HAITIAN REFUGEES GRANTED TEMPORARY LEGAL STATUS

 

Three days after a massive earthquake devastated Haiti, Homeland Security

Secretary Janet Napolitano granted temporary protected status to Haitian refugees in the United States.

Refugee Council USA, a coalition of organizations including Human Rights First, Amnesty International USA and International Rescue Committee, had called on President Obama to grant temporary protected status for refugees. Care2 and other groups ran petitions in support of TPS for Haitian refugees. And Congress finally joined the call, too.

 

Granting Haitian refugees in the U.S. temporary protected status will not only protect them from being deported at a time when their country simply cannot take them in. It also allows these refugees to work legally in the U.S. while they are here - thus allowing them to earn money to send back home to family and loved ones in desperate need to help.

 

Senator Richard Lugar (R-IN), the ranking Republican senator on the foreign relations committe, supported the move, stating: "It is in the foreign policy interest of the United States and a humanitarian imperative of the highest order to have all people of Haitian descent in a position to contribute towards the recovery of this island nation."

[nancyk58]

UPDATES OF THE SITUATION IN HAITI ON 17 FEBRUARY 2010, PART II OF III

 

100 FILIPINOS ACCOUNTED FOR, SAFE IN HAITI, SAYS DFA

 

(GMA News.TV)

 

At least 100 Filipinos in Haiti’s Delmas district have been accounted for and were safe, the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said on Sunday. The DFA said efforts were still underway for the rescue of Filipinas Grace Fabian and Geraldine Lalican, who remained trapped under the ruins of the Carribean Supermarket area in Port-au-Prince.

 

 

HAITIANS DESPERATE FOR SUPPLIES; RESCUES STILL ON

 

(01/17/2010 | 05:24 PM - GMA News.TV)

 

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – Rescuers pulled a dehydrated but otherwise uninjured woman from the ruins of a luxury hotel in the Haitian capital early Sunday, an event greeted with applause from onlookers witnessing rare good news in a city otherwise filled with corpses, rubble and desperation.

"It's a little miracle," the woman's husband, Reinhard Riedl, said after hearing she was alive in the wreckage. "She's one tough cookie. She is indestructible."

 

For many, though, the five days since the magnitude-7.0 quake hit have turned into an aching wait for the food, water and medical care slowly making its way from an overwhelmed airport rife with political squabbles. And while aid is reaching the country, growing impatience among the suffering has spawned some violence.

 

Nobody knows how many died in Tuesday's quake. Haiti's government alone has already recovered 20,000 bodies — not counting those recovered by independent agencies or relatives themselves, Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive told The Associated Press.

 

The Pan American Health Organization now says 50,000 to 100,000 people perished in the quake. Bellerive said 100,000 would "seem to be the minimum."

 

A U.N. humanitarian spokeswoman declared the quake the worst disaster the international organization has ever faced, since so much government and U.N. capacity in the country was demolished. In that way, Elisabeth Byrs said in Geneva, it's worse than the cataclysmic Asian tsunami of 2004: "Everything is damaged."

 

Truckloads of corpses were being trundled to mass graves Saturday. Search teams also recovered the body of Tunisian diplomat Hedi Annabi, the United Nations chief of mission in Haiti, and other top U.N. officials who were killed when their headquarters collapsed.

 

Experts have said rescue of people trapped beneath wreckage after three days is unlikely. But an American team pulled a woman alive from a collapsed university building where she had been trapped for 97 hours. Another crew got water to three survivors whose shouts could be heard deep in the pancaked ruins of a multistory supermarket.

 

At the Hotel Montana, the son of co-owner Nadine Cardoso said he could hear her voice from the rubble, and the effort to pull her to safety began. Twelve hours later, with more than 20 friends and relatives of the prominent community member watching early Sunday, she was lowered from a hill of debris on a stretcher.

 

The rescue was bittersweet for Cardoso's sister, because rescuers also told Gerthe Cardoso they had abandoned a search for her 7-year-old grandson after an aftershock closed a space where he was believed to be. "Well, we can't have them both," she said after her sister was saved.

 

Later Sunday. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon was expected to arrive in Haiti to discuss aid delivery, which appeared to be speeding up.

 

Florence Louis, seven months pregnant with two children, was one of thousands of Haitians who gathered at a gate at the Cite Soleil slum, where U.N. World Food Program workers handed out high-energy biscuits for the first time. "It is enough because I didn't have anything at all," said Louis, 29, clutching four packets of biscuits.

 

The Haitian government has established 14 distribution points for food and other supplies, and U.S. Army helicopters scouted locations for more. Aid groups opened five emergency health centers. Vital gear, such as water-purification units, was arriving from abroad.

 

On a hillside golf course, perhaps 50,000 people were sleeping in a makeshift tent city overlooking the stricken capital. Paratroopers of the U.S. 82nd Airborne Division flew there Saturday to set up a base for handing out water and food.

 

After the initial frenzy among the waiting crowd, when helicopters could only hover and toss out their cargo, a second flight landed and soldiers passed out some 2,000 military-issue ready-to-eat meals to an orderly line of Haitians.

 

But aid delivery was still bogged down by congestion at the Port-au-Prince airport, quake damage at the seaport, poor roads and the fear of looters and robbers.

 

"Many people are just fleeing to the countryside, they are looking for a place to stay and for food," said Enel Legrand, a 24-year-old Haitian volunteer aid worker.

 

The airport congestion also touched off diplomatic rows between the U.S. military and other donor nations. France and Brazil both lodged official complaints that the U.S. military, in control of the international airport, had denied landing permission to relief flights from their countries.

 

Haitian President Rene Preval, speaking with the AP, urged all to "keep our cool and coordinate and not throw accusations."

 

As relief teams grappled with on-the-ground obstacles, U.S. leadership promised Saturday to step up aid efforts. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton visited and pledged more American assistance. President Barack Obama met with former Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton in Washington and urged Americans to donate to Haiti relief efforts.

 

In Port-au-Prince, hundreds of Haitians simply dropped to their knees outside a warehouse when workers for the agency Food for the Poor announced they would distribute rice, beans and other supplies.

 

"They started praying right then and there," said project director Clement Belizaire.

 

Children and the elderly were asked to step first into line, and some 1,500 people got food, soap and rubber sandals until supplies ran out, he said.

 

- AP

[nancyk58]

UPDATES OF THE SITUATION IN HAITI ON 17 FEBRUARY 2010, PART III OF III

 

HAITI QUAKE WORKERS RESCUE LIVING, MOURN DEAD

 

(01/17/2010 | 10:10 AM - GMA News.TV)

 

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – All rescuers saw of Saint-Helene Jean-Louis when they arrived at the collapsed University of Port-au-Prince building were the top of her head and her left hand.

 

It had been four days since a 7.0-magnitude earthquake leveled the building, one of hundreds destroyed in the most powerful natural disaster to hit the impoverished Caribbean nation in more than 200 years - but the 29-year-old student was still breathing inside a stairwell of the former four-story structure. She was surrounded by eight decaying bodies, one entwined with her own.

 

Rescuers from the Fairfax County, Virginia, Urban Search and Rescue team tore away through a few more layers, digging down and sideways to free her upper body. She was able to sip a little water.

 

Nearly 30 hours later, working in two shifts, they pulled Jean-Louis out of the building — still alive. She was able to say her name before being whisked away to an Israeli field hospital."To me, she's the hero of the group," said Fairfax County firefighter Richard McKinney. "She had to have spent that first night by herself."

 

Other foreign and national rescue teams working feverishly to find survivors in the capital of Port-au-Prince celebrated their own successes: Israeli troops rescued the director of Haiti's tax ministry who was trapped in the ruins of his office building. Soldiers carried him out on a stretcher, checked his vital signs and declared him unhurt.

 

Eighteen members of Mexico's Rescue Brigade, a group with mole-like tunneling skills that rescued survivors after Mexico's deadly 1985 earthquake and in New York after Sept. 11, pulled seven survivors out from under collapsed buildings Friday, said brigade coordinator Fernando Alvarez.

 

Some were not as lucky: The United Nations announced Saturday that the body of Haiti mission chief Hedi Annabi was found in the rubble of the agency's headquarters, which collapsed in the earthquake.

 

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said the bodies of Annabi's deputy, Luiz Carlos da Costa, and the acting police commissioner, Doug Coates, also were found.

 

The Rev. Dr. Sam Dixon, head of the United Methodist Church's humanitarian relief agency, died before he could be rescued from the rubble of the Hotel Montana, which was destroyed by the earthquake, the church said in a statement from New York.

 

Emergency workers were still attempting to rescue possible survivors from the hotel Saturday after hearing the voice of a woman speaking in French. The teams said they thought they also had located two other people alive under the rubble.

 

Nearly 30 teams from around the globe were scrambling Saturday to find and rescue the living, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told reporters in Port-au-Prince.

 

It was increasingly a race against time: Red Cross spokesman Simon Schorno noted that the critical 72-hour period for finding survivors "has past and ... these stories of people surviving are getting rarer."

 

Mindful of the odds against the victims, rescuers are celebrating their occasional bouts of good fortune as nothing less than miracles.

 

"The whole thing is pretty amazing," Fairfax County Lt. Evan Lewis said of Jean-Louis' rescue. "I've been doing this for a long time and you don't see that many people buried for that long of a time who are still coherent."

 

Jean-Louis didn't speak English, but was able to talk to a local Creole-speaking firefighter while rescuers sawed, drilled, hammered and pulled at the rubble. She stated her age and what part of her body hurt. They inserted IVs into her arms and began administering fluids and antibiotics.

"I just kept telling her, 'Slow and steady,'" said Fairfax County rescuer Robert Schoenberger.

 

The team — with the help of four specially trained Air Force rescuers — faced daunting obstacles: An aftershock late Saturday morning knocked the IV out of Jean-Louis' arm and sent rescuers scrambling off the mountain of rubble. Numerous bodies inside the building had begun to decay and the stench was at times overwhelming.

 

At one point, it appeared the only thing holding the rescuers up from freeing the woman was her foot, which was twisted awkwardly. Amputation was discussed. Then a problem arose with a piece of debris resting on her thigh.

"We've gone past plans A, B, C, and D, and we're on plan W," Lewis said, sighing.

The team was especially anxious to save the Haitian woman. Two days earlier, they had worked on a man who talked to them during the eight hours of his rescue operation — then died just before he was pulled out.

Jean-Louis' story had a happier ending.

 

"You have Mother Nature in all her power and fury with this earthquake, yet this woman has just as much strength as the earthquake," said rescue squad member Kim Klaren. "It's almost like the earthquake picked the wrong woman to pick on."

 

- AP

 

 

HUNGER AND HOPE, THIRST AND FRENZY GRIP HAITI

 

(01/17/2010 | 08:50 AM - GMA News.TV)

 

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Precious water, food and early glimmers of hope began

reaching parched and hungry earthquake survivors Saturday on the streets of this shattered city, where despair at times turned into a frenzy among the ruins.

 

"People are so desperate for food that they are going crazy," said accountant Henry Ounche, in a crowd of hundreds who fought one another as US military helicopters clattered overhead carrying aid.

When other Navy choppers dropped rations and Gatorade into a soccer stadium thronged with refugees, 200 youths began brawling, throwing stones, to get at the supplies.

Across the hilly, steamy city, where people choked on the stench of death, hope faded by the hour for finding many more victims alive in the rubble, four days after Tuesday's catastrophic earthquake.

Still, here and there, the murmur of buried victims spurred rescue crews on, even as aftershocks threatened to finish off crumbling buildings.

 

"No one's alive in there," a woman sobbed outside the wrecked Montana Hotel. But hope wouldn't die. "We can hear a survivor," search crew chief Alexander Luque of Namibia later reported. His men dug on. Elsewhere, an American team pulled a woman alive from a collapsed university building where she had been trapped for 97 hours.Nobody knew how many were dead. Haiti's government alone has already recovered 20,000 bodies — not counting those recovered by independent agencies or relatives themselves, Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive told The Associated Press.

 

In a fresh estimate, the Pan American Health Organization said 50,000 to 100,000 people perished in the quake. Bellerive said 100,000 would "seem to be the minimum." Truckloads of corpses were being trundled to mass graves.

 

A U.N. humanitarian spokeswoman declared the quake the worst disaster the international organization has ever faced, since so much government and U.N. capacity in the country was demolished. In that way, Elisabeth Byrs said in Geneva, it's worse than the cataclysmic Asian tsunami of 2004: "Everything is damaged."

 

Also Saturday, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton flew to Port-au-Prince to pledge more American assistance and said the US would be "as responsive as we need to be." President Obama met with former Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton and urged Americans to donate to Haiti relief efforts.

 

As the day wore on, search teams recovered the body of Tunisian diplomat Hedi Annabi, the United Nations chief of mission in Haiti, and other top U.N. officials who were killed when their headquarters collapsed.Despite many obstacles, the pace of aid delivery was picking up.

 

The Haitian government had established 14 distribution points for food and other supplies, and US Army helicopters were reconnoitering for more. With eight city hospitals destroyed or damaged, aid groups opened five emergency health centers. Vital gear, such as water-purification units, was arriving from abroad.

 

Thousands lined up in the Cite Soleil slum as U.N. World Food Program workers distributed high-energy biscuits there for the first time. As the hot sun set, the crew was down to just a few dozen boxes left from six truckloads. Perhaps 10,000 people were still waiting patiently, futilely, in line.

 

Seven months' pregnant, and with two children, 29-year-old Florence Louis clutched her four packets. "It is enough, because I didn't have anything at all," she said.

 

On a hillside golf course, perhaps 50,000 people were sleeping in a makeshift tent city overlooking the stricken capital. Paratroopers of the US 82nd Airborne Division flew there Saturday to set up a base for handing out water and food.

 

After the initial frenzy among the waiting crowd, when helicopters could only hover and toss out their cargo, a second flight landed and soldiers passed out some 2,000 military-issue ready-to-eat meals to an orderly line of Haitians.

 

More American help was on the way: The US Navy hospital ship Comfort steamed from the port of Baltimore on Saturday and was scheduled to arrive here Thursday. More than 2,000 Marines were set to sail from North Carolina to support aid delivery and provide security.

 

But for the estimated 300,000 newly homeless in the streets, plazas and parks of Port-au-Prince, help was far from assured.

 

"They're already starting to deliver food and water, but it's mayhem. People are hungry, everybody is asking for water," said Alain Denis, a resident of the Thomassin district. Denis's home was intact, and he and his elderly parents have some reserves, but, he said, "in a week, I don't know."

 

Aid delivery was still bogged down by congestion at the Port-au-Prince airport, quake damage at the seaport, poor roads and the fear of looters and robbers.

 

The problems at the overloaded airport forced a big Red Cross aid mission to strike out overland from Santo Domingo, almost 200 miles away in the Dominican Republic. The convoy included up to 10 trucks carrying temporary shelters, a 50-bed field hospital and some 60 medical specialists.

 

"It's not possible to fly anything into Port-au-Prince right now. The airport is completely congested," Red Cross spokesman Paul Conneally said from the Dominican capital.

 

Another convoy from the Dominican Republic steered toward a U.N. base in Port-au-Prince without stopping, its leaders fearful of sparking a riot if they handed out aid themselves.

 

The airport congestion touched off diplomatic rows between the US military and other donor nations.

