HELP RED CROSS AND UNICEF HELP VICTIMS OF NATURAL DISASTERS

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Updates of the situation in Haiti on 26 January 2010

 

Danish TV2 Teletext / Text TV:

14-year old Guirlande survived 13 days in the rubble and was rescued today from the rubble of her home. "I prayed to the Lord". A family friend heard Guirlande. She had been hiding under her bed which protected her against the falling rubble. She had a bottle (or the like) of water within reach.

 

Two aftershocks in Haiti 2 weeks to the day after the devastating earthquake.

According to US Geological Surveys / USGS an earthquake measured at 4.4 at the open Richter scales shook Haiti at 6.16 local time. A Haitian had woken up at around 5 local time because of a minor earthquake. "It was not so bad - only shaking a little".

 

 

Danish TV2 News interviewed a man who originates from Haiti. He had lived in the USA for many years and participated in the Vietnam war. After all that he had experienced and seen during the war there, he felt that he could cope with anything. He had returned to his native Haiti to help the poor population and in particular orphans. When the earthquake struck, his nephew rescued a baby, while 5 young relatives were dead. Now the man houses 36 people up in the mountains.

 

 

ARD text: Haiti song will be performed by many artists including a complete Take That, i.e. inclusive of Robbie Williams. Other artists performing the song will be Mariah Carey, Susan Boyle, Rod Stewart, Kylie Minogue, Leona Lewis plus James Blunt. The charity song is a cover version of the REM classic "Everybody hurts".

 

International donors conference to be held in March in New York in United Nations' headquarters. The USA will organize the conference. The long-term aid to Haiti is to be planned at the conference.

Jean-Max Bellerive, Haiti's Prime Minister estimates that 5 to 10 years of foreign aid will be needed to rebuild the country.

Participating in the meeting in Canada were representatives from Canada, the USA and Brazil (SVT Text - Swedish Teletext).

 

SVT Text - Swedish Teletext / Text-TV: Chaos when there is not sufficient food. According to the United Nations World Food Programme (WPF) the world's supplies of ready-prepared meals in Haiti are soon emptied out. The head of WFP, Josette Sheeran said that there was an urgent need for ready-prepared meals for Haiti. And it is important that those distributing aid in Haiti are escorted by military - if not, there will be an unruly crowd in connection with the distribution of food, and the weaker Haitians will not get any food.

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German ZDF text about a landslide in PERU:

 

2 dead after landslide on the famous Inka road to Machu Picchu: One tourist from Argentina and a Peruvian guide. 3 other tourists were wounded. After the landslide the road was closed. Almost 2,000 tourists are now in the village Machu Picchu Pueblo near the antique fortress. A landslide had blocked the railway connection in the area. The stranded travellers were "angry and worried, some were desperate" according to a spokesman for the place/site.

 

 

HAITI

 

From UNICEF (received 26 January 2009):

 

Now two weeks have passed since Haiti was hit by the earthquake that triggered the biggest humanitarian disaster in modern times. Millions of people have lost their homes and are dependent on emergency aid from the outside world.

 

Despite difficulties, the relief efforts are well under way. UNICEF distributes among other things clean water, medicines and hospital equipment for which there is still a desperate need.

 

This week UNICEF begins to vaccinate 360,000 children under five years against diphtheria, polio, tetanus, rubella and measles. At this stage of the disaster it is critical to protect children against life-threatening diseases that spread quickly when many people live close together under extremely primitive conditions.

 

You can read more about the relief efforts in the latest situation report (posted here yesterday) and a brief summary of UNICEF's efforts in Haiti below. And on UNICEF Denmark's homepage you can continuously monitor developments in Haiti.

 

Thanks to all who already have supported the collection for Haiti's children. You can still make a contribution to http://www.unicef.dk / Haiti

 

Best regards

Steen M. Andersen

Secretary General, UNICEF Denmark

 

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

 

Short on UNICEF's relief efforts in Haiti:

 

Water and sanitation: UNICEF is in charge of UN's overall efforts to provide clean water and sanitation. Every day water is delivered to hospitals, orphanages and other institutions as well as distribution points/lines spread throughout Port-au-Prince.

 

Health: This week UNICEF begins to vaccinate 360,000 children under five years against diphtheria, polio, tetanus, rubella and measles to prevent epidemics of life-threatening diseases.

 

Nutrition: There are established nutrition centres to treat malnourished children in the makeshift (temporary) camps in the area around Jacmel. The first supplies of nutritious nut mixtures, vitamin A and powders to treat dehydration have already been distributed.

 

Protection of children: UNICEF is visiting orphanages and other institutions to help vulnerable children. UNICEF is working with the Red Cross and Save the Children to find and register lost children in order to trace their families and protect children against abuse, trafficking and illegal adoption.

 

Emergency Supplies: UNICEF World Warehouse in Copenhagen and the regional warehouses in Panama and Dubai will be continuously sending relief to the needy children and their families.