France and Brazil both lodged official complaints that the US military, in control of the international airport, had denied landing permission to relief flights from their countries.

 

Defense Minister Nelson Jobim, who has 7,000 Brazilian U.N. peacekeeping troops in Haiti, warned against viewing the rescue effort as a unilateral American mission.

 

The squabbling prompted Haitian President Rene Preval, speaking with the AP, to urge all to "keep our cool and coordinate and not throw accusations."

At a simpler level, unending logistical difficulties dogged the relief effort.

 

A commercial-sized jet landed with rescue and medical teams from Qatar, only to find problems offloading food aid. They asked the US military for help, surgeon Dr. Mootaz Aly said, and were told: "We're busy."

 

As relief teams grappled with on-the-ground obstacles, the US leadership promised to step up aid efforts. In Washington, Obama joined with his two most recent White House predecessors to appeal for Americans to donate to the cause. "We stand united with the people of Haiti, who have shown such incredible resilience," he said. Their resilience was truly being tested, however.

 

On a back street in Port-au-Prince, a half-dozen young men ripped water pipes off walls to suck out the few drops inside. "This is very, very bad, but I am too thirsty," said Pierre Louis Delmar.

 

Outside a warehouse, hundreds of desperate Haitians simply dropped to their knees when workers for the agency Food for the Poor announced they would distribute rice, beans and other supplies. "They started praying right then and there," said project director Clement Belizaire.

 

Children and the elderly were asked to step first into line, and some 1,500 people got food, soap and rubber sandals until supplies ran out, he said.

 

The aid official was overcome by the tragic scene. "This was the darkest day of everybody living in Port-au-Prince," he said.

 

- AP

 

 

HAITIANS SEARCH DESPERATELY FOR MISSING RELATIVES

 

(01/17/2010 | 07:14 AM - GMA News.TV)

 

The earthquake struck just before 5 p.m. Tuesday, when many workers were still away from home. After buildings collapsed, dazed survivors cried out for loved ones and wandered past dead bodies in streets made unfamiliar by the huge heaps of rubble.

 

The impoverished country's already poor communications system collapsed, both because cellular telephone towers were toppled and because of an overload of calls from people trying to find family and friends.

 

Only one cellular network is working at the moment, and then only sporadically. Landline telephones are dead. Haitians once again are reduced to relying on "radio jol," or bush radio, as they call the network that speedily spreads news by word of mouth.

 

Haitians in other countries are using Web sites and social networking systems to look for family members, but on the devastated island itself, people are resorting to more primitive methods. Town criers drive through neighborhoods announcing the names of missing people and locations of relatives who are trying to find them.

 

Nozile Claude, 38, was eager to distribute a list of survivors from an orphanage in Port-au-Prince's Nazon district. "Nine people died, and we have 56 survivors, some seriously injured, but the rumor's going around that everyone was killed because the orphanage was flattened," he said from one of the dozens of refugee camps that have sprung up across Port-au-Prince.

 

Some people have no hope, even though they have seen no bodies.

"We can't find four members of our family, but I have no hope for them. So many people have disappeared," said Benson Charles, a 21-year-old information technology student. "Twenty of us from my family managed to get out of the house after it collapsed. We couldn't do anything for the others."

 

- AP

 

 

Federer and Co. stage fundraiser for Haiti victims

 

Clinton lands in Haiti, pledges cooperative effort

 

Bush, Clinton call for long-term help for Haiti

 

RP's Catholic churches to hold 2nd collection for Haiti

[nancyk58]

NEWS from BBC WORLD on 17 January 2010

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8464274.stm

 

37 UN STAFF confirmed DEAD, more than 300 MISSING - includes Special Representative Hedi Annabi, deputy Luiz Carlos da Costa and acting police commissioner Doug Coates

 

UN HQ in the Christopher Hotel and other buildings COLLAPSED in the quake

 

Believed to be the BIGGEST SINGLE LOSS OF LIFE in the UN's history

 

THE DELIVERY OF AID TO VICTIMS OF HAITI's EARTHQUAKE IS STILL BEING SLOWED BY BOTTLENECKS, AID WORKERS SAY.

 

UN and OXFAM STAFF are finally bringing FOOD and WATER to some parts of the capital Port-au-Prince, but the airport remains clogged with loaded planes.

 

Many survivors of Tuesday's quake have become DESPERATE as they wait for aid, and many are trying to leave the city.

 

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, who has arrived in Haiti, said it was the worst humanitarian crisis for decades.

 

Mr Ban is expected to visit the ruins of the UN mission, where several staff including Special Representative Hedi Annabi were killed, and meet President Rene Preval.

 

The UN has launched an appeal for $562m (£346m) intended to help 3 M / three million people for six months, while some two million people are thought to need emergency relief.

 

Meanwhile first reports from the epicentre of the earthquake suggest the damage is even more dramatic than in the capital.

 

The BBC's Mark Doyle in Leogane, west of Port-au-Prince, described the scene as "apocalyptic", with thousands left homeless and almost every building destroyed.

 

But in a sign of hope, rescuers pulled THREE PEOPLE ALIVE from the rubble on Sunday. Twelve others were rescued on Saturday, the UN said.

 

There are also security concerns amid reports of looting.

 

The US Southern Command's Lt-Gen Ken Keen said that while streets were largely calm there had been an increase in violence. "We are going to have to address the situation of security," he said, quoted by the Associated Press.

 

"We've had incidents of violence that impede our ability to support the government of Haiti and answer the challenges that this country faces."

AFP news agency quoted one of its photographers as saying police had opened fire on looters in a Port-au-Prince market, killing at least one of them.

 

AIRPORT 'OVERWHELMED'

Correspondents say although the amount of supplies getting through is still small, there is a sense of movement at last.

 

The UN World Food Programme has been handing out aid packages containing food, while UK charity OXFAM has been distributing water.

 

US troops said they had set up their first foothold outside the airport to deliver aid carried in by helicopters.

 

But many victims are still not receiving any aid, as the airport remains a bottleneck. UN Humanitarian Coordinator Kim Bolduc says getting supplies out to them from the planes is still a major hurdle.

 

"The Haitian airport now is overwhelmed," said UN Assistant Secretary General for Peacekeeping Operations, Edmond Mulet. The port is badly damaged, and many roads still blocked by corpses and debris.

 

David Wimhurst, a spokesman for the UN peacekeeping force in Haiti, said aid was being delivered as quickly as possible.

 

"Aid is going out but it's simply impossible in 24 hours to bring in enough aid to instantly feed all these people, many of whom are in places that are inaccessible," he said.

 

The Haitian and Dominican Republic governments are planning an alternative 130km (80 miles) HUMANITARIAN ROAD CORRIDOR to deliver relief supplies from the southern Dominican town of Barahona, the UN reports.

 

The UN has warned about FUEL SHORTAGES, which it says could affect humanitarian operations.

 

"Fuel is the key issue," Elisabeth Byrs, a spokeswoman for the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs, told the BBC. "We need fuel to bring in supplies and carry the wounded."

 

'NO HELP'

 

The UN says up to 80-90% of buildings in Leogane, about 19km west of Port-au-Prince, have been destroyed.

 

One survivor in the town said he had come to Haiti from America for his mother's funeral, only for his wife to be killed in the earthquake. He said that so far people in the area had received no help of any kind.

 

"We don't have any aid, nothing at all," he said. "No food, no water, no medical, no doctors."

 

Estimates of how many people died following the 7.0 magnitude earthquake on Tuesday have varied.

 

The Pan American Health Organization put the death toll at 50,000-100,000, while Haitian Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive said 100,000 "would seem a minimum".

 

A UN official has said aid workers are dealing with a disaster "like no other" in UN memory because the country had been "decapitated".

 

Three ministers and several senators are reported to have been killed.

 

The US has launched what President Barack Obama called "one of the largest relief efforts in its history" following the quake.

 

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was the first senior Western official to arrive in Haiti, on Saturday.

 

She told Haitians that the US would be "here today, tomorrow and for the time ahead", asserting that "Haiti can come back even better and stronger in the future".

 

Nick Davis, BBC News, Haiti: Relief is finally getting through to some in Port-au-Prince but it's a trickle - not a flood - of the aid needed by the people here.

 

The US navy is using helicopters to drop supplies of bottled water using soldiers on the ground to keep control. The UN also has distribution points handing out high-energy bars to the hungry.

 

But demand is outstripping supply - with food and water being taken faster than they can pass it out.

 

DESTRUCTION AT EPICENTRE OF HAITI QUAKE IS EXTREME

 

EXTENT OF HAITI DESTRUCTION CLEAR:

 

First reports from the epicentre of Tuesday's earthquake in Haiti suggest the damage is even more dramatic than in the capital, BBC correspondents say.

 

They say the scene in Leogane, west of Port-au-Prince, is "apocalyptic", with thousands left homeless and almost every building destroyed.

 

In the capital, survivors have become desperate as they wait for aid being handed out by international agencies. - But in a sign of hope, rescuers pulled a woman alive from rubble on Sunday. "It's a little miracle," the woman's husband, Reinhard Riedl, told the Associated Press news agency after she was rescued from a luxury hotel.

 

The UN says up to 80-90% of buildings in Leogane, about 19km (12 miles) west of Port-au-Prince, have been destroyed. The BBC's Mark Doyle - who travelled to the town on Saturday - said people had taken refuge in the surrounding sugarcane fields or mangrove swamps.

 

David Orr, a spokesman for the UN World Food Programme, said many thousands were feared dead.

"Nearly every house was destroyed here. The military are talking about 20,000 to 30,000 dead."

 

Many survivors have been leaving quake-hit areas in search of food, water and medicine.

 

LOGISTICAL CHALLENGES

 

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is due to arrive in Haiti on Sunday.

 

The UN has launched an appeal for $562m (£346m) intended to help three million people for six months, while some two million people are thought to need emergency relief.

 

International relief supplies have been arriving at the airport.

There were aid distributions in parts of Port-au-Prince on Saturday, but deliveries have been hampered by severe logistical challenges.

 

The airport is congested, the port badly damaged, and many roads blocked by corpses and debris.

 

On Sunday the UN also warned about fuel shortages, which it says could affect humanitarian operations.

 

"Fuel is the key issue," Elisabeth Byrs, a spokeswoman for the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs, told the BBC. "We need fuel to bring in supplies and carry the wounded."

 

There are also security concerns amid reports of looting. On Saturday a crowd was reportedly involved in a fight over goods in Port-au-Prince, but a UN official said the overall situation was calm.

 

COUNTRY 'DECAPITATED'

 

Estimates of how many people died following the 7.0 magnitude earthquake on Tuesday have varied.

 

The Pan American Health Organization put the death toll at 50,000-100,000, while Haitian Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive said 100,000 "would seem a minimum".

 

A UN official has said aid workers are dealing with a disaster "like no other" in UN memory because the country had been "decapitated".

 

Three ministers and several senators are reported to have been killed.

 

Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive said his house had been destroyed and he had been sleeping in his car.

 

"For the moment, we are trying to save our employees who are still stuck under the rubble," he said.

 

The UN itself lost at least 40 employees in the earthquake, and confirmed on Saturday that the head of its mission in Haiti had been found dead in the rubble of its headquarters.

 

The US has launched what President Barack Obama called "one of the largest relief efforts in its history" following the earthquake, which killed tens of thousands of people and left many more homeless.

 

Seen on BBC News (Text-TV):

 

SENEGAL OFFERS FREE LAND AND REPATRIATION TO HAITIANS

 

Haitians are sons and daughters of Africa since Haiti was founded by SLAVES. Now Senegal is offering voluntary repatriation to any Haitian who wants to return to their origin.

 

Search continuing for missing UN workers

[nancyk58]

SITUATION REPORT FROM UNICEF IN HAITI

 

HAITI EARTHQUAKE: UNICEF SITUATION REPORT

 

17 January 2010

 

PORT AU PRINCE

 

- The Government has declared the state of emergency for 15 days. This will help to exceptional administrative measures to be taken. A mourning period of one month has also been declared.

- On January 15, WFP distributed, among others, High Energy biscuits for 5 days, bags for water storage and purifying tablets. High energy biscuits present stock covers the needs of 200,000 families for 15 days; more is expected to arrive.

- There are already 4 secured and permanent points of distribution in town (place Dessalines, 2 football grounds and one tennis court). More secured distribution points are being identified. However, any organization can fix its own distribution points, provided that security is assured.

- The Government has been able to progressively run the School Canteens National Program, having recovered part of its staff and food stock: wet rations have begun to be distributed in Champs de Mars camp.

- The Ministry of Social Affairs will put in place mobile teams to assess the situation and needs of children in the camps. As well, the Institute of Social Wellbeing is trying to reinforce its present at the airport.

- The Government has set up different work commissions, among them the one on fuel. Beginning from January 16, fuel has been delivered to a few gas stations downtown in small quantity.

- Situation in the camps (parks, grounds, courtyards, etc.) is still calm to date, though highly critical. However, security concerns are rising fast. Armed groups are beginning to loot and rob during the night.

- As banks are closed and people lost most of their belongings, cash (money) circulation is extremely limited, hindering access to food. Some fruit and vegetable arrives from the countryside, but people do not have money to buy.

 

THE UN IN HAITI

- Challenges of organization and extreme difficulty of coordination are characterizing the UN response to the situation and to the increasing needs of the population, the government, and its own UN staff. Coordination and efficacy is improving.

- The Food Aid Cluster has been officially begun to work. The first meeting of the Education Cluster will be held on January 18.

- UNICEF is leading the WASH, Education and Nutrition Clusters (to be established).

- A website with updated information related to response, priorities and gaps of each Cluster or sector will be available, beginning from January 18. OCHA will receive inputs up to 12 pm daily in order to upload the information. http://www.haiti.oneresponse.info On January 18. OCHA is holding a meeting with all the Cluster Heads to explain the website use and subscription.

 

UNICEF IN HAITI

- Organization of the operations is being improved, with definition of tasks for every staff as well as rotation in the camp base.

- UNICEF warehouse was partially damaged by t he quake. Presently availability of stocks is being analyzed.

- Two trucks are operational: one for WASH and the second one for the management of the supplies arriving to the airport that need to be stored before distribution.

- A joint mission UNICEF/WFP/WHO will leave on January 18 to assess the situation and needs in Petit Goave. UNICEF staff will be temporarily posted there, covering also Grande Goave, if needed.

 

CHILD PROTECTION

It is becoming evident that the earthquake, besides its toll of deaths, has left many children wounded, traumatized, stranded and/or orphaned. UNICEF has reinforced the partnership with NGOs as well as the Institut de Bienêtre Social (Ministry of Social Affairs).

- Partnership with AMI (Aide Médicale Internationale) will continue to assure medical care to children in different mobile clinics in all Port au Prince zones.

- AVSI has resumed the psychosocial support to children in the poorest areas of the capital city, often together with AMI. UNICEF is reinforcing this partnership in Petit Goave et Cabaret.

- UNICEF is supporting Save The Children in tracing the families of stranded children. SCF will also estimate the magnitude and situation of the migration from Port au Prince to the areas of Gonaïve et Leogane.

- Effects of people moving to Lekaye is underway by Terre des Hommes.

- The mobile teams of the Institut de Bienêtre Social of the Ministry of Social Affairs are assessing the state of the orphanages and crèches in Port au Prince. As well, two buildings are being evaluated for temporarily sheltering about 200 children in need. One of them has the clearance to shelter up to 55 children.

- MINUSTAH committed to visit all the hospitals to check for abandoned or stranded children in need of help and shelter.

WASH

- On January 16, forty (40) water tanks delivered drinkable water covering the needs of some 60,000 people in 19 sites. On January 17, it is planned that 82 trucks provide water to 36 points for approximately 80,000 people.

- The main challenge is assuring enough fuel for the trucks to run. UNICEF is providing 1,000 gallons to DINEPA (Direction National Eau Potable et Assainissement), and expecting 4 more trucks of 30,000 gallons coming from the Dominican Republic.

- 120,000 bottles of water are expected to be distributed to different hospitals and commissaries.

- The DINEPA (Direction National Eau Potable et Assainissement) has very strong capacity in terms of leadership, producing results and coordinating the sector. The different actors and contributors report directly to DINEPA. UNICEF has officially assumed the role of supporting its staff and work.

 

- The presence and contribution of the NGOs is very important. The main partners are OXFAM, MSF (Médecin Sans Frontières), Action Contre la Faim, RED CROSS.

 

- DINEPA and the WASH Cluster defined that the main strategy is to set up high capacity bladders in the neighborhoods of the gathering points. Water purification should be done on site. Bladders will be managed and protected by staff paid by the NGOs at a defined daily pay.

- The private sector is highly committed to help and is ready to deliver 8 million liters of clean water per day.

- At present, the most urgent needs are: a) fuel for transportation /delivery; b) Chlorine for purification; c) Water quality testing equipment; d) Pods / timber for latrine constructions.

 

UPDATE FROM JACMEL

One UNICEF staff is presently posted in Jacmel city and the situation there is as follows:

- 356 deaths in the south-western districts, 332 of them in Jacmel city. Number is expected to increase as there are still many people under the debris. A school and a church have collapsed burying more than 150 persons. 420 wounded have been registered at date.

- Nearly 12,000 families were affected by the quake; 8,000 people are living in the camps (6,000 in Jacmel and 2,000 in Cote Fer). Displaced people have gathered in 3 sites (camps) in Jacmel, as well in 2 sites in Cote de Fer.

- 8,335 houses were damaged, more than 2,500 among them completely destroyed. Many private, public and commercial buildings need to be completely re-built.

- 43 schools either collapsed or damaged, as well as six health infrastructures.

- 63 new injured were hospitalized; 21 patients need to be urgently evacuated. UNICEF Santo Domingo is negotiating with the Dominican Republic’s authorities.

- Hospital Saint Michel was relocated in the grounds of a church.

- The Red Cross installed four 10,000-liter water bladders in the hospital, school and Pinchinat camp. Both MINUSTAH and private-owned trucks organized by UNICEF assured water provision for the bladders.

- Wet rations are being distributed in the camps, where people gather to spend the night. Probably half of the people who is in Pinchinat camp will be relocated.

- WFP and UNICEF have made emergency stocks available in ACDI VOCA stores, as well as in the towns of Thiott and Ricot for the population of Cote Fer

- WFP is currently estimating the number of children in order to provide specific rations.

- Camps management is particularly complicated and hinders distribution flow, as well as protection and surveillance of children. However, the municipality is progressively taking the lead with the collaboration of local NGOs.

Problems and needs:

- Camps management is particularly complicated and hinders distribution flow, as well as protection and surveillance of children. Sanitation is an issue. Locally working NGOs are facing a severe shortage of materials and tools.

- Social and psychological support not yet available.

- Urgent need of water purifying tools and materials. Water supply from local nappes was discontinued for fear of contamination. Water provision was assured only by MINUSTAH’s trucks.

- Additional tents for Saint Michel Hospital. Blood bags, medial supplies and drugs.

- Need for detailed assessment of health and education structures. Regional authorities of health, education and protection are starting to participate in the coordination, however, their participation is still weak.

- Latrines building in Pinchinat is affected by the lack of tools and materials. Hygiene kits are not sufficient to cover the needs.

[nancyk58]

Some HAITI headlines from various Text-TVs / News

 

UPDATES OF THE SITUATION IN HAITI ON 17 and 18 JANUARY 2010

 

Read on Danish Text-TV (TV2) on Sunday 17 January 2010:

 

Danish UN employee saved after 5 days - no wounds, only a few bruises.

 

Angry and frustrated Haitians in Port-au-Prince waiting for help - hungry and thirsty.

 

Rotting corpses in the streets.

 

Relief goods waiting in the airport, but the security situation is very serious.

 

Reports of clashes in Port-au-Prince involving around 1,000 Haitians using stones, knives and hammers as weapons. The fight concerned clothes, bags and toys from collapsed houses and shops.

 

 

Read on Text-TV Monday 18 January 2010:

 

An international conference on rebuilding / reconstructing Haiti to take place on 25 January 2010 in Montreal in Canada.

 

French President Nicolas Sarkozy suggested this international conference. Haiti will participate with its president, and the USA will be represented by Hillary Clinton, the US Secretary of State.

 

 

Around noon Danish TV2 News:

 

Interview with the Secretary General of the Danish Red Cross:

 

Due to the dangerous security situation, Red Cross aid workers found it necessary to distribute food and drinking water with soldiers around to protect them against violent, desperate Haitians who were attacking both the aid workers and other Haitians in the queue. Red Cross found a better solution by distributing food vouchers to the waiting Haitians in the morning. Then in the afternoon those with food vouchers are being handed food and drinking water. It has turned out to be working.

 

 

Danish Text-TV:

 

3 Americans wounded at the airport (and not 30 Americans as was rumoured earlier today).

 

46 dead UN employees and 500 missing or at least unaccounted for (some of the missing may have returned home).

 

IRCR reported about violence and lootings in Haiti 6 days after the devastating earthquake.

 

Prices for food and transport increasing fast.

 

Limited access to shelter, sanitation, water, food and medical treatment.

 

Poor sanitation in tent camps according to the IRCR leader in Haiti.

 

UN planning to send 2,000 more UN soldiers to Haiti.

 

 

BBC WORLD, News:

 

Britons gave £23m to Haiti earthquake appeal - Disasters and Emergency Committee, DEC.

 

UK government trebled its funding for the humanitarian response from £6.2m to £20m to provide food, shelter, health and relief work.

 

US forces bolster Haiti efforts: Aid efforts gather pace.

 

UN and US forces pushed back an angry crowd at the airport gates with batons.

 

 

German Text TV:

 

EU: 422 mio EURO for Haiti.

 

 

There has been a 6.0-magnitude earthquake in Guatemala with its epicentre 100 km south-east of the capital Guatemala City - not far away from the El Salvador border - in a depth of 103 km. With an earthquake of this magnitude much devastation can be expected.

[nancyk58]

HAITI related news from GMA News.TV 18 JANUARY 2010

 

Haitians pray, cry for help in the ruins

 

More troops, aid go to Haiti, but hunger persists

 

More US troops, UN peacekeepers expected for Haiti

 

Canada to send 1,000 more troops to Haiti

 

65 more Filipinos accounted for in Haiti

 

RP peacekeepers carry heavy workload in Haiti

 

Condition of injured RP soldier in Haiti quake improves

 

RP to send 155 troops in earthquake-ravaged Haiti

 

 

BONO, TIMBERLAKE TO PERFORM AT HAITI BENEFIT

 

(01/18/2010 | 11:41 AM - GMA News.TV)

 

BEVERLY HILLS, California — George Clooney says the "Hope for Haiti" benefit for victims of the earthquake in Haiti will include performances from Bono, Sting, Justin Timberlake, Christina Aguilera and Alicia Keys.

 

Speaking to The Associated Press at the Golden Globes ceremony at the Beverly Hilton Hotel, Clooney said that more than 40 celebrities are expected to attend the Jan. 22 event. The actor said the aim of the benefit is "to show the people of Haiti that the whole world is paying attention."

 

The benefit, which Clooney and Haitian-born singer Wyclef Jean will host, will be broadcast on more than a dozen broadcast and cable networks. It will be held in New York, with CNN's Anderson Cooper chiming in from Haiti.

 

The show will benefit the RED CROSS, UNICEF, OXFAM AMERICA, Partners in Health and Jean's YELE HAITI FOUNDATION.

 

Clooney said that songs from participating artists will also be available on iTunes, with proceeds going to the relief effort. - AP

[nancyk58]

UPDATES OF THE SITUATION IN HAITI ON 19 JANUARY 2010, Part I of III

 

Danish TV2, Text-TV on 19 January 2010:

 

A total of 5 persons rescued out of the rubble of a collapsed grocery.

 

23-year-old young female university student saved herself - she sent a SMS message that she was alive, but trapped in a rubble - and where to find her. Rescuers then rushed to the place where she was trapped and managed to free her from the rubble after some time.

 

Before the earthquake there were 380,000 orphans in Haiti.

 

Haitians orphans having lost parents in connection with the earthquake will be helped in the USA after having received an entry permit allowing them to travel into the USA. According to Janet Napolitano, the US Secretary of Homeland Security, orphans will be granted a humanitarian residence permit. The orphans might be adopted by Americans. Some organizations are worried because they fear abuse and trafficking.

 

According to the President of the Dominican Republic who has met with Haiti's President, Haiti will need 10 billion Dollars (= 7 billion Euro) for reconstructing and rebuilding Haiti. The money would be paid over 5 years, 2 billion Dollars per year in the framework of a programme. To provide the financial support and to control it, a central authority in Haiti and an international coordination would be needed.

 

Relief thrown down from helicopter.

 

UN Security Council has approved that 3,500 more UN soldiers and policemen will be sent to Haiti.

 

Danes have donated more than 20 million Danish Kroner to Haiti via the major relief organizations since Wednesday 13 January 2010. MSF / Médecins Sans Frontières has received 6.1 million Danish Kroner, Danish Red Cross 7.8 and Unicef 6.4 million Danish kroner.

 

Maersk Line has pledged free transport of relief goods provided that the coordination is made by UN having the superior logistic task of distributing relief goods.

 

Thousands of Haitians are fleeing out of Port-au-Prince due to the escalating violence and the lack of food.

 

Shortage of fuel has caused increasing fares. Nevertheless, the busses are more crowded than during the Christmas season!

 

 

ARDtext on 18 January 2010:

 

The EU will provide 422 million Euro for Haiti.

 

ARDtext on 19 January 2010:

 

According to the Haitian government the earthquake killed 200,000 people.

 

Big tent villages will be established for the victims of the Haiti earthquake on the outskirts of Port-au-Prince. About 1.5 million homeless Haitians are to live there for a long period of time.

 

According to the relief organizations there are reports of increasing violence in the disaster area.

 

According to Red Cross despair has led to looting.

 

MSF (Médecins sans Frontières): People with stab and bullet wounds need treatment.

 

UN's Secretary-General Ban has - with success - asked the World Security Council to send 3,500 more Blue Helmet soldiers and policemen to Haiti.

 

 

BBC WORLD News on 19 January 2010:

 

US starts aid airdrops into Haiti. The US military has begun airdropping food and water supplies into earthquake-hit Haiti. Some 14,000 ready-to-eat meals and 15,000 litres of water were dropped North-East of Port-au-Prince. That this has not been done before is due to the fact that airdrops were found too risky, but congestion at the airport has hampered aid distribution. The US is now considering airdrops across Haiti. More than 2,000 US marines are set to join 1,000 US troops in Haiti.

 

US troops dropped at Haiti Palace and are expected to be unloading water, food and equipment

 

UN Security Council has voted to boost its peacekeeping forces to help control outbursts of looting.

 

Anger has been growing in the streets of the capital as people wait for help.

 

 

GMA News.TV on 18 and 19 January 2010:

 

CONDITION OF INJURED RP SOLDIER IN HAITI QUAKE IMPROVES

 

(01/18/2010 | 04:57 PM )

 

The condition of a Filipino peacekeeper injured in last week's devastating quake in Haiti has improved, allowing him to be transferred from a hospital to a local clinic.

 

 

RP PEACEKEEPERS CARRY HEAVY WORKLOAD IN HAITI

 

(01/18/2010 | 07:46 PM )

 

In the aftermath of the catastrophic earthquake that wrecked Haiti last week, Filipino peacekeepers have been working around the clock for rescue and retrieval operations and have even secured damaged establishments from looters, an official from the Armed Forces of the Philippines said on Monday.

 

Their duties also kept them from worrying about at least three of their colleagues who remained trapped under the rubble of the collapsed Christopher Hotel in Port-au-Prince, the capital of the Caribbean nation.

 

"Our peacekeepers are busy because they have much work to do. Aside from rescue, they also provide security in areas like the Caribbean Supermarket which may be looted because people are getting hungry," AFP information chief Lt. Col. Romeo Brawner Jr. said in an interview over dzBB radio.

 

The Pan American Health Organization said 50,000 to 100,000 people perished in the quake. Haiti Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive said 100,000 would "seem to be the minimum."

 

While aid was slowly reaching devastated areas, growing impatience among the suffering has spawned looting and violence, reported the Associated Press. Aid delivery was bogged down by congestion at the Port-au-Prince airport, quake damage at the seaport, poor roads and the fear of looters and robbers.

 

Missing Filipinos

 

As of Monday, six Filipinos were still missing. They were identified as Grace Fabian and Geraldine Lalican, who are still presumed trapped inside the collapsed Caribbean Supermarket, peacekeepers Petty Officer 3 Pearly Panangui, Sgt. Janice Arocena and Sgt. Eustacio Bermudez, and UN worker Jerome Yap.

 

Brawner said the chances of recovering the missing peacekeepers trapped under the Christopher Hotel may be fading by the day.

 

The hotel, the headquarters of the United Nations peacekeeping force in Haiti, has seven stories—including two extension floors.

 

He added that the signs of life in past days such as voices and tapping had already waned. “The signs have since weakened," he said.

 

In the meantime, Brawner said the AFP is giving support to the families of the missing peacekeepers. "We are in contact with the families. We give them updates, we tell them not to lose hope, and assure them we are doing everything we can," he said.

 

Brawner said Filipino troops are helping in rescue operations but the frontline now consists mainly of personnel who know how to operate rescue equipment.

 

He also said troops from other countries like China and France have arrived in Haiti as well.

 

100 Filipinos safe, accounted for

Last Sunday, the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs announced that at least 100 Filipinos in Haiti’s Delmas districts were accounted for and were safe.

 

Of the recorded 462 Filipinos in Haiti, 290 are civilians and 172 are peacekeepers. There are some Filipino priests and nuns as well. Filipinos working in the Caribbean country occupy middle- to upper-level management positions and are employed in the garment, telecommunication and power generation sectors.

 

This week, Philippine government is set to send a 155-member Philippine peacekeeping contingent and a medical team to help in rescue efforts in the quake-hit country.

 

– Sophia Regina Dedace/JV, GMANews.TV with reports from AP

 

 

65 MORE FILIPINOS ACCOUNTED FOR IN HAITI

 

(01/18/2010 | 10:40 PM)

 

Sixty-five more Filipinos living in a residential area in Haiti were confirmed alive and safe, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said on Monday.