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Help Red Cross and Unicef help the quake victims in HAITI

 

UPDATES OF THE SITUATION IN HAITI ON 24 + 25 JANUARY 2010

 

HAITI GOVERNMENT: 150K BODIES RECOVERED IN CAPITAL

 

(01/24/2010 | 11:23 PM - GMA News.TV)

 

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – The confirmed death toll from Haiti's devastating earthquake has topped 150,000 in the Port-au-Prince metropolitan area alone, the communications minister said Sunday, with many more thousands dead around the country or still buried under the rubble.

 

Communications minister Marie-Laurence Jocelyn Lassegue told The Associated Press that the figure is based on a body count in the capital and outlying areas by CNE, a state company that has been collecting corpses and burying them in a mass grave north of Port-au-Prince. It does not include other affected cities such as Jacmel, where thousands are believed dead, nor does it account for bodies burned by relatives.

 

The United Nations said Saturday the government had confirmed 111,481 bodies; all told, authorities have estimated 200,000 dead from the magnitude-7.0 quake, according to Haitian government figures cited by the European Commission.

 

"Nobody knows how many bodies are buried in the rubble — 200,000, 300,000?" Lassegue said. "Who knows the overall death toll?"

 

Experts say chances are slim that more survivors will be found in that debris, although rescuers pulled a man buried for 11 days in the wreckage on Saturday.

 

Crews dug a tunnel through the rubble of a fruit and vegetable shop to reach Wismond Exantus, who is in his 20s. He was placed on a stretcher and given intravenous fluids as onlookers cheered, and later told the AP he survived by diving under a desk during the quake and later consuming some cola, beer and cookies in the cramped space.

 

"I was hungry, but every night I thought about the revelation that I would survive," Exantus said from his hospital bed.

 

Haiti's government has declared an end to searches for living people trapped under debris, and officials are shifting their focus to caring for the thousands of survivors living in squalid, makeshift camps.

 

U.N. relief workers said the shift is critical: While deliveries of food, medicine and water have ticked up after initial logjams, the need continues to be overwhelming and doctors fear outbreaks of disease in the camps.

 

In the notorious slum of Cite Soleil, the site of some looting and violence since the quake, U.S. and Brazilian soldiers handed out food and water Sunday morning to thousands of men, women and children who lined up at a health center.

 

The U.S. soldiers brought 2,000 food rations, 75,000 high-energy biscuits and 9,000 bottles of water, while the Brazilians had 8 tons of food in small bags of uncooked beans, salt, sugar and sardines, as well as 15,000 liters of water.

 

Lunie Marcelin, 57, said her entire family — including six grown children who live with her — survived the quake, but they had no money to buy food.

 

The handouts "will help us, but it is not enough," she said. "We need more."

 

In the United States, organizers of the all-star "Hope for Haiti Now" telethon said Saturday that the event raised $57 million — and counting. The two-hour telethon aired Friday night and was also streamed live online. Stars such as Brad Pitt, Beyonce, Madonna, Bruce Springsteen and more used their presence to encourage donations for Haiti.

 

As many as 200,000 people have fled Port-au-Prince, a city of 2 million, according to the U.S. Agency for International Development. About 609,000 people are homeless in the capital's metro area, and the United Nations estimates that up to 1 million could leave Haiti's destroyed cities for rural areas already struggling with extreme poverty.

 

The U.S. Geological Survey said Sunday it has recorded 52 aftershocks of magnitude 4.5 or greater since the Jan. 12 quake. - AP

 

 

150,000 HAITI QUAKE VICTIMS BURIED, GOVERNMENT SAYS

 

(01/25/2010 | 07:17 AM - GMA News.TV)

 

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – The truckers filling Haiti's mass graves with bodies reported ever higher numbers: More than 150,000 quake victims have been buried by the government, an official said Sunday.

 

That doesn't count those still under the debris, carried off by relatives or killed in the outlying quake zone.

 

"Nobody knows how many bodies are buried in the rubble — 200,000? 300,000? Who knows the overall death toll?" said the official, Communications Minister Marie-Laurence Jocelyn Lassegue.

 

Dealing with the living, meanwhile, a global army of aid workers was getting more food into people's hands, but acknowledged falling short. "We wish we could do more, quicker," said U.N. World Food Program chief Josette Sheeran, visiting Port-au-Prince.

 

In the Cite Soleil slum, US soldiers and Brazilian U.N. peacekeeping troops distributed food. Lunie Marcelin, 57, said the handouts will help her and six grown children "but it is not enough. We need more."

 

The Haitian government was urging many of the estimated 600,000 homeless huddled in open areas of Port-au-Prince, a city of 2 million, to look for better shelter with relatives or others in the countryside. Some 200,000 were believed already to have done so, most taking advantage of free government transportation, and others formed a steady stream out of the city on Sunday.

 

International experts searched for sites to erect tent cities for quake refugees on the capital's outskirts, but such short-term solutions were still weeks away, said the International Organization for Migration, an intergovernmental agency.