 

 

BODY OF UN PINOY WORKER IN HAITI RETRIEVED FROM RUBBLE

 

(01/19/2010 | 08:47 AM)

 

The body of a United Nations Filipino officer was recovered early Monday evening, buried beneath the rubble of a hotel in Haiti following a magnitude-7 earthquake that hit the Caribbean nation last week, the Department of Foreign Affairs said on Tuesday.

 

Jerome Yap, executive assistant to the deputy head of the UN mission in Haiti, was the first confirmed Filipino death in Haiti.

Interviewed on GMA News' Unang Balita, DFA spokesman Ed Malaya said the remains of Yap were retrieved at 6:15 p.m. on Monday, Philippine time.

 

Yap's body was recovered from the site of Christopher Hotel, a few hours after other remains were found, including those of mission head Hedi Annabi, deputy Luis Tacosta and Chinese Ambassador to Haiti Shulin Wang.

 

Five Filipinos remained missing — Petty Officer 3 Pearly Panangui, Sergeant Janice Arocena and Sergeant Eustacio Bermudez, all members of the RP peacekeeping force in Haiti; and Grace Fabian and Geraldine Lalican, who both worked at the Carribean Supermarket.

 

Malaya added that Philippine Ambassador to Havana Macarthur F. Corsino arrived in Haiti capital Port-Au-Prince on Monday to help in relief and search efforts for missing Filipinos.

 

- Carmela Lapeña/LBG/RSJ/NPA, GMANews.TV

[nancyk58]

UPDATES OF THE SITUATION IN HAITI ON 19 JANUARY 2010, PART II OF III

 

US MILITARY AIRDROPS SUPPLIES INTO HAITI

 

(01/19/2010 | 09:52 AM )

 

WASHINGTON— The US military has airdropped water and food into Haiti after earlier ruling out such a delivery method as too risky.

 

Maj. Tanya Bradsher, a spokeswoman for the US Southern Command, said an Air Force C-17 flying out of Pope Air Force Base, North Carolina, on Monday dropped 14,500 Meals Ready to Eat (abbreviation: MREs) and 15,000 liters of water into a secured area 5 miles (8 kilometers) northeast of the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince.

 

Military officials are considering whether the method was successful enough to be used throughout Haiti.

 

Defense Secretary Robert Gates said last week that early airdrops were ruled out because they might do more harm than good, possibly triggering riots if there was no structure on the ground to distribute the supplies.

- AP

 

 

HELP STEPS UP... SO DOES SCALE OF HAITI TRAGEDY

 

(01/19/2010 | 10:47 AM)

 

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – The staggering scope of Haiti's nightmare came into sharper focus Monday as authorities estimated 200,000 dead and 1.5 million homeless in the quake-ravaged heart of this tragic land, where injured survivors still died in the streets, doctors pleaded for help and looters slashed at one another in the rubble.

 

The world pledged more money, food, medicine and police. Some 2,000 US Marines steamed into nearby waters. And ex-president Bill Clinton, special UN envoy, flew in to offer support. Six days after the earthquake struck, search teams still pulled buried survivors from the ruins.

 

But hour by hour the unmet needs of hundreds of thousands grew.

 

Overwhelmed surgeons appealed for anesthetics, scalpels, saws for cutting off crushed limbs. Uncounted hundreds of survivors sought to cram onto buses headed out of town. In downtown streets, others begged for basics.

 

"Have we been abandoned? Where is the food?" shouted one man, Jean Michel Jeantet.

 

The U.N. World Food Program (WFP) said it expected to boost operations from feeding 67,000 people on Sunday to 97,000 on Monday. But it needs 100 million prepared meals over the next 30 days, and it appealed for more government donations.

 

"I know that aid cannot come soon enough," UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in New York after returning from Haiti.

 

"Unplug the bottlenecks," he urged.

 

In one step to reassure frustrated aid groups, the US military agreed to give aid deliveries priority over military flights at the now-US-run airport here, the WFP announced in Rome. The Americans' handling of civilian flights had angered some humanitarian officials.

 

Looting and violence flared again Monday, as hundreds clambered over the broken walls of shops to grab anything they could — including toothpaste, now valuable for lining nostrils against the stench of Port-au-Prince's dead. Police fired into the air as young men fought each other over rum and beer with broken bottles and machetes.

 

Hard-pressed medical teams sometimes had to take time away from quake victims to deal with gunshot wounds, said Loris de Filippi of Doctors Without Borders. In the Montrissant neighborhood, Red Cross doctors working in shipping containers and saying they "cannot cope" lost 50 patients over two days, said international Red Cross spokesman Simon Schorno.

 

Amid the debris and the smoke of bodies being burned, dozens of international rescue teams dug on in search of buried survivors. And on Monday afternoon, some 140 hours after the quake, they pulled two Haitian women alive from a collapsed university building. At a destroyed downtown bank, another team believed it was just hours from saving a trapped employee.

 

The latest casualty report, from the European Commission citing Haitian government figures, doubled previous estimates of the dead from the magnitude-7.0 quake, to approximately 200,000, with some 70,000 bodies recovered and trucked off to mass graves.

 

 

If accurate, that would make Haiti's catastrophe about as deadly as the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, which killed an estimated 230,000 people in a dozen countries.

 

 

European Commission analysts estimate 250,000 were injured and 1.5 million were made homeless. Masses are living under plastic sheets in makeshift camps and in dust-covered automobiles, or had taken to the road seeking out relatives in the safer countryside.

 

 

On the capital's southern edge, hundreds of people struggled to get onto brightly painted "tap-tap" buses heading out of town.

 

"We've got no more food and no more house, so leaving is the only thing to do," said Livena Livel, 22, fleeing with her 1-year-old daughter and six other relatives to her father's house in Les Cayes, near Haiti's western tip.

"At least over there we can farm for food," she said.

 

She said she was spending her last cash on the "insanely expensive" bus fare, jacked up to the equivalent of $7.70, three days' pay for most Haitians, because gasoline prices had doubled.

 

The European Union and its individual governments boosted their aid pledges for Haiti to euro422 million ($606 million) in emergency and long-term aid, on top of at least $100 million pledged by the US.

 

A dirt-poor nation long at the bottom of the heap, Haiti will need years or decades of expanded aid to rebuild. After meeting with Haitian President Rene Preval and other international representatives in the neighboring Dominican Republic, Dominican President Leonel Fernandez said Haiti would need $10 billion over five years.

 

For the moment, however, front-line relief workers want simply to get food and water to the hungry and thirsty.

 

The UN humanitarian chief, John Holmes, said in New York not all 15 planned UN food distribution points were up and running yet. "That's a question of people, trucks, fuel, but the aid is scaling up very rapidly," he said.

 

The priorities are clearing roads, ensuring security at UN distribution points, getting this city's seaport working again and bringing in more trucks and helicopters, WFP Executive Director Josette Sheeran said in Rome.

 

Evidence of the shortfall could be found at a makeshift camp of 50,000 displaced people spread over a hillside golf course overlooking the city. Leaders there said a US 82nd Airborne Division unit had been able to deliver food to only half the people.

 

The 1,700 US troops on the ground in Port-au-Prince were to be reinforced by 2,000 Marines expected Monday off Haiti's shores aboard three amphibious landing ships. Other US help was on the way, including two US civilian crane ships that could unload cargo at the quake-damaged port.

 

Getting clean water into people's hands was still a dire concern.

"People can survive a few days without food but we must try to avoid major outbreaks of waterborne disease," said Brian Feagans, a spokesman for the aid group CARE.

 

Clinton and accompanying daughter Chelsea pitched in, helping unload cases of bottled water from their plane to a UN truck.

 

Some aid groups and foreign officials have blamed the US military for slowing down aid deliveries, saying the American units that took charge of the small Port-au-Prince airport last week gave priority to US military flights.

 

Doctors Without Borders said Monday its specialists were 48 hours behind on performing surgery for critically injured patients because three cargo planes loaded with supplies were denied clearance and forced to land almost 200 miles away in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.

 

The WFP's Sheeran said things would change. She announced an agreement with the US so that "we now have the coordination mechanism to prioritize the humanitarian flights coming in."

 

At the airport, a US military spokesman said the parking ramp designed for 16 large aircraft at times was holding 40. "That's why there was gridlock," said Navy Cmdr. Chris Lounderman. He said about 100 flights a day were now landing.

 

The US Air Force itself resorted to an air drop of aid Monday. A C-17 from Pope Air Force Base, N.C., parachuted pallets of food and water into an area outside Port-au-Prince secured by US forces. The Americans have been reluctant to use air drops for fear of drawing unruly crowds.

 

There remained a "huge demand for lifesaving surgery for those who suffered terrible injuries," Doctors Without Borders reported. The US-based Partners in Health, coordinating aid at Port-au-Prince's central hospital, reported "a desperate need for all the resources required to run a hospital," including surgical instruments, anesthesia gear, alcohol, sutures, and saws.

 

Clinton, visiting the hospital, reported its staff had to use vodka to sterilize equipment. "It's astonishing what the Haitians have been able to accomplish," he said.

 

More than 1,000 patients awaited surgery at the hospital, Partners in Health said. Right outside the US-run airport, one man died as Navy helicopters scrambled to evacuate patients to the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson, the military reported.

 

Across the city, thousands of abandoned bodies had been picked up by government crews, but residents dragged still others to crossroads, hoping municipal garbage trucks or aid groups would deal with them.

 

Looting and violence added to the casualties. Riot police opened fire — mostly in the air — to break up a mob of several hundred fighting over rum bottles in a burning shop. One teenage boy was hit in the thigh by a shotgun blast. "Friends! Save me! Save me!" he cried, curled up in a pool of blood, one foot almost severed. A medical aid truck happened by and picked him up.

 

The ranks of Haitian police and UN peacekeepers trying to restore order in this stricken city had themselves been decimated in the quake, which destroyed the UN headquarters.

 

In New York on Monday, U.N. chief Ban asked for 1,500 more UN police and 2,000 more peacekeepers to join the 9,000 or so U.N. security personnel in Haiti. Alain Le Roy, the UN peacekeeping chief, said a "tremendous" number of requests had come in to escort humanitarian convoys. Haitian police had returned to the streets in only "limited numbers," he said.

 

The Security Council approved the reinforcements on Tuesday.

 

- AP

[nancyk58]

Updates of the situation in HAITI on 19 January 2010, Part III of III

 

Body of RP peacekeeper in Haiti recovered - AFP

 

(01/19/2010 | 11:40 AM)

 

The body of a Filipino United Nations peacekeeper was retrieved from the rubble of the collapsed Christopher Hotel, bringing to two the number of Philippine fatalities following the deadly earthquake that rocked the impoverished Caribbean island nation of Haiti.

 

At a press conference in Camp Aguinaldo, military information chief Lt. Col. Romeo Brawner Jr. said the body of Petty Officer 3 Pearly Panangui was pulled out at 5:30 a.m. Tuesday from the second floor of the hotel, which houses the United Nations Peacekeeping headquarters in Haiti.

 

In a prepared prayer, Brawner, on behalf of the Philippine military, paid tribute to Panangui and to all servicemen performing their duties outside the Philippines.

 

"They have shown a culture of peace, heroism, and dedication, and commitment to serve even outside of their office especially at this crucial time," he said. "They may be gone but they will forever be in our hearts."

 

At the time of the killer quake, a total of 462 Filipinos were in Haiti - 290 civilians and 172 military and police peacekeepers.

 

The announcement came hours after the first Filipino casualty was reported by the Department of Foreign Affairs.

 

The body of Jerome Yap, executive assistant to the deputy head of the UN mission in Haiti, was found at 6:15 p.m. Monday, Philippine time.

 

Yap's body was recovered from the site of the collapsed hotel, a few hours after other remains were found, including those of mission head Hedi Annabi, deputy Luis Tacosta and Chinese Ambassador to Haiti Shulin Wang.

 

Yap's sibling based in New York is already coordinating with the UN regarding the arrangements for the transport of his remains.

 

Yap's family in Pampanga has already been informed and would be left to decide on whether to bring his remains back to the Philippines.

 

With the retrieval of the remains of the two Filipinos, four Filipinos, who are believed trapped in a number of establishments in Haiti, remain missing.

 

They are Sergeant Janice Arocena and Sergeant Eustacio Bermudez, both members of the RP peacekeeping force in Haiti; and Grace Fabian and Geraldine Lalican, who both worked at the Caribbean Supermarket.

 

- Mark Merueñas/RSJ, GMANews.TV

 

 

HAITI CHAOS HAMPERS AID DELIVERY; DEATH TOLL RISES

 

(01/19/2010 | 04:58 PM GMA News.TV)

 

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Relief workers say pockets of violence in Haiti's devastated capital are hindering a slow increase in much-needed aid delivery, and some residents have banded together to protect the few possessions they have left.

 

As thousands of others head to the countryside, people in one hillside Port-au-Prince district blocked off access to their street with cars and asked local young men to patrol for looters.

"We never count on the government here," said Tatony Vieux, 29. "Never."

 

A week after the magnitude-7.0 quake struck, Tuesday dawned with new potential for reinforcements to aid in security and disaster relief. The United Nations Security Council was expected to approve additional peacekeeping forces. Some 2,000 US Marines who arrived in the region a day earlier were parked offshore on ships.

 

But the scope of catastrophe had widened dramatically. The latest casualty report, from the European Commission citing Haitian government figures, doubled previous estimates of the dead to approximately 200,000, with some 70,000 bodies recovered and trucked off to mass graves.

 

The port remains blocked. Distribution of food, water and supplies from the city's lone airport to the needy are increasing but still remained a work in progress, frustrating many survivors who sleep in the streets and outdoor camps of tens of thousands. European Commission analysts estimate 250,000 were injured and 1.5 million were made homeless.

 

"I simply don't understand what is taking the foreigners so long," said Raymond Saintfort, a pharmacist who brought two suitcases of aspirin and antiseptics to the ruins of a nursing home where dozens of residents suffered.

 

The UN humanitarian chief, John Holmes, said not all 15 planned UN food distribution points were up and running yet. The UN World Food Program said it expected to boost operations to feeding 97,000 on Monday. But it needs 100 million prepared meals over the next 30 days, and it appealed for more government donations.

 

In one step to reassure frustrated aid groups, the US military agreed to give aid deliveries priority over military flights at the now-US-run airport here, according to the WFP. The Americans' handling of civilian flights had angered some humanitarian officials.

 

At the airport, US Navy Cmdr. Chris Lounderman said about 100 flights a day were now landing.

 

Still, the US military resorted to an air drop from C-17 transport planes Monday, parachuting pallets of supplies to a secured area outside the city rather than landing and unloading at the airport.

 

Meanwhile, rescuers continued finding survivors.

 

International rescue teams working together pulled two Haitian women from a collapsed university building, using machinery commonly nicknamed "jaws of life" to cut away debris and allow rescuers to pull them out on stretchers. A sister of one of the survivors shouted praises to God when the women emerged.

 

In the city's Bourdon area, a large team of French, Dominican and Panamanian rescuers using high-tech detection equipment said they heard heartbeats underneath the rubble of a bank building and worked into the night to try and rescue a survivor. The husband of a missing woman watched from a crowd of onlookers. "I'm going to be here until I find my wife, I'll keep it up until I find her, dead or alive," said Witchar Longfosse.

 

Elsewhere, overwhelmed surgeons appealed for anesthetics, scalpels, and saws for cutting off crushed limbs. Former US President Bill Clinton, visiting one hospital, reported its staff had to use vodka to sterilize equipment. "It's astonishing what the Haitians have been able to accomplish," he said.

 

Front-line relief workers made some headway. By 7 a.m. Monday, an Israeli military field hospital had treated 196 people. "We understand it's a drop in a big sea," said facility spokesman Avi Berman.

 

Violence added to complications in places. Medical relief workers said they were treating gunshot wounds in addition to broken bones and other quake-related injuries. Nighttime was especially perilous and locals were forming night brigades and machete-armed mobs to fight bandits across the capital.

 

"It gets too dangerous," said Remi Rollin, an armed private security guard hired by a shopkeeper to ward off looters. "After sunset, police shoot on sight."

 

In the sprawling Cite Soleil slum, gangsters are reassuming control after escaping from the city's notorious main penitentiary and police urge citizens to take justice into their own hands.

"If you don't kill the criminals, they will all come back," a Haitian police officer shouted over a loudspeaker.

 

Alain Le Roy, the UN peacekeeping chief, cited the often unruly crowds at points where food and water is being distributed and said Haitian police had returned to the streets in only "limited numbers."

 

A Security Council vote was expected to add 1,500 more UN police and 2,000 more peacekeepers to join the 9,000 or so UN security personnel in Haiti.. LATEST NEWS: APPROVED.

 

Thousands are streaming out of Port-au-Prince, crowding aboard buses headed toward countryside villages. Charlemagne Ulrick planned to stay behind after putting his three children on a truck for an all-day journey to Haiti's northwestern peninsula. "They have to go and save themselves," said Ulrick, a dentist. "I don't know when they're coming back."

 

US and Haitian officials also warned any efforts of Haitians to reach the United States by boat would be thwarted. Haiti's ambassador in Washington, Raymond Joseph, recorded a message in Creole to his countrymen, urging them not to leave.

 

"If you think you will reach the US and all the doors will be wide open to you, that's not at all the case," Joseph said, according to a transcript on America.gov, a State Department Web site. "And they will intercept you right on the water and send you back home where you came from."

 

- AP

[nancyk58]

UPDATES OF THE SITUATION IN HAITI ON 20 JANUARY 2010

 

Danish Text-TV and Swedish Text-TV (SVT Text):

Haiti's embassador to the USA criticises the Americans for airdropping food supplies from helicopters to the Haitians in a secured area North-East of Port-au-Prince. "The strongest / fittest benefit from the airdrop of food supplies from helicopters. Haiti needs stable aid. It should be possible to find areas where it is safe for the helicopters to land so that food and water can be distributed to the needy Haitians." The US military considers airdrop of food supplies from helicopters across Haiti.

 

News from TV2 News (Danish TV channel), Danish text-TV, Swedish Text-TV aka. SVT Text and German Text-TV (ARDtext + ZDFtext):

25 year old woman rescued - she was lying under the rubble of a supermarket.

 

69-year-old woman rescued out of rubble of Haiti's Catholic church. "I'm alright. Only problem is that my feet hurt", she told the media.

 

A three-week-old baby girl dug free in the rubble of a collapsed house in the town of Jacmel. It took rescuers 5 hours to reach her and get her out. According to her uncle, the baby is 23 days old. She is relatively healthy/sound and in a good condition all things considered. The baby has been taken to an American field hospital.

 

 

SVT text:

121 rescued from rubble since the devastating quake on 12 January 2010.

 

LATEST NEWS FROM TV2 News, Danish and British TEXT-TV as well as German text-TV (ARDtext and ZDFtext):

NEW STRONG AFTERSHOCK rattles / rocked Haiti.

 

ZDFtext + ARDtext:

The epicentre of the new quake taking place at 6.03 (local time?) was 60 km West-Southwest of Port-au-prince in a depth of less than 10 km! (ARDtext cites USGS for a dept of 22 km). People panicked / ran - screaming - out of the buildings and into the streets. Fear of new dead and wounded Haitians.

 

ARDtext:

According to the Haitian government: The 7.0 quake on 12 January 2010 probably killed 200,000 and wounded 250,000, while 1.5 mio Haitians were made homeless.

 

TV2 News (seen around 15.20 Danish time):

TV2 reporter Allan Silberbrandt was in the area and said that the new magnitude 6.1 quake / strong aftershock felt like a gigantic hand shaking the house he was in."

 

The official death toll in Haiti is 75,000. 47 UN employees are killed and 500 missing.

 

ZDFtext:

Around 17,860 Euro collected for victims of Haitian earthquake in a direct ZDF broadcast on 19 January 2010. ZDF and "Bild hilft e.V" organized the collection for the earthquake victims in Haiti. Slogan: "Wir wollen helfen - ein Herz für Kinder" = We want to help - one heart for children.

 

ARDtext:

More aid from Germany so that Germany is donating 10 million EURO in total. Germany already pledged 7.5 million and is now donating 2, 5 million to the World Food Program, WFP. And the Pariser Club considers / agrees on total debt relief.

 

Mr. Ladekarl, Secretary General of Red Cross, Denmark has returned to Denmark after reaching Haiti last Saturday (via the Dominican Republic). He talked of "increasing despair in Haiti. The wounded are suffering, because the unattended wounds are festering and gangrene set in. Haitians are fleeing out of the capital / Port-au-Prince".

[nancyk58]

[22-Jan-10] COLDPLAY to perform in "HOPE for HAITI" BENEFIT CONCERT on all Major Networks

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

"Justin Timberlake, COLDPLAY, ALICIA KEYS, BRUCE Springsteen, Wyclef Jean, BONO, The EDGE and JAY-Z will lead the all-star lineup of performers for Friday night's "Hope for Haiti Now: A Global Benefit for Earthquake Relief" telethon. More than 100 stars have signed on to help raise funds for the MTV Networks-sponsored show, which will benefit the victims of last week's devastating 7.0-magnitude earthquake on the impoverished island.

 

Several one-of-a-kind collaborations will highlight the event, including a hookup between U2's Bono and The Edge with Jay-Z and Rihanna in London and a jam featuring Kid Rock, Keith Urban and Sheryl Crow in Los Angeles; like all the night's performances, the collabos will be available for download on iTunes for 99 cents the next day.

 

Also appearing in New York with Wyclef and Springsteen will be Jennifer Hudson, Mary J. Blige, Shakira and Sting, while the Los Angeles show will feature performances from Keys, Christina Aguilera, Dave Matthews, John Legend, Timberlake, Stevie Wonder and Taylor Swift.

 

Jean, a native of Haiti, George Clooney and CNN's Anderson Cooper will appear on the show, which will be broadcast from New York, London, Los Angeles and Haiti and feature more than 100 of the biggest names in film, television and music with testimonials and answering phones. The two-hour program will air commercial-free across ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, CNN, BET, the CW, HBO, MTV, VH1 and CMT on Friday at 8 p.m. ET/PT. The special will also air on PBS, TNT, Showtime, Comedy Central, Bravo, E! Entertainment Network, National Geographic Channel, Oxygen, G4, Centric, Current TV, Fuse, MLB Network, Epix, Palladia, SoapNet, Style, Discovery Health and Planet Green, as well as Canada's CTV, CBC Television, Global Television and MuchMusic. It will also air internationally on BET International, CNN International, National Geographic and MTV Networks International, available in 640 million homes worldwide. "Hope for Haiti" will be the first U.S.-based telethon airing on MTV in China. Facebook and Twitter are the official social media partners who will help to drive donations and tune-in to the telethon.

 

All donations will directly benefit OXFAM AMERICA, Partners in Health, RED CROSS, UNICEF and Wyclef's YELE HAITI Foundation./COLOR] Facebook and MySpace have signed on as official social-media partners to help steer viewers to the telethon and drive donations.

 

Additionally, the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund and United Nations World Food Programme have joined the list of relief organizations that will benefit from the show, with proceeds to be split evenly among each organization's individual Haiti relief funds. "Hope For Haiti Now" will be the most widely distributed telethon in history, internationally and across media platforms, including live streaming globally on sites including YouTube, Hulu, MySpace, Fancast, AOL, MSN.com, Yahoo, Bing.com, BET.com, MTV.com, and Rhapsody and on mobile via Alltel, AT&T, Sprint, Verizon, and FloTV.

 

On the red carpet at Sunday night's Golden Globe Awards, George Clooney revealed how the global fundraiser came together. "You guys started it," the actor said. "The first call I made was to Judy [McGrath, MTV Networks' chief executive]. She said, 'Yes, everybody will do it, everybody's in' and that they were thinking of doing it too. They got the ball rolling and we got every single network after that. So congratulations to you!"

 

Before the telethon airs, Clooney wanted to remind young people that there are MTV's "Hope for Haiti" telethon, airing commercial-free Friday, January 22, at 8 p.m. ET. "

 

http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/163...19/jay_z.jhtml

-----------------------------

 

ARDtext:

SEVERAL CASUALTIES / VICTIMS OF MAGNITUDE-6.1 AFTERSHOCK: 20 hawkers / street vendors buried.

 

BBC WORLD / NEWS on 21.1.10 at 2 am (European time):

UN sending 3,500 extra peacekeepers to Haiti.

 

MSF = Médecins Sans Frontières:

Doctors forced to amputate due to infection (wounds festering and gangrene). The doctors needed several saws, but only had 1!

 

Medical supplies running out fast!

The USA control Haiti airport, and several MSF planes loaded with emergency relief have been re-routed to the Dominican Republic, and the emergency relief is then transported by truck to Haiti!

[nancyk58]

Help Red Cross and Unicef

 

UPDATES OF THE SITUATION IN HAITI ON 21 JANUARY 2010

 

ZDF text + ARD text:

A 5-year-old boy rescued out of the rubble of a house, according to The US relief organization "International Medical Corps".

 

ARD text:

The boy was dehydrated, otherwise unhurt. His relatives would recover a dead person's body out of the rubble of his parents' house. Suddenly the rescuers could hear someone shout: "I am here, I am here" and managed to get him out.

Earlier today an 11-year-old girls had been pulled out of the rubble of a house.

 

ZDF text and BBC World :

The USA will send additional 4,000 soldiers (sailors and marines) to Haiti.

 

DR1: Guantanamo is prepared to receive boat refugees from Haiti. 100 tents, each with capacity/room for 10 persons, established. 1,000 additional tents in stock. Camp beds assembled. The expected Haitian boat refugees will be accommodated at a distance of 4 km of the prisoners. Source: Associated Press.

 

SVT text + Danish DR1:

Haiti's vital / most important harbour will be opened again on Friday 22 January. The plan is then to deliver goods via the harbour and bring people to Haiti via the airport.

 

DR1:

Haitians are streaming to the harbour which is fully operative within 3 weeks. Thousands of Haitians are gathered in the harbour in the hope of getting away. Boat owners have been given free fuel by the government to transport Haitians from Port-au-Prince to the Western part of the island. Boats with capacity/room for 600 people have 3,000 Haitians on board. There is no control.

 

Danes have donated 32 mio DKK to Haiti in only 8 days.

 

Aircrafts with medical supplies from MSF / Médecins Sans Frontières have been denied access to the airport in Port-au-Prince 3 - three - times! Since 14 January 5 MSF aircrafts with a total of 85 tons emergency relief/goods have been denied access to the airport and had to land in the Dominican Republic. Loris de Filippi, Relief coordinator from MSF at the Choscal hospital in Port-au-Prince: "5 patients are dead in our clinic in Martissant due to lack of medical supplies that were on

board that aircraft!!"

 

 

SVT text: Now other parts of Haiti than Port-au-Prince benefit from the relief efforts. Helicopters from the USA and Canada brought supplies to the sea port Jacmel. Its 60,000 inhabitants are totally dependent on aid from abroad.

 

 

Danish TV2 TTV:

106 orphans are being flown to the Netherlands this afternoon. The adoptions of these orphans had been approved before the devastating earthquake in Haiti struck. 92 of the orphans will be handed over to Dutch adoptive parents, whereas 14 orphans have been adopted by adoptive parents in Luxembourgh.

[nancyk58]

1 MILLION RAISED FOR HAITI‏

 

From: Luis Morago - Avaaz.org ([email protected])

Sent: 21 January 2010 19:37:18

To: Nancy Boysen

 

Avaaz members have surged to the help of Haiti raising over $1 MILLION in just a few days! Every dollar/euro/yen donated is immediately being sent to empower trustworthy local partner organizations to scale up their efforts, but the devastation is staggering and the needs remain massive. See the email below -- let´s stand with the Haitian people, help now!

https://secure.avaaz.org/en/stand_with_haiti

 

Haiti's worst earthquake in 200 years struck last week, devastating the capital city, killing tens of thousands and threatening over 3 million people in this desperately poor country.

 

Haitians are urgently appealing to the world for help -- we’re already working with strong local organisations mobilising community-based relief efforts. Let’s send a worldwide wave of donations to the front lines, to save lives now and help people recover and rebuild. Avaaz will work partners to make sure the help reaches those who need it most. Click below to donate:

 

https://secure.avaaz.org/en/stand_with_haiti

 

Based on expert advice from leading humanitarian NGOs who have been working in Haiti for over 20 years, we're offering donations to trusted local organizations, including:

 

Honor and Respect for Bel Air, a big community-based network in Haiti’s capital Port-au-Prince, which is also supported by our friends at the respected Brazilian NGO Viva Rio

 

Coordination Régionale des Organisations de Sud-Est (CROSE), which brings together some of the most active community groups in the South of Haiti where the earthquake struck hardest. These groups include: women's groups, schools networks and local cooperatives

 

Zanmi Lasante, sister organization of Partners in Health (PiH) in Haiti. PiH and its partners have been among the first to respond with emergency medical services to the most vulnerable

 

In 2008, Avaaz members donated over $2 million for Burmese monks to respond to the devastating Cyclone Nargis. Our money made an incredible difference there -- because it went directly to local people on the front lines of the aid effort.

 

Times of painful tragedy can bring out the best in us by bringing people together. Let's join with the people of Haiti to help them rescue their communities from this brutal disaster -- act now at this link:

 

https://secure.avaaz.org/en/stand_with_haiti

 

With hope for Haiti,

 

Luis, Paul, Graziela, Paula, Ricken, Pascal, Alice, Benjamin, Milena and the whole Avaaz team

 

More information:

 

Haiti devastated by massive earthquake (BBC):

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8455629.stm

 

Haiti hit by second strong earthquake (The Guardian): http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jan/20/haiti-hit-by-second-earthquake

 

Tiny steps toward basic services (New York Times):

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/20/world/americas/20services.html?pagewanted=2&ref=world

 

Deadly earthquake hits Haiti (Reuters pictures):

http://www.reuters.com/news/pictures/slideshow?articleId=USRTR28T0W#a=7

 

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Haiti Has Become Ground Zero For Brazil To Flex Its Muscle Against The US

 

Brazil military leaders have preemptively refused to relinquish command of the UN mission in Haiti, in face of a planned influx of more than 10,000 U.S. troops.

 

The country that commands the mission will control a large and ongoing international military effort, according to Al-Jazeera columnist Gabriel Elizondo.

 

Whether or not America wants or can afford another military commitment, taking command in Haiti signifies continued leadership in the western hemisphere. That claim was central to America's rise to global hegemony, as expressed in the Monroe Doctrine.