 

"We also need tents. There is a shortage of tents," said Vincent Houver, the Geneva-based agency's chief of mission in Haiti. Their Port-au-Prince warehouse has 10,000 family-size tents, but some 100,000 are needed, he said. The organization has appealed for $30 million for that and other needs, and has received two-thirds of that so far.

 

In the aftermath of the 7.0-magnitude earthquake, the casualty estimates have been necessarily tentative. Lassegue told The Associated Press the government's figure of 150,000 buried, from the capital area alone, was reported by CNE, a state company collecting corpses and burying them north of Port-au-Prince.

 

That number would tend to confirm an overall estimate of 200,000 dead reported last week by the European Commission, citing Haitian government sources. The United Nations, meanwhile, was sticking Sunday with an earlier confirmed death toll of at least 111,481, based on recovered bodies.

 

The final casualty estimates, which the European Commission said also include some 250,000 injured, will clearly place the Jan. 12 earthquake among the deadliest natural catastrophes of recent times. That list includes: the 1970 Bangladesh cyclone, believed to have killed 300,000 people; the 1974 northeast China earthquake, which killed at least 242,000 people; and the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, with 226,000 dead.

 

One who wouldn't die in Port-au-Prince was Wismond Exantus, who was extricated from the rubble Saturday. He spoke with the AP from his cot in a French field hospital on Sunday, saying the first thing he wanted to do was find a church to give thanks.

 

He spent the 11 days buried in the ruins of a hotel grocery store praying, reciting psalms and sleeping, he said. "I wasn't afraid because I knew they were searching and would come for me," he said.

 

With further such rescues highly unlikely so long after the quake, Haiti's government has declared an end to search operations for the living, shifting the focus more than ever to caring for the thousands surviving in squalid, makeshift camps.

 

The World Food Program had delivered about 2 million meals to the needy on Friday, up from 1.2 million on Thursday, Sheeran said. But she acknowledged that much more was needed.

 

"This is the most complex operation WFP has ever launched," she said.

 

The scene Sunday at Cite Soleil, the capital's largest and most notorious slum, showed the need.

 

Thousands of men, women and children lined up and waited peacefully for their turn as the American and Brazilian troops handed out AID — the Americans gave ready-to-eat meals, high-energy biscuits and bottled water, the Brazilians passed out small bags holding uncooked beans, salt, sugar and sardines, as well as water.

 

The need for medical care, especially surgery, postoperative care and drugs, still overwhelmed the help available, aid agencies reported. In the isolated southern port city of Jacmel alone, about 100 patients needed surgery as of Friday, the U.N. reported. Medical personnel were there, but not the necessary surgery supplies.

 

In Port-au-Prince, meanwhile, the aid group Doctors Without Borders said its inflatable hospital — six large inflatable tents flown in from France — was preparing for its first operations.

 

The world's nations have pledged some $1 billion in emergency aid to Haiti. Organizers of Friday night's "Hope for Haiti Now" international telethon reported the event raised $57 million, with more pledges from ordinary people still coming in. - AP

 

 

INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY MEETS FOR HAITI TALKS

 

(01/25/2010 | 09:43 AM - GMA News.TV)

 

MONTREAL — US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Haiti's prime minister and foreign ministers from a host of nations meet in Montreal on Monday to try to improve relief efforts in the international community's first meeting since Haiti's devastating earthquake.

 

Canadian Foreign Minister Lawrence Cannon said Sunday that the conference will review the progress of aid delivery to Haiti since the Jan. 12 earthquake and lay the groundwork for a larger meeting that will focus on long-term reconstruction.

 

Haitian Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive arrived in Canada ahead of the conference for a Sunday meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

 

"The task ahead of you is unimaginable," Harper said to Bellerive before the two began private talks. "I say to you Jean-Max as a fellow prime minister, I just can't imagine."

 

Bellerive expressed his gratitude to Canada and said he came to discuss the support that will be needed.

 

"But we are fully conscious that the prime responsibility for our future lies in the hands of the Haitian government and the Haitian people," he added.

 

Harper and foreign ministers from more than a dozen countries, eight international bodies and six major non-governmental organizations will convene on Monday.

 

"It's not a donor or pledging conference," Cannon said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press. "It's to make sure we have an action plan. We want to coordinate better in the short term and make sure we all know who is doing what and how."

 

Cannon said one goal is to "physically get the Haitian government back on its feet." The quake destroyed key government buildings, including the National Palace, hampering the work of what was already a weak and inefficient state.

 

"They don't have any offices," Cannon said. "I was chatting with Mrs. Clinton the other day. She mentioned that an American government building remained intact and said they were turning it over to the Haitian government so that they could at least set up temporary offices."

 

Cannon said the morning session will take stock of the aid efforts. He said ministers will hear from Bellerive, the United Nations and non-governmental agencies like the Red Cross.

 

Ministers will meet in the afternoon to work on the steps needed ahead of the larger reconstruction conference, where money will be pledged. Cannon said he expects the date and location of that conference to be announced Monday.

 

Governments have pledged nearly $1 billion in aid to Haiti, according to an Associated Press estimate, including $575 million from the European Union's 27 nations.

 

Monday's meeting comes as a global army of aid workers was delivering more food into people's hands in Haiti, but the efforts were still falling short. U.N. World Food Program chief Josette Sheeran, visiting Port-au-Prince, said Sunday said aid groups wished they could do more and do it more quickly.

 

One Haitian government official said more than 150,000 victims have been buried by the government and that nobody knows how many bodies are buried in the rubble.

 

Canada has deep ties to Haiti. More than 100,000 people of Haitian descent live in Canada, most of them in Montreal.

 

After the Montreal meeting, Bellerive will travel to Ottawa to meet with Canada's Haitian-born governor general Michaelle Jean.

 

Jean, the representative of Queen Elizabeth II as Canada's head of state, broke down in tears during a press conference after the Jan. 12 earthquake. She said it's as if an atomic bomb had fallen on Port-au-Prince. - AP

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UPDATES OF THE SITUATION IN HAITI ON 26 + 27 JANUARY 2010

 

John Travolta lands in Haiti piloting relief supplies

 

(01/26/2010 | 01:17 PM - GMA News.TV)

 

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — John Travolta has landed his own jet in Haiti carrying relief supplies and a team including doctors and Scientology ministers. The 55-year-old actor flew the Boeing 707 from Florida on Monday carrying 4 tons of ready-to-eat military rations and medical supplies for earthquake victims. Among those accompanying Travolta is his wife, actress Kelly Preston. The Church of Scientology says the pair planned to return home after unloading their passengers and supplies. - AP

 

RP medical team to leave for Haiti Monday night

 

 

HAITIANS SEARCH FOR THEIR DEAD: `I NEED THE BODY'

 

(01/26/2010 | 07:22 AM - GMA News.TV)

 

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – In what's left of one family's home, in what remains of one destroyed neighborhood, Jean-Rene Lochard has retrieved the bodies of his mother, brother, sister-in-law and nephew, and buried them beside the ruins, one by one and with a priest's blessing.

 

On Monday, he dug deeper, searching for his brother's 5-year-old son. Only when he finds the boy will he rest. "I need the body to bury him," he said. "It's important to bury the bodies."

 

With 150,000 bodies already in mass graves, international teams, grieving families, sympathetic neighbors and sometimes even strangers were pulling at the rubble with tools or bare hands in countless corners of this devastated city. Thirteen days after the killer earthquake, they were desperate to recover some of the thousands of Port-au-Prince's lost dead — to close each tragic circle, to lay loved ones in the earth to rest in peace.

 

For the living — the homeless spread across empty lots, parks and plazas in the hundreds of thousands — there was little rest as aid agencies struggled to fill their needs for food and water, and to get them tents to shelter their families against the burning tropical sun.

 

In front of the wrecked National Palace, people's desperation boiled over. Uruguayan U.N. peacekeepers had to fire pepper spray into the air to try to disperse thousands jostling for food.

 

The overwhelmed soldiers finally retreated, and young men rushed forward to grab the bags of pinto beans and rice, emblazoned with the US flag, pushing aside others — including one pregnant woman who collapsed and was trampled.

 

Thousands of people are huddled nearby in the Champs de Mars plaza, many with nothing more than a plastic sheet to protect them from sun and rain.

 

"We live like dogs," said Espiegle Amilcar, 34. "We're sleeping, eating and going to the bathroom in the same place."

 

The global agency supplying tents said it already had 10,000 stored in Haiti and at least 30,000 more would be arriving. But, said the International Organization for Migration, "the supply is unlikely to address the extensive shelter needs." The group estimates 100,000 family-sized tents are needed; the U.N. says up to 1 million people need shelter.

 

Meanwhile, the Haitian government and international groups are preparing a more substantial tent city on Port-au-Prince's outskirts, the first of more than a half-dozen sites that officials hope will shelter the displaced before the onset of spring rains and summer hurricanes.

 

In Montreal on Monday, US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and officials of more than two dozen other donor nations and international organizations met to assess the progress of the relief effort.

 

Haiti will need "more and more and more in order to complete the task of reconstruction," Haitian Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive told them. He said his impoverished nation lost 60 percent of its gross domestic product in the quake, the economic activity centered on Port-au-Prince.

 

Returning from Haiti, international Red Cross spokesman Paul Conneally said in Geneva that a NEW Port-au-Prince must be planned. "It's going to require, minimum, a generation," he said, adding that the need for heavy equipment to tear down damaged buildings was growing.

 

That prospect was what was driving Jean-Rene Lochard to dig harder, with the help of neighbors and hired workers, to find his little nephew in the collapsed six-story home, an enormous pile of cracked concrete and twisted metal bars in Port-au-Prince's western district of Carrefour-Feuilles.