 

If Brazil maintains command, the rising power can claim military leadership of all Latin America. France, which is also a traditional power in Haiti, has not contested mission command.

 

Already the turf war has played out in tension over plane landing rights.

 

Al-Jazeera:

 

Three Brazilian planes loaded with supplies were held up and not allowed to land in Haiti by the FAA (America’s agency that handles air traffic, which is now in control of airspace in Haiti). Celso Amorim, Brazil’s foreign minister, apparently was so upset about it that he put in a call to Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, and asked that Brazilian aeroplanes be given priority over chartered flights.

 

I imagine Brazilian commanders were thinking to themselves: "How dare the US hold up our planes - we run the UN forces in Haiti!"

 

http://www.businessinsider.com/haiti...truggle-2010-1

[nancyk58]

UPDATES OF THE SITUATION IN HAITI ON 21 AND 22 jANUARY 2010

 

DR.DK/News (Danish Text TV):

The skyrocketing of prices: Massive price increases on water, food and fuel. Some shops, however, keep the prices at pre-quake level.

 

The European Union (EU) sends Danish engineer to Haiti where he is to be ECHO's ears and eyes. He is sure that Haiti needs water purification equipment.

 

The UN: "We do not control Haiti". In an interview with the French paper LE MONDE, United Nation's Assistant Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, Edmond Mulet admits that the cooperation between the USA and the UN has not been unproblematic. "The disaster has made us powerless. We do not control Haiti". Little by little the UN has succeeded in establishing a respectful and constructive cooperation with the Americans, but their authority / mandate was unclear in the beginning.

 

Dominique Strauss-Kahn, Managing Director / head of the International Monetary Fund recommends a multilateral aid programme for Haiti like the Marshall Plan that contributed to rebuilding Europe after World War II. On Monday 25 January 2010 Canada hosts a donors conference where rebuilding and reconstruction efforts will be discussed and where a donor meeting to be held in March will be prepared.

 

The vital port (harbour) in Port-au-Prince has been reopened. The devastating earthquake in Haiti destroyed the harbour and made it unfit for use. Construction workers have repaired the harbour so that it is possible to unload relief supplies from ships. 3 ships have now called at the port and unloaded necessaries. Several ships are bound for the port according to American sources.

 

BBC WORLD / news:

Haiti is planning to house 400,000 earth quake survivors in new tented villages outside the capital, Port-au-Prince. 100,000 people would initially be sent to 10 settlements near the suburb of Croix Des Bouquets.

An estimated 1.5 mio people left homeless by the 7.0-magnitude quake which killed as many as 200,000 people.

 

SVT Text:

Citizens of more than 30 countries were among the ten, maybe hundred thousands of victims of last week's devastating earthquake in Haiti. 150 foreigners were confirmed dead of which 33 American citizens. Several hundred foreigners are still missing of which Canada has 543 missing, Belgium 87, Mexico 47, Italy 20 and France 11 missing citizens.

 

ZDF Text:

The gala broadcast on the German TV channel ZDF in favour of HAITI resulted in record-high donations of more than 20,5 mio EURO. Several organizations benefitted from the gala donations including the organizations "Ein Herz für Kinder" (A heart for children), German Red Cross and Caritas International. Last tuesday ZDF's and Bild's joint action resulted in almost 18 mio. EURO. Germans donated 20,552,864 EURO via Hotline until Thursday.

 

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon said that the initial difficulties had now been overcome and that the system is now efficient. 5 transport routes have been established and the airport's capacity has increased. Now supplies are also coming to Haiti by sea. The International Red Cross / ICRC confirmed the arrival of aid.

 

10,000 earthquake victims per day are put into mass graves. 80,000 dead have been buried so far.

 

ARD text:

Rescue teams from the USA, Belgium, Luxembourg and the United Kingdom have stopped looking for survivors and are leaving Haiti 9 days after the devastating earthquake on 12 January 2010. Yesterday two children were rescued. More than 120 survivors have been rescued. 4 Germans are missing.

 

The United Nations planning work for Haitians. The United Nations will pay up to 220,000 Haitians for cleaning work. Initially 700 people will be paid for necessary cleaning work in the framework of the "cash for work" programme. "Later 220,000 people will find a job," says Helen Clark, United Nation's Development Programme Head. This is indirectly helping one million people. 35.6 mio Dollars needed for this programme.

[nancyk58]

UPDATES OF THE SITUATION IN HAITI ON 22 JANUARY 2010

 

Denmark dispatches another emergency camp to Haiti

 

Friday 22. Jan. 2010 at 20:35 by jely / ritzau for TV2 News (updated 22/1 2010 at 20:35)

 

Distribution of aid/relief and coordination is still a major challenge in Haiti. Therefore the Danish authority "the Emergency Management Agency" is to dispatch another socalled base camp - on United Nation's request.

As is the case with the camp that was sent last week, the additional camp with space for 100 is to function as a mobile camp for United Nation's aid & relief workers in Port-au-Prince. According to plan the equipment for the new camp was to be sent on Thursday by first available airplane. The Emergency Management Agency is part of a joint Nordic effort.

"The UN has a crucial and central role when it comes to ensuring the best possible coordination of the emergency relief efforts. I am pleased that Denmark can help," says the Danish Development Minister Ulla Toernaes (V) in a press release.

 

BBC WORLD:

Haiti rescuers wind down search for survivors in the debris of Haiti's earthquake. UK HAITI rescuers returning home. Spokeswoman Elizabeth Byrs said some search and rescue teams were leaving as hopes of finding more people alive under the rubble begin to fade. Rescuers with heavy equipment continue to dig out dead bodies. British rescuers return to the UK early Saturday.

 

Since the devastating earthquake on 12 January 2010 Life is slowly returning to normal, with shops opening and buses running.

 

Christian Fraser, BBC News, Jacmel:

Jacmel, a former colonial coffee town, is desperate for help. Perhaps one in three buildings in the old town now lies in ruins - more than 100 years of history, shattered in a few catastrophic seconds.

At the Saint Michele hospital the patients are lying in the garden, baking in the heat, without enough doctors to help. The hospital buildings are too unstable to use. In the operating theatre, nurses swat flies as the surgeons do what they can. Outside, the injured scream for painkillers.

 

122 have been dug out alive - but the hope of finding more survivors in the rubble / debris fade.

 

Quake focus changes focus from the rescue of survivors in the debris/rubble to relief work, the United Nations says.

 

AN 84-YEAR-OLD WOMAN has been RESCUED after spending 10 days under rubble following the Haiti quake. Doctors say the woman has multiple wounds and her condition is grave, but are doing all they can to save her.

The rescue came as the UN said rescuers were winding down searches for survivors and focusing on relief work. Spokeswoman Elizabeth Byrs said some rescue teams were leaving, as there was little hope of finding more people alive under the rubble.

A benefit concert, featuring more than 100 music and Hollywood stars, is to be broadcast around the world from 2000 EST (0100 GMT) for victims of the earthquake.

 

SECURITY FEARS

In Port-au-Prince, life is slowly returning to normal, with shops opening and buses running - although many residents are continuing to leave the devastated capital.

On Thursday the government announced plans to send 400,000 people to tented cities in the countryside, to try to halt the spread of disease in the makeshift settlements that have sprung up in the capital.

Construction for the temporary centres has already started, the Associated Press says, but it is unclear when they will be populated.

Aid officials say about 200,000 people have already left the city, many to stay with relatives in other parts of the country.

Aid officials say about 200,000 people have already left the city, many to stay with relatives in other parts of the country.

The 84-year-old woman, rescued on Friday after 10 days in the rubble, is being treated by doctors at the main city hospital with intravenous fluids and drugs.

"I'm trying to find out how I can help her survive," Dr Ernest Benjamin told AFP news agency. "It's worth everything to try to save her."

Her son told the agency he had heard her cries on Thursday morning and, almost a day later, he dug her out with the help of friends.

Some 122 people have been saved by international search and rescue teams, according to the US government.

At least 75,000 bodies have so far been buried in mass graves, Haiti's government has said. Many more remain uncollected in the streets.

An estimated 1.5 million people were left homeless by the 7.0-magnitude quake, which some have estimated has killed as many as 200,000 people.

 

Robbing and looting

Security fears remain in the capital, with local police chief Insp Aristide Rosemont appealing for help to tackle criminals who escaped when the earthquake wrecked the main jail.

He told the BBC a large number of gangs had begun robbing and looting in the Cite Soleil slum area since the prison escape.

But despite problems in Cite Soleil, UN officials say the capital is largely calm, with only sporadic violence.

About 5,000 prisoners broke out of the capital's main jail after the walls collapsed, some of them hardened offenders belonging to violent criminal gangs.

 

Mass graves

Ms Byrs, spokeswoman for the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs, told AFP news agency that some search and rescue teams were "exhausted" and starting to leave.

Those that remain "are concentrating more and more on humanitarian aid for those who need it", she said.

Some have tried to flee abroad, but US Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano warned Haitians not to use the earthquake as an excuse to try to enter the US illegally. She said anyone caught trying to do so would be repatriated.

"Haitians need to be there to help rebuild their country, this is not an opportunity for migration," she said.

Meanwhile, efforts to rebuild Haiti's main seaport - seen as vital to the international aid effort - are being stepped up.

 

The US and the UN World Food Programme insist the distribution of food and water is well under way, but BBC correspondents in Port-au-Prince say many people have still seen no international aid at all.

 

At least 500,000 people are currently living outdoors in 447 improvised camps in Port-au-Prince, according to the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), with limited shelter and access to water.

Western countries are hoping to boost donations for the aid effort with a multi-network telethon.

 

Hope for Haiti Now, to be broadcast from New York, London, Los Angeles and Haiti, will feature Madonna, Bruce Springsteen, Beyonce and other major artists. The concert will be shown on all major US TV channels, MTV in the UK and worldwide on YouTube from 0100 GMT.

 

STARS line up for HAITI BENEFIT CONCERT

 

A benefit concert for the victims of the Haiti earthquake, hosted by George Clooney and featuring JAY-Z and MADONNA is set to take place later.

Other acts taking part in the two-hour Hope for Haiti telethon include Bono, The Edge and Rihanna, who pre-recorded their performances in London on Friday. The concert will be shown on all major US TV channels, MTV in the UK and worldwide on YouTube from 0100 GMT.

 

An estimated 1.5 million people have been left homeless by the earthquake.

As many as 200,000 people have been killed by the 7.0-magnitude quake, according to some estimates.

 

CHARITY SINGLE

The benefit concert will take place in New York, Los Angeles, London and Haiti.

More than 100 Hollywood and music stars are understood to have agreed to take part.

Haitian-born rapper Wyclef Jean - who set up the charity foundation Yele Haiti - Bruce Springsteen, Jennifer Hudson, Mary J Blige, Shakira and Sting will perform in New York.

Rihanna, meanwhile, will perform a cover version of Bob Marley's Redemption Song, which she has released to raise money for the people of Haiti.

Film stars making appearances will include Brad Pitt, Ben Stiller, Clint Eastwood, Denzel Washington, Halle Berry, Julia Roberts, Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Meryl Streep, Nicole Kidman, Tom Hanks and Will Smith.

 

George Clooney, who organised the event, told MTV: "It's a big world out there, and we all have a lot of responsibility to look out for people who can't look out for themselves."

"So what we can do is first and foremost, raise money. Period. That's it ...

"If I thought we could all pick up shovels and go in there and help without being in the way, I think a lot of people would do that."

 

The live programme can be seen online via YouTube, MySpace, Hulu, Fancast, AOL, MSN, Yahoo!, Bing.com, BET.com, MTV.com, CNN.com, VH1.com and Rhapsody.

 

The show will also be repeated in the UK at 0900 GMT on Saturday morning, on both MTV and its sister channel VIVA.

 

Meanwhile, Rod Stewart, Leona Lewis, JLS and Michael Buble have signed up to provide vocals for a Haiti charity single, organised by Simon Cowell. They will record a cover of REM's ballad Everybody Hurts.

 

BBC WORLD / News 22 January 2010

 

Life is slowly returning to normal, with shops opening and buses running.

 

 

MISGUIDED FEARS TEST HAITIANS' PATIENCE

By Matthew Price, BBC News

 

Let me take you on a drive through the streets of Port-au-Prince.

 

I am afraid I cannot tell you the street names, but they are pretty meaningless now anyway, and the tour you are about to embark on could be anywhere in the city, to tell you the truth.

Look up there, hanging above the road - a tatty, old piece of wood, white, with blue writing on it asking for help. The arrow points into a courtyard, in which you can see several vehicles, and some people lying under the shade of some trees.

Now here, a few hundred metres along the road, another sign with no punctuation: "Please help UN US Need Food Water Medicine".

In another street, a group of people, men and women, with scarves tied over their mouths to protect them from the dust and the smell tell us to stop.

We will have to go round another way, one says, this road is too dangerous.

There are pieces of rubble across the street - a makeshift road block. The men and women are local people, looking after their own neighbourhood.

Further along there is a group of men putting up a banner, across the entrance to a side street.

"Camp des Refuges de St Patrick," it reads. There is even an e-mail address underneath, though how they expect to receive any e-mails I do not know.

Under the banner and along the road there is a group of men who want to know why we are there. One of them takes us further, as the others continue to work out how best to help their street, their people.

At the end, bathed in the orange glow of the setting sun, sit mothers and children.

Out in the street, ropes strung across the lane between the shattered buildings hold up sheets. They form makeshift shelters under which they will spend the night.

All this has been set up by the people themselves.

 

'Affront to humanity'

During the last week in Haiti, I was left with one overwhelming impression - it is the survivors who are helping themselves. They are pulling together, not tearing themselves apart.

Much has been made of the potential for violence, but I did not feel unsafe. Not once did I think the crowds might turn on me.

When I gave some food and water to a family we had been filming, others who had nothing stood silently by, glad that at least someone was getting a little help.

Some of the aid agencies say they fear riots may start if they start to distribute supplies in the hundreds of makeshift camps where people have gathered.

I fear riots in the long-term if they do not start distributing supplies right now.

There has been some sporadic violence. That should be expected. It would happen anywhere. Look at what happened in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.

 

But to use the threat of violence as a reason for not distributing aid is an affront to the people of Haiti and their own humanity.

 

'Calm and peaceful'

Given the scale of the disaster, should we not be focusing on how little violence there is, rather than the rare moments when frustration spills over into fighting?

We should certainly be concerned about overstating the security fears and undermining the aid effort, thereby exacerbating people's frustration and increasing the likelihood of violence.

Earlier this week former US President Bill Clinton, the UN special envoy to Haiti, told the BBC: "When you consider that these people haven't slept for four days, haven't eaten, and have spent their nights wandering the streets tripping over dead bodies, I think they've behaved pretty well."

The US ambassador to Haiti, Kenneth Merten, meanwhile told PBS that "people should be aware that the vast majority of Haitians here are behaving in a calm and peaceful manner". There are now thousands of US soldiers on the ground in Haiti.

 

In places they act as if they are in the middle of Iraq or Afghanistan, pushing back people, sealing off secure zones. One told a comrade that he feared another Somalia here. But that is the wrong approach. This is a humanitarian disaster, not a war.