 

"The contractors are going to come and smash everything else, so we want to find him first," Lochard, 42, said as he sat amid the remains of a family's life — shoes, bits of clothing, a small red Elmo doll.

 

When the magnitude-7.0 quake struck on Jan. 12, Lochard recalled, "I was going crazy," because the house completely collapsed around him as he dashed outside. Eight of the 14 family members who lived there perished.

 

He and others quickly rescued an injured 17-year-old niece, and then, four days after the quake, a 5-year-old nephew, Samael. "He was in a state of shock, so traumatized he couldn't speak," said Jacques Lochard, 45, Jean-Rene's brother.

 

Then they started pulling out the bodies, first that of those children's father, police commander Carlo Lochard, then those of his other children, including 8-month-old Anaelle, owner of the little Elmo doll. Finally, the body of the family matriarch, Ismeda Edmond, 72, was found six days after the quake, in the entrance to the dining room.

She "was like the neighborhood godmother. Everyone in the neighborhood would come to see her," said family friend Jean-Louis Nold.

 

The bodies of three were buried in a city cemetery, but four others — the men's mother, brother, sister-in-law and nephew — were so badly decomposed that the morgue refused to receive them, and they were interred in the back garden, beneath a breadfruit tree, in rough requiems for a devoutly Roman Catholic family. "Every time we find a body, we call the priest," Jean-Rene Lochard said.

 

Now, on Monday, they searched unrelentingly for 5-year-old Jovany. In traditional Haitian families, a nephew is like a son. "We are a united family. That's why we live together in the same house," Jacques Lochard said. "Nobody can imagine what we are feeling."

 

In other pitiful scenes across Port-au-Prince, family survivors clambered over and clawed at rubble in hopes of finding their loved ones. Others simply sat hopelessly. And some still held out hope of finding people alive, two days after the last such "miracle" rescue.

 

"There's still hope. We think that people could still be alive," Mexican search team chief Hector Mendez said outside the ruins of the Montana Hotel, where some 40 Americans and many other foreigners were believed buried.

 

But he acknowledged, "There are many, many bodies."

 

- AP

 

 

US troops treat 35-year-old Haiti man pulled from rubble

 

(01/27/2010 | 06:47 PM - GMA News.TV)

 

Members of the US 82nd Airborne Division treated a 35-year-old man purportedly pulled from the rubble of a downtown Port-au-Prince building in earthquake-stricken Haiti, witnesses said on Tuesday.

According to Associated Press reporters on the scene, Rico Debrivell had a broken leg and other minor injuries. It was not immediately determined how long he had been under the rubble.

Debrivell is believed to have been pulled out of the debris by local residents and was later treated by the US medics who were working in the commercial center of downtown Port-au-Prince.

The area has been looted extensively since the January 12 magnitude-7 quake that devastated the Haitian capital.

– AP

 

BBC World: Man rescued in Haiti quake rubble - A man was pulled alive from the rubble 2 weeks after the earthquake. US troops rescued the man from the ruins of a building in centre of city and he was taken to hospital. He was trapped under the rubble for 12 days, the military said - and he was severely dehydrated.

The rescue came 14 days after the 7.0-magnitude quake which killed as many as 200,000 people on 12 January 2010.

 

German ZDFtext: 31-year-old man rescued alive from rubble after 12 days by US troops. He had a broken leg and minor face injuries. He was severely dehydrated. A total of 134 people have been rescued alive from the rubble - Saturday one man was rescued.

 

ARDtext: US troops have found and rescued a survivor from the rubble after 12 days in connection with clearing and cleaning up work.

The UN World Food Program makes an appeal for more aid. The people will need aid for a longer time than expected.

UNICEF together with the Haitian government plans a big vaccination campaign. 600,000 children are to be vaccinated against measles and tetanus.

In March there will be held a donors conference.

 

Danish TV2 TTV (Text TV):

Minister wants to move Port-au-Prince. The Canadian foreign minister Lawrence Cannon: A huge task of rebuilding and reconstructing Haiti is lying ahead. It is a question whether the rebuilding should take place where Port-au-Prince is situated

today. Because that area is threatened by new earth quakes.

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UPDATES OF THE SITUATION IN THE PHILIPPINES ON 28 JANUARY 2010

 

MAGNITUDE-6 QUAKE ROCKS BICOL REGIONS - PHIVOLCS

 

(01/28/2010 | 07:35 AM - GMA News.TV)

 

A powerful predawn quake hit parts of Bicol and Southern Luzon on Thursday, but the Philippine Institute of Volcanology of Seismology said it was too far from land to cause damage.

 

Phivolcs seismologist Henremagne Penarubia said the quake was recorded at 2:49 a.m., with the epicenter traced northeast of Virac, Catanduanes in Bicol. "It was measured at Magnitude 6.0, but it was too far from land to cause damage," Penarubia said in an interview on dzBB radio. Citing initial reports, he said the quake was felt at Intensity III in Virac, Catanduanes and in Naga City in Camarines Sur. It was also felt at Intensity II in Legazpi City in Albay, and even parts of Quezon province in Southern Luzon.

 

Penarubai also assured there was no tsunami caused by the quake, saying a tsunami is likely if a quake is of magnitude 6.5 to 7.0.

 

For its part, the United States Geological Survey said the quake was recorded at 2:49 a.m., with the epicenter traced to 140 km east-southeast of Pandan, Catanduanes; 190 km east-northeast of Legazpi City in Albay; 200 km north-northeast of Calbayog, Samar; or 495 km east-southeast of Manila.

 

- LBG, GMANews.TV

 

 

DR TTV (Danish teletext / text-TV)

 

EARTHQUAKE near the Philippines - strenght 6.1 on the Richter scale. No tsunami alert. The epicentre was 141 km east / southeast of Pandan in a depth of 24 km according to USGS. No report of damage to people or buildings as a consequence of the quake.

 

 

UPDATES OF THE SITUATION IN HAITI ON 27 and 28 JANUARY 2010 and Haiti-related news on 27 and 28 January 2010, Part I of II

 

HAITI's CHILDREN ON THEIR OWN ON SHATTERED STREETS

 

(01/27/2010 | 10:56 AM - GMA News.TV)

 

PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI — The children with no names lay mute in a corner of the General Hospital grounds Tuesday, three among thousands of boys and girls set adrift in the wake of Haiti's earthquake.

 

"Hi Joe, how are you?" the American doctor tried, using a pet name the staff had given a boy of about 11. There was no response.

 

"Joe," ''Baby Sebastian" and the girl who didn't even have a nickname hadn't spoken or cried since they were brought in over the previous 48 hours — by neighbors, passers-by, no one knows who. "Sebastian," only a week old, was said to have been taken from the arms of his dead mother.

 

They're lucky: Haitian-born Dr. Winston Price and the staff were treating them for infections and other ailments. Hundreds of thousands of other hungry and thirsty children are scattered among Port-au-Prince's squatter camps of survivors, without protection against disease or child predators — often with nobody to care for them.

 

"There's an estimated 1 million unaccompanied or orphaned children or children who lost one parent," said Kate Conradt, a spokeswoman for the aid group Save the Children. "They are extremely vulnerable."

 

The UN children's agency, UNICEF, has established a special tent camp for girls and boys separated from their parents in the Jan. 12 quake, and who are in danger of falling prey to CHILD TRAFFICKERS and other abusers.

 

The Connecticut-based Save the Children has set up "Child Spaces" in 13 makeshift settlements. The Red Cross and other groups are working to reunite families and get children into orphanages.

 

The post-quake needs of Haiti's children have outrun available help. Some youngsters have been released from hospitals with no one to care for them — there just aren't enough beds.

 

"Health workers are being advised to monitor and send separated/unaccompanied children to child-friendly spaces," the UN humanitarian office said in its latest situation report.

 

The plight of the young is poignant even in a country where the UN estimates A THIRD of the 9 million population NEEDS INTERNATIONAL ASSISTANCE in the quake's aftermath. "We still have a huge distance to go," said John Holmes, the UN relief coordinator.

 

That was evident in Port-au-Prince's streets, alleys and crumbled doorways, where handwritten messages begged for help. In the Juvenat neighborhood, a group of 50 families hung a white sheet from a doorway, with this plea scrawled in green: "We need food assistance, water and medicine."

 

It was evident, too, among the thousands pressing against Haitian police at a food-distribution site in the Cite Soleil slum. They swung sticks to beat back the crowd.

 

Brazilian troops in armored personnel carriers controlled a tightly packed line of earthquake survivors waiting for food in the broiling sun by firing pepper spray and training their guns on the jostling, rowdy crowd. The line stretched between the partially collapsed National Palace and entirely destroyed Supreme Court.

 

One soldier loaded a shotgun and returned their taunts by shouting back insults in Creole. Some were offended, others amused at hearing a Brazilian trooper insulting them in their own language.

 

"They treat us like animals, they beat us but we are hungry people," said Muller Bellegarde, 30.

 

Several left without getting food, fearful of the pepper spray, the soldiers, and thugs who were grabbing food from receivers.

 

Many said they appreciate the international response and under no circumstances want the Haitian government to handle aid deliveries, but suggested Haitian churches could provide more orderly and respectful venues for distributions, with Haitian communities organizing security.

 

"The help is good but the way they're doing it is bad. This is anarchy," Thomas Louis, 40, trying to get rice and oil for his two babies, aged 2 and six months. "This is not aid. This is a way to put people down."

 

Also on Tuesday, Haitians in a crowd of looters pulled a man from the rubble of a store that had been repeatedly scavenged, and called for help from U.S. soldiers, who treated him for a BROKEN LEG and SEVERE DEHYDRATION.