The soldiers and others are being welcomed - they are needed. For how much longer, though, will the people welcome them, if the aid continues to sit on the ground at the airport, rather than being put into the mouths of those who need it?

 

Haiti earthquake: 400,000 to be resettled outside Port-au-Prince

 

Within days, the Haitian government will move 400,000 people made homeless by the epic earthquake from their squalid improvised camps throughout the shattered capital to new resettlement areas on the outskirts, a top official has said.

 

Published: 7:00AM GMT 22 Jan 2010

 

Authorities are worried about sanitation and disease outbreaks in makeshift settlements like the one on the city's central Champs de Mars plaza, said Fritz Longchamp, chief of staff to President Rene Preval.

"The Champ de Mars is no place for 1,000 or 10,000 people," he said. "They are going to be going to places where they will have at least some adequate facilities."

He said buses would start moving the displaced people within a week to 10 days, once the new camps are ready.

Brazilian UN peacekeepers were already levelling land in the suburb of Croix des Bouquets for a new tent city, the Geneva-based intergovernmental International Organization for Migration said.

The hundreds of thousands whose homes were destroyed in the Jan. 12 quake had settled in more than 200 open spaces around the city, the lucky ones securing tents for their families, but most having to make do living under the tropical sun on blankets, on plastic sheets or under tarpaulins strung between tree limbs.

The announcement came as search-and-rescue teams packed their dogs and gear, with hopes almost gone of finding any more alive in the ruins. The focus shifted to keeping injured survivors alive, fending off epidemics and getting help to the hundreds of homeless still suffering.

"We're so, so hungry," said Felicie Colin, 77, lying outside the ruins of her Port-au-Prince nursing home with dozens of other elderly residents who have hardly eaten since the earthquake hit on Jan. 12.

A melee erupted at one charity's food distribution point as people broke into the storehouse, ran off with food and fought each other over the bags.

 

As aftershocks still shook the city, aid workers were streaming into Haiti with water, food, drugs, latrines, clothing, trucks, construction equipment, telephones and tons of other relief supplies. The international Red Cross called it the greatest deployment of emergency responders in its 91-year history.

 

But the built-in bottlenecks of this desperately poor, underdeveloped nation and the sheer scale of the catastrophe still left many of the hundreds of thousands of victims without help. The US military reported a waiting list of 1,400 international relief flights seeking to land on Port-au-Prince's single runway, where 120 to 140 flights were arriving daily.

"They don't see any food and water coming to them, and they are frustrated," said Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive.

The picture was especially grim at emergency medical centers, where shortages of surgeons, nurses, their tools and supplies have backed up critical cases.

"A large number of those coming here are having to have amputations, since their wounds are so infected," said Brynjulf Ystgaard, a Norwegian surgeon at a Red Cross field hospital.

On Thursday, 18 hospitals and emergency field hospitals were working in Port-au-Prince. But the burden was overwhelming: Some quake victims have waited for a week for treatment, and patients were dying of sepsis from untreated wounds, according to Dr. Greg Elder, deputy operations manager for Doctors Without Borders.

 

The Pan American Health Organization said hospitals need more orthopedic surgeons and nurses, more supplies, and better sanitation and water.

The Haitian government asked that mobile clinics be set up in all of the more than 280 sites where Port-au-Prince's now-homeless have resettled in tents or in the open air on blankets and plastic sheets.

Doctors warned, too, of potential outbreaks of diarrhea, respiratory-tract infections and other communicable diseases among hundreds of thousands living in overcrowded camps with poor sanitation. A team of epidemiologists was on its way to assess that situation, the Pan American Health Organization said.

[nancyk58]

UPDATES OF THE SITUATION on HAITI on 22 JANUARY 2010, PART II of II

 

ZDF text on 22 January 2010: Janet Napolitano, US Secretary for Homeland Security said that Haitians who came to the USA illegally would be returned to their devastated island because they are needed there to help rebuild Haiti.

 

Shakira will build a school in Haiti. The 32-year-old singer will finance the construction of a school in Haiti. US billionaire Howard Buffet will also be involved in this.

 

The UN will pay Haitians for rebuilding the country, and the US has supported this idea. The UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon has been talking to Bill Clinton, the UN special envoy to Haiti. 200,000 Haitians are to contribute to remove rubble / debris for a day pay of 5 Dollars corresponding to 3.50 EURO. This will also boost the economy in the region. This programme disposes of 5 million Dollars. The UN applies for 41 million Dollars.

 

ARDtext: Haiti Charity Single Project involving Rod Stewart, Leona Lewis and Michael Bublé. According to the Sun, the single will be a coverversion of the REM ballad "Everybody Hurts" from 1993. Also asked to participate were Robbie Williams, COLDPLAY, Take That and Paul McCartney. In the USA musicians around Quincy Jones and Lionel Richie plan a new recording of "We are the World" from 1985 in favour of HAITI's earthquake victims. Quincy Jones and Lionel Richie and Michael Jackson were the team behind this song.

 

TV2 TTV: Haiti shaken by new intensive aftershocks. Today Haitians experienced two heavy aftershocks which made some Haitians run out of buildings and into the streets, whereas other Haitians had somehow got used to it.

 

Only one mole of the harbour / port in Port-au-Prince can be used to unload relief goods / aid. Containers with aid arrived in Haiti. On Friday the harbour/port is expectd to receive 250 containers with aid and relief goods. Working on repairing the port so that more ships can unload emergency relief goods / aid. It is the objective to increase the number of containers (with relief / aid to be loaded and unloaded in the port) to 800 per day.

 

According to the United Nations 3 million meals have been distributed to 200,000 Haitians, and it is hoped to reach the figure of 10 million meals next week. The UN is trying to find locations for makeshift / interim camps for the many Haitians made homeless by the devastating earthquake.

 

TV2 News on 22 January at 22.30 pm:

TV2's reporter, Mr Allan Silberbrandt let us know that 2 million Haitians need water and food, and the water quality varies. He had visited a village situated 40 km from Port-au-Prince and was told that the inhabitants had so far received NO aid. Then there was an interview with Mr Henrik Kastoft, Communications Advisor for UN's Development Programme: Some Haitian roads were in a very bad conditions, but some of them have now been reopened which makes it easier to transport aid / reliefs goods from the Dominican Republic and into the Haiti disaster area. He understood the critical remarks about the United Nation's efforts last week, but this week the criticism was not fair. He was confronted with the fact that TV2's reporter Allan Silberbrandt had visited a village and while being there he saw no distribution of food or water, but many white UN cars with UN employees with briefcases, whereas distribution of water and food seemed more needed! His reaction was that Mr Silberbrandt had apparently not known where the distribution point was.

 

 

The "HOPE For HAITI NOW" Concert will be REPEATED on SATURDAY on MTV and VIVA at 9:00 UK TIME AND 10:00 CET.

[nancyk58]

UPDATES OF THE SITUATION IN HAITI ON Saturday, 23 JANUARY 2010 and other Haiti-relevant news items / updates

 

News from ZDF around noon today:

A few cuts / clips from the Hope for Haiti Now concert with Madonna singing: Like a Prayer and the moving appeal from Haiti-born Wyclef Jean.

 

BBC World / News talked about tonight's / yesterday evening's telethon and in the background on the screen Coldplay was playing "The Message" (it was only a short glimpse).

 

ZDF text:

31 German rescuers are returning home. They characterized the atmosphere / common feeling among the Haitians as being as if it were "the-end-of- the-world" (a kind of "the latter-days" feeling).

 

UNICEF warned against adoptions - "it is better to help the children in their own environment".

 

NEW:

Comment to the news item that UNICEF warned against foreign adoptions: In Telethon there was a mini-interview with a leader of an orphanage in Haiti. He said that there were so many new orphans that it would be nice if many of the surviving orphans went to foreign countries via adoptions so that there would be room for more children in the orphanages, because he had had to say no to 80 orphans - and that was BEFORE THE DEVASTATING EARTHQUAKE ON 12 JANUARY 2010 THAT KILLED MAYBE 200,000 PEOPLE SO THAT EVEN MORE CHILDREN BECAME ORPHANS!

 

A Haiti crisis conference will be held on Monday, 25 February 2010 in Montreal, Canada.

 

UN figures: 111,499 found dead, 193,000 wounded. More than 609,000 living in about 500 field camps after the devastating earthquake on 12 January 2010 destroyed their homes.

 

84-year-old woman rescued out of rubble Friday - she has chest injuries.

 

22-year-old man rescued Friday - 10 days after the earthquake struck - he is in a stable condition.

 

ALL news media:

The United Nations has officially declared the search and rescue phase over. This was announced one day after 2 people were pulled ALIVE from the rubble in Port-au-Prince. But OCHA will focus on helping the survivors. UN spokeswoman Elizabeth Byrs says that 132 people have been rescued since the earthquake 11 days ago - 2 of them yesterday!

 

On Friday the official government death toll from the quake rose to 110,000.

 

An estimated 1.5 million people have been left homeless by the earthquake.

 

Danish TV2 news:

The UN World Food Programme announced that yesterday it distributed 2 million meals compared with 1.2 million meals (last) Thursday. Again a reporter from Danish TV2 news has talked to Haitians who have seen lots of trucks drive by without stopping to let them have some water and food. So these Haitians claim that they had received NO AID at all.

 

I came to think about a news items on Text TV three days ago (and only seen ONCE): A Haitian minister (I think it was the Haitian Communications Minister) said that if you asked the Haitians if hey received aid, they would say know - "they are lying!" I did not bring that news item then, because the remark seemed so ridiculous. But I think that I would mention it now . but I only read this remark ONCE! - I think that more and more Haitians are getting aid now.

 

Stars came out for Haiti: Ceorge Clooney hosted a benefit concert for the Haiti earthquake victims featuring A-list names such as Madonna, Julia Roberts, Brad Pitt and Jay-Z. Other acts who appeared in the 2-hour-long Hope for Haiti telethon included Bono and Rihanna who pre-recorded their performances in London on Friday.

-----------------------------------------------------------

 

TELETHON - HOSTED BY GEORGE CLOONEY - ON 23 JANUARY 2010 INCLUDING PERFORMANCES BY COLDPLAY, BONO, BRUCE Springsteen + Madonna

 

COLDPLAY performed "a MESSAGE" at tonight's telethon (televised on all major TV channels in the USA and National Geographic international, CNN international and MTV international). I saw it on Danish television (TV2 from 2-4am). It was really good. And Chris accompanied Beyoncé on piano as she sung "Halo". Very good indeed. All the major stars within movies and music were there. Performing: Beyonce singing Halo accompanied by Chris on the piano, Bruce Springsteen, Sting, Coldplay, Justin Timberlake, Madonna, Stevie Wonder, Alicia Keys, Christina Aguilera, an interesting collaboration of BONO & The EDGE, Jay-Z and Rihanna - the melody was not so catchy.

 

Haitian-born Wyclef Jean held a very emotional speech.

[nancyk58]

Updates of the situation in Haiti on 24 January 2010

 

UPDATES OF THE SITUATION IN HAITI ON 24 JANUARY 2010

 

BBC World / News:

Haiti capital toll "tops 150,000". The confirmed death toll from Haiti's devastating earthquake has risen above 150,000 in the Port-au-Prince area according to Haiti's Communications Minister who also told the news agency AP (Associated Press) that the death toll is based on bodies collected in and around Port-au-Prince by state firm CNE.

Many more remain uncounted under the rubble in the capital and elsewhere including the towns of Jacmel and Leogane.

The focus has shifted to aid.

 

1 million Haitians have now left Port-au-Prince, and 600,000 have been made homeless by the devastating earthquake on 12 January 2010.

 

Danish DR1 (Text-TV / Teletext):

Norway doubles its aid to Haiti and transmits 200 million Norwegian Kroner to the relief work for the victims. The money is to be distributed between UN organizations and voluntary relief organizations. In particular relief / aid to women and children shall be given priority.

 

The UN to employ local 220,000 Haitians. The UN is identifying 500 sites outside Port-au-Prince where camps are to be built for the homeless, people without shelter. 220,000 local Haitians are employed to help build emergency / makeshift houses. Mr Henrik Kastoft from the UN's Development Programme UNDP says: "It has turned out to be an efficient model employing local people. By employing one Haitian, we help 5".

130,000 Haitians have accepted the government's offer to be sent to the countryside.

 

According to the United Nations 132 Haitians have been rescued from the rubble - this number of rescued after such a devastating earthquake is record high.

 

TV2 Text-TV (TV2 gossip) on Text-TV:

On Saturday evening the "Canada for Haiti" show starring among others Celine Dion, Nelly Furtado and James Cameron was broadcast live from Toronto.

 

Thursday Leo DiCapricio donated 1 million $ to emergency relief work in Haiti.

Saturday George Clooney donated 1 million $ to Haiti.

At the beginning of the week the fund "Not on our watch" initiated by George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon and Don Cheadle sent 1 million £ to Haiti.

 

Port in Haiti is expected to open on Monday, 25 February 2010. The emergency relief goods can reach their destination quicklier when the port can take delivery of ship containers, as this will speed up the distribution of food, medicine and other supplies. Ulrik Jørgensen, press agent in Danish Red Cross, just returned from Haiti. He says that it will really make a big difference when the port opens. Currently only one landing slot can be used in the airport meaning that many aircrafts/planes have to wait or land in the Dominican Republic.

 

ZDF text:

Haiti stops adoptions of Haitian children to prevent child trafficking. New adoptions are forbidden or at least stopped after reports of increase in child traficking. Only adoptions already approved before the earthquake struck on 12 January 2010 are allowed. Due to child traficking the Haitian government intensified the border control.

 

Record-high amount collected after the US Gala for Haiti: 58 million $ or 41 million Euro. This is a new record of donations in connection with a show like this. 130 Hollywood actors and musicians performed including Madonna, Bruce Springsteen and COLDPLAY.

 

A young man (23 or 25 years old) saved after 11 days. A French team of firemen rescued the young man from the rubble of a collapsed shop at a hotel in Port-au-Prince. Wismond Exantus told the French news agency AFP that he took refuge under a table and was lucky enough to have coca cola and biscuits within reach - that saved his life. He was able to move a little, but not to free himself by digging. He had told the rescuers that there were 4-5 other people in there - alive.

 

DR1 TTV (latest news):

Italian criticism of Haiti relief efforts. Guido Bertolaso, the Italian Minister for Civil Security criticizes the international relief work and efforts for lacking leadership. "The USA should have been in charge of relief efforts in Haiti". He is in Haiti to coordinate relief efforts and describes "the terrible situation that could have been handled much better". He warns against the risk of unrest among the Haitian population.

 

The worst hit towns have no food. For 12 days the inhabitants of Leogane 30 km away from Port-au-Prince have not received any emergency relief. On Sunday the first amphibious ships arrived with food for the town - the worst hit town being completely destroyed by the earthquake. Thomas Ubbesen, a reporter from Danish TV channel DR, was shocked when visiting Leogane. He thought that nothing could be worse than what he had seen in Port-au-Prince, but this was even worse. Not one single house was standing. The inhabitants were starving - many of them had nothing to eat and had not eaten anything since the earthquake struck on 12 January 2010.

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Update of the situation in INDONESIA on 24 January 2010

 

UPDATES OF THE SITUATION IN SOUTHEAST ASIA ON 24 JANUARY 2010

 

INDONESIA

 

At least 8 Indonesians killed and 13 missing after heavy rains and flooding in the Indonesian state of Sulawesi.