 

Rico Dibrivell, 35, claimed he had been trapped since the earthquake two weeks earlier, but the military provided no details about how he managed to survive.

 

More than 100 have been unearthed by rescue teams since the Jan. 12 quake, and many more by their neighbors, but most of those were in the immediate aftermath and authorities say it is unlikely for anyone to survive more than 72 hours without water.

 

On Saturday, an international team of rescuers unearthed a shop clerk who they believed had been buried since the earthquake.

 

The MONUMENTAL SCALE OF THE HAITI DISASTER — perhaps 200,000 DEAD, a CAPITAL CITY ON ITS KNEES — has severely strained the world's ability to get relief supplies through Port-au-Prince's OVERLOADED AIRPORT and CRIPPLED SEAPORT.

 

Some 800 TO 1,000 AID FLIGHTS WERE STILL AWAITING PERMISSION TO LAND, a SEVEN-DAY BACKLOG, UN and European officials reported Tuesday. On top of that, "TRUCKS are NEEDED," UN spokeswoman Elisabeth Byrs said in Geneva — especially small trucks because "the streets are extremely congested." The UN's Holmes estimated that 2 MILLION PEOPLE NEED FOOD, but only 500,000 have received some so far.

 

The medical picture has improved, but remains critical. World Health Organization spokesman Paul Garwood said more medical staff is needed, especially rehabilitation specialists, to help with postoperative recovery of 200,000 people who have had amputations or other surgery.

 

Haitians and volunteers from dozens of countries, working around the clock, were still performing up to 100 amputations a day in some hospitals.

 

At the General Hospital, Price strode from tent to tent checking on the 81 children under his care. Staff interrupted the tall, balding pediatrician with a string of questions: "Do you know about this baby?" ''Where's the medication?" ''Where will we sleep tonight?"

 

Of the nameless, speechless trio, he was treating young Joe for an infection oozing from both eyes. The 7-pound (3-kilogram) Baby Sebastian, in a white diaper decorated with sheep, had diarrhea. The unnamed girl, about 10, lay listlessly and stared upward. She had an eye infection, but would soon be picked up by an orphanage, Price said.

 

With no clues to their past, Price could only wonder.

 

"Maybe some of these parents are not even looking because their house was destroyed and they might think the kid was inside," he said. "But maybe the kid was pulled out, so they are missing each other." Children left alone are everywhere. At one of the 13 Save the Children sites, about 25 children have no adult relatives taking care of them, Conradt said. She said the group has helped some 6,000 children since the quake.

 

The aid group's "Child Spaces" are cordoned-off areas where children can play under supervision," run around being children, giving them a chance to return to normalcy as much as they can."

 

Such areas also protect children against the potential for abduction by child traffickers, a chronic problem in pre-quake Haiti, where thousands were handed over to other families into lives of domestic servitude, said Deb Barry, an emergency protection adviser with Save the Children.

 

She said her organization was working to track down every rumor it hears about threats to stranded children, "but we haven't been able to verify those thus far."

 

In Geneva, a UNICEF spokeswoman, Veronique Taveau, said the organization had been told of children disappearing from hospitals. "It's difficult to establish the reality," she said, but added that UNICEF has strengthened security at hospitals and orphanages.

 

Save the Children, the Red Cross and other organizations, meanwhile, are trying to establish a joint database of information to try to reunite separated families.

 

Government spokeswoman Marie Laurence Jocelyn-Lassegue, the communications minister, said Tuesday that Haitian officials have temporarily halted new adoptions because of concerns about corruption and carelessness in the system.

 

"Some children we don't know if the parents are alive or not," Jocelyn-Lassegue said. — AP

 

 

US TROOPS TREAT 35-YEAR-OLD HAITI MAN PULLED FROM RUBBLE

 

(01/27/2010 | 06:47 PM - GMA News.TV)

 

Members of the US 82nd Airborne Division treated a 35-year-old man purportedly pulled from the rubble of a downtown Port-au-Prince building in earthquake-stricken Haiti,/COLOR] witnesses said on Tuesday.

According to Associated Press reporters on the scene, Rico Debrivell had a broken leg and other minor injuries.

It was not immediately determined how long he had been under the rubble.

Debrivell is believed to have been pulled out of the debris by local residents and was later treated by the US medics who were working in the commercial center of downtown Port-au-Prince.

The area has been looted extensively since the January 12 magnitude-7 quake that devastated the Haitian capital. – AP

 

 

JESSICA SIMPSON WORKING TO SEND SHOES TO HAITI

 

(01/27/2010 | 08:07 PM - GMA News.TV)

 

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Jessica Simpson is raising money to send shoes to earthquake victims in Haiti.