 

Substantial material damage

 

Many houses destroyed

 

The supply of water and electricity cut off

 

Roads impassable

 

Many villages isolated and cut off from the outside world

 

Rescuers having problems in getting into the area.

 

For the past few weeks large parts of Indonesia have had heavy rains. At least 14 dead before Friday's new bad weather according to local media.

[nancyk58]

All-star Haiti telethon raises $57 million, so far

 

UPDATES OF THE SITUATION IN HAITI ON 25 JANUARY 2010

 

ALL-STAR HAITI TELETHON RAISES $57 MILLION, SO FAR

 

(01/24/2010 | 08:50 AM - GMA News.TV)

 

NEW YORK – Organizers for the all-star "Hope for Haiti Now" telethon say the event raised $57 million — and counting.

 

"The public has set a new standard of giving for a relief telethon with 'Hope for Haiti Now,' and the donations continue to come in," Lisa Paulsen, president and CEO of the Entertainment Industry Foundation, said in a statement released Saturday. The group is helping to oversee the funds gathered from the event.

 

The two-hour telethon aired Friday night on the major networks and dozens of other channels, including MTV, Bravo, and PBS, and was also streamed live online. Stars like Brad Pitt, Beyonce, Madonna, Bruce Springsteen and more used their presence to encourage donations for Haiti, following a Jan. 12 earthquake that killed an estimated 200,000 people.

 

The total released Saturday includes money raised by phone, text and the Web. It does not include donations by corporations or via iTunes, where people are able to buy performances of the event for 99 cents each, or the entire album for $7.99. Those funds also go to Haiti relief.

 

The "Hope for Haiti Now" CD is the biggest one-day pre-order in the site's history and the new song "Stranded (Haiti Mon Amour)" by Jay-Z, Rihanna, Bono and the Edge, debuted during the telethon, is the No. 1 single on iTunes.

 

People can donate via text, phone or through the "Hope for Haiti" Web site for the next six months. Among the organizations who will receive funds from the telethon include OXFAM America, UNICEF, and the Clinton-Bush Haiti Foundation.

 

- AP

[nancyk58]

AID HAITI

 

UPDATES OF THE SITUATION IN HAITI ON 25 JANUARY 2010

 

DR1 (text-TV/teletext):

 

UN: "It may take weeks before everyone has received aid!" This statement was made by Henrik Kastoft who is head of communications in the organization UNDP (UN's Development Programme).

He realizes that some areas in Haiti have not yet received any emergency relief and aid, and it may take some time before everyone has received aid, because the Haiti relief efforts are UN's largest task and biggest challenge ever. "Don't forget that we had to start from scratch here."

 

The Haiti earth quake was registered on the Danish island of Bornholm according to the website videnskab.dk (videnskab = science). The sound was registered by one of the sensitive seismometers (seismographs) run by Danish researchers at GEUS, the National Geological Surveys for Denmark and Greenland.

 

50 aftershocks after the devastating earthquake on 12 January 2010.

 

 

 

TV2 TTV (Text-TV):

 

Registration of life under Haiti's rubble. French rescuers have registered movements under a collapsed building by radar 12 days after the devastating earthquake in Haiti on 12 January 2010. They started digging in the hope of finding a survivor. More than 20 rescuers are participating in this mission. The movements might also have been caused by an animal.

 

 

ZDF text:

 

The EU has agreed upon sending 350 paramilitary police officers to Haiti. The European Union Police Mission is to ensure the distribution of relief goods. Today the foreign ministers within the EU agreed on this in Brussels. Currently up to six European states participate in the Police Mission. France and Italy will send 100 policemen, the Netherlands 50, whereas Spain, Portugal and Roumania are planning to participate in / contribute to the Police Mission.

 

1 million homeless. According to the United Nations' Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs / OCHA, the number of homeless could be as many as 1 million (between 800,000 and 1 million) who urgently need shelter, tents and building materials. Makeshift camps for the survivors must be established and maintained. Still more people are leaving the capital Port-au-Prince. According to the Haitian government more than 150,000 people were killed by the earthquake on 12 January 2010.

 

 

ARD text:

 

Planning of rebuilding / reconstruction. The EU foreign ministers decided to send about 300 police officers with a paramilitary training to Haiti to ensure more security. In Montreal in Canada representatives from 20 countries prepare a donors conference. At the beginning of the meeting Canada talked in favour of a substantial debt relief. Few pledges were made in this meeting. A sort of Marshall Plan is needed. One of the globally largest group of exiled Haitians live in Montreal.

 

 

BBC WORLD:

 

Haiti quake operation "lacks leadership". Guido Bertolaso, head of Italy's civil protection service talked about "lack of leadership in international aid operations" and criticised the US forces in Haiti saying that the troops had no training in running a civilian relief operation.

It is believed that the quake on 12 January 2010 killed 200,000 people.

 

Britons donated £46 million to Haiti fund. Britons donated that amount to the Haiti earthquake appeal fund after another £4 million was added over the week-end.

200,000 people were killed and 2 million made homeless by the quake on 12 January 2010. The UK's Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) said relief agencies were working "round the clock" in Haiti. Meanwhile Development Secretary Douglas Alexander will meet religious groups to discuss how to provide long-term help for victims of the disaster.

[nancyk58]

From MTV.com:

 

The "Hope for Haiti Now" album is the biggest one-day album pre-order in iTunes history and is currently the #1 iTunes album in 18 countries. The studio version of "Stranded (Haiti Mon Amour)," the original track performed by Bono, The Edge, Jay-Z and Rihanna during "Hope for Haiti Now," is currently the #1 song on iTunes in 12 countries.

 

"Hope for Haiti Now" will continue accepting donations for six months via the following methods:

 

» Online: http://www.hopeforhaitinow.org

» Phone: 877-99-HAITI

» Text: Text "GIVE" to 50555

»Mail: Hope For Haiti Now Fund, Entertainment Industry Foundation, 1201 West 5th Street, Suite T-700, Los Angeles, CA 90017

 

"Hope for Haiti Now" benefits Oxfam America, Partners in Health, the RED CROSS, UNICEF, United Nations World Food Programme, Yele Haiti Foundation, and the newly formed Clinton Bush Haiti Foundation. Proceeds from "Hope for Haiti Now" will be split among each organization's individual funds for Haiti earthquake relief. With the exception of the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund, each partner organization was selected for its history of operation and collaboration within the nongovernmental organization (NGO) community in Haiti.

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HELP RED CROSS AND UNICEF HELP VICTIMS OF NATURAL DISASTER - UNICEF SITUATION REPORT 7

 

HAITI EARTHQUAKE

 

UNICEF SITUATION REPORT No.7 , JANUARY 22

 

Situation overview

 

The Interial Minister has presented the numbers of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in the six regions that have been evaluated. In Nord: 2,500, Northwest: 29,500, Centre: 20,530, Antibonite: around 50,000, Grand Goave: more than 10,000 and Sud: more than 10,000 persons. Totally more than 120,000 IDPs. The problem of IDPs is very big and the influx continues.

 

The result of the rapid needs assessments at Petit Goave confirms that there were no significant injuries or damages as a result of the aftershock on 20 January.

 

Aid is getting through to more and more locations. WFP and partners have the target of distributing food to 120,000 persons today, where each individual gets a 5-day ratio. The US Army also started airdropping yesterday. Since the start of the response, WFP has provided around 3 million meals to more than 200,000 people.

 

The Prime Minister has been expressing concern over the insufficiency of food and food items being distributed. It has also occurred that the same site received delivery twice. The Prime Minister urges the humanitarian agencies working in Haiti to further increase communication amongst them. He also pleaded that the humanitarian organizations should be working through the offices of the mayors in the region, in order to improve the cooperation.

 

While making rapid assessments on orphanages etc, UNICEF Child Protection teams have localized more than 70 children, some of them babies that urgently need to go to the hospital because they are injured or ill in some other way. UNICEF is trying to find some partner that could take care of the transportation.

 

Guido Bertolaso, the chief of the Italian Civil Protection, has arrived to Haiti together with a group of experts in emergency relief.

 

Humanitarian needs

 

There have been demonstrations in the streets because of the lack of food.

 

From Jacmel it is reported that the coordination is very slow. For instance, there are too many doctors, due to the lack of coordination. There has been no protection meeting. The first meeting between MINUSTAH, UN and the Canadian Forces is being planned for tomorrow.

 

There is a need for recreation kits for children in the sites.

 

Progress in hygiene is slow in Jacmel. Only three latrine blocks have been built.

 

UNICEF Response

 

Since yesterday, WFP with the support from UNICEF has been distributing 1,076 rations for children under the age of five at eleven small sites in Jacmel. WFP has also distributed 18 000 rations to grownups today. The rations consist of rice, tea, oil and salt which makes it possible for people to cook themselves. The sites are organized by the Committee de Quartier and most of them are small ones. The Committee de Quartier also helps with cooking when necessary.

 

The organization ACDI, VOCA and Save the Children want to start collaborating with UNICEF in the field of health, nutrition and protection. The collaboration is yet to be defined.

 

Programme Commitments:

 

Nutrition:

 

A car with supplies (vitamine A, zink, ORS, plumpynut) left Port au Prince today for Jacmel. The distribution of the supplies to severely malnourished children between six months and five years started this afternoon.

Representatives of the committee for nutrition yesterday visited orphanages to make an assessment of their needs of supplies. The distribution will be coordinated with the committee for Child Protection.

Terre des Hommes have reported on IDPs. UNICEF has been in touch with Terres des Hommes to see how UNICEF can help with food distribution.

UNICEF is working on contracts with ACF to operate in nutrition programs and concerns.

 

Health:

 

Today, UNICEF met with the director of immunization programme at the Ministry HAITI of Health in order to discuss vaccinations. Early next week there starts a new initiative for DTP and DT. Within three weeks, the Measle and Rubella Campaign will start. Port au Prince has the highest priority, thereafter other areas affected by the earthquake. The cold chain is a problem since the refrigerators are run on propane gas, which there is a lack of, but UNICEF will be able to provide propane gas in time for the vaccination campaign to start.

 

PROGRAMME

 

Child Protection

 

Response

 

UNICEF has supported the mobilization of cadres of IBERS mobile teams to undertake rapid child protection assessments on sites, as well as at orphanages/institutions in Port Au Prince affected by the earthquake. These assessments include identifying key needs and providing NFI the following day. Currently, these teams are reaching some 10 sites per day, and the activity is being scaled up to reach 20 per day by next week. This is by no means sufficient to meet the magnitude of need, when considering the number of institutions/orphanages that were in Port au Prince before the earthquake and which have been affected. Due to challenges with Information Management, it has also not yet been possible to process the data that has come in – a preliminary analysis of assessment findings thus far will be available on Monday.

 

Through partners UNICEF Child Protection is reaching some 37,000 children through Child Protection Programming. These include a variety of programmatic themes, including psychosocial support, NFI support and referral for especially vulnerable children, non-formal education, adolescent programmes, services for child Gender Based Violence survivors and interim care arrangements for unaccompanied children, including family based care.

 

Child Protection programmes are being implemented both in areas directly affected by the earthquake and in those areas to which affected populations are moving. Partners in these projects include Save the Children, Solidarite pour les femmes; Aide Medicale International, Viva Rio, and IBERS, the child protection arm of the Ministry of Social Welfare.

 

In response to reports and risks of trafficking and illegal adoption of children from Haiti, UNICEF is supporting the Special Police Brigades for Child Protection to undertake monitoring of movement of children at the Port au Prince airport as well as along Border Areas.

 

Priorities

 

The immediate priority, both for the Child Protection Sub-Cluster and UNICEF response programme at the moment is ensuring the survival and protection of the most vulnerable unaccompanied children, including those in orphanages and institutions affected by the earthquake. The situation and needs of unaccompanied children is urgent and overwhelming at this stage. Through the urgent reporting form that has been developed by the child protection sub-cluster, there are more than 20 such reports coming in per day. Children are also being dispatched from hospitals either without being accompanied by adults or being in the company of adults that are not their relatives and there continues to be reports of organizations and groups attempting to fly children out of Haiti.Prevention of trafficking/illegal adoption as well as the registration of especially vulnerable unaccompanied children are key issues.

 

Gaps and Challenges

 

The lack of cars as well as human resources has impeded UNICEF’s ability to reach more sites per day. This is a key challenge to child protection activities, which require larger human and transportation resources.

 

Education:

 

Still, UNICEF is facing difficulties in filling the cluster of education because of lack of human resources.

 

HIV/AIDS:

 

Today there was an announcement through the radio that the organization AASON started a patient clinic for providing care for HIV-infected. People are being encouraged to go back to the clinic where they used to get treatment before the quake, but in case the clinics have been destroyed, the patients could get care in the AASON clinic.

 

Clusters:

 

Nutrition:

 

The cluster coordinator Mija Ververes together with Hedwig Deconinck (USAID) will arrive to Haiti tomorrow.

The strategy and the standards are being finalised engaging the government in a leading role.

The key constraints are communication and coordination and the capacity for storage. The plan for general food distribution is not fully implemented yet.

 

WASH:

 

Maximal production of main two companies can not serve all the needs that are increasing every day, so solutions have been analyzed and found. DINEPA is negotiating with private water distributor about water trucking and treatment and the cluster will support in wells and boreholes assessments. The cluster needs to identify new sources to meet the demand, and also to define a strategy for hygiene kit distribution.

Latrine constructions have started in three sites in Port-au-Prince and Petion-Ville.

 

Child Protection:

 

Currently there are 30 organizations participating in the sub-cluster. They have formed three working groups under the sub-cluster to look at specific issue.

The three groups are:

1. Identification and registration of unaccompanied children. In the first phase those most vulnerable to abuse, exploitation and violence, including all those under 5 years of age, will be registered.

2. Interim care arrangements for unaccompanied children and 3. Development and integration of child protection strategy within the Shelter Cluster Strategy scenarios. The Shelter Cluster has developed a draft strategy presenting three shelter scenarios that will be applied in response to this disaster (support to spontaneous settlements; planned transitional sites for larger populations; host family arrangements). Based on these shelter scenarios, the CW Sub-Cluster will develop strategies to ensure mechanisms for child protection in all contexts.

 

The sub-cluster has now agreed upon and finalized a number of key tools, including Inter-agency agreed upon common Child Protection Rapid Assessment and urgent action reporting form on urgent child protection risks in particular areas. A who, what, where mapping tool to begin collecting information is being implemented to meet key gaps.

 

Key child protection issues and concerns have been integrated in the UNDAC Inter-Cluster Assessment that will be undertaken in all affected areas next week. Child protection staff from government and NGOs have also been identified to form part of the assessment teams that will undertake the assessment.

 

The Sub-Cluster, through the coordinator and MINUSTAH-Child Protection, is participating in the Shelter Cluster to ensure that child protection concerns are integrated in to both the development of Shelter Strategies, as well as site planning.

 

Media and Communication:

 

Key media activities undertaken and planned:

 

Today, for instance CNN, the Spanish, Canadian and Italian televisions are making reportages. Tomorrow, CNN international will make a live interview with Representative Guido Cornale.

List of spokespersons: Representative Guido Cornale, sr communication officer Kent Page and communication officer Roshan Kahdivi.