Simpson has teamed up with the Nashville-based organization Soles4Souls. The charity has pledged to work with other aid agencies to give out one million pairs of shoes. Simpson is urging people to "do everything that we can for the victims in Haiti. Just five dollars will buy two people a pair of shoes." The charity says Haitian survivors need shoes to protect against broken glass, twisted metal and raw sewage. People can donate at http://www.50Kshoes.com. - AP

 

 

QUINCY JONES WANTS 'WE ARE THE WORLD' HAITI REDO

 

(01/28/2010 | 10:47 AM - GMA News.TV)

 

LOS ANGELES — Quincy Jones is re-recording the charity song "We Are the World" and sending the proceeds to Haiti. The 76-year-old music legend says musicians are gathering Monday at a Los Angeles recording studio to redo the 25-year-old hit song.

 

Jones would not say who will perform on the track "because we've got to make sure we've got who we got," but that the revamped song will feature a new roster of all-star musicians.

 

The original 1985 hit, written by Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie, featured Bruce Springsteen, Cyndi Lauper, Stevie Wonder, Billy Joel and Tina Turner, among others.

Jones discussed the track and his other charitable endeavors at a private party Wednesday celebrating watchmaker Audemars Piguet's donation of $1 million to the Quincy Jones Foundation. - AP

 

 

Danish TV3 Text-TV (seen 28 January 2010):

 

Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie and Sandra Bullock have each donated 1 mio $ to Haiti.

 

Lady Gaga has just held a "Gaga for Haiti" day where the proceeds from the sale of tickets for her last concert in New York's Radio City Music Hall PLUS the proceeds from the sale of Lady Gaga merchandise all over the world on this "Gaga for Haiti" day went to Haiti. This resulted in the equivalent of 2.5 million Danish kroner for Haiti - according to Celebrity-gossip.net./COLOR]

[nancyk58]

UPDATES OF THE SITUATION IN HAITI AND HAITI-RELATED NEWS ON 28 JANUARY 2010, PART II OF II

 

2 WEEKS AFTER HAITI QUAKE, FOOD AID FALLS SHORT

 

(01/28/2010 | 09:58 AM - GMA News.TV)

 

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Whether locked up in warehouses or stolen by thugs from people's hands, food from the world's aid agencies still isn't getting to enough hungry Haitians, leaving the strongest and fittest with the most.

 

The newly homeless of the rubble-strewn Bizoton slum say they haven't gotten food, water or help with shelter in the two weeks since the earthquake.

 

"If it rains now, that's it," Wilson St. Ellis, 50, a father of eight, said Wednesday amid plastic sheets stretched here and there as flimsy shields against the elements.

 

Where donated RICE, BEANS or READY-TO-EAT MEALS are being distributed, crowds quickly become unruly, with young men pushing ahead and grabbing food bags from women and the weak. UN peacekeepers fire pepper spray and Haitian police swing sticks to restore control.

 

"These people are just hungry," UN spokesman Vincenzo Pugliese said of the thousands thronging food distribution points, where he said UN peacekeepers were reinforcing security.

 

Food remains scarce for many of the neediest survivors despite the efforts of the United Nations, the US military and dozens of international aid groups. Relief experts say the scale of this disaster and Haiti's poor infrastructure are presenting unprecedented challenges, but Haitian leaders complain coordination has been poor.

 

"Many mistakes have to be rectified in order to bring help to the people who need it," President Rene Preval complained to reporters.

 

In a bid to improve food distribution, representatives of the UN, the US, the Haitian government and private aid groups met Wednesday, and afterward Donald Reilly of Catholic Relief Services said they decided to divide Port-au-Prince into zones, designating a major aid agency to be responsible for delivering UN food to each sector.

 

Meanwhile, in a stunning development so long after the 7.0-magnitude tremor collapsed thousands of buildings in Port-au-Prince and beyond, French rescuers pulled a 17-year-old girl Wednesday from the rubble of a home near the destroyed St. Gerard University.

 

The last confirmed such rescue occurred Saturday, 11 days after the quake, when a man was extricated from the ruins of a hotel grocery store. A man pulled from rubble Tuesday said he had been trapped not on Jan. 12, the day of the quake, but during an aftershock. At least 135 people have been unearthed by rescue teams since the quake, which killed an estimated 200,000 people.

 

On food aid, the UN World Food Program (WFP), which says it has reached 450,000 people, urgently appealed to governments for more cash for Haiti supplies — $800 million to feed 2 million people through December, more than quadruple the $196 million already pledged.

 

The food agency says rising tensions and security incidents — "including people rushing distribution points for food" — have hampered deliveries. But since the massive relief effort's first days, other problems have also delayed aid — blocked and congested roads, shortages of trucks, a crippled seaport and an overloaded Port-au-Prince airport.

 

"The unblocking of the logistical bottlenecks is an absolute priority," the European Commission said Wednesday, describing a seven-day backlog of 1,000 relief flights seeking permission to land at the single-runway airport.

 

The senior US officer in Haiti said Haitian families simply cannot rely on any particular location for rations.

 

Food is "flooding" into the city, Lt. Gen. Ken Keen told reporters, "but it's being delivered pretty much in terms of where we can get to and where we can distribute it," not always in locations that are "sustained every day."

 

At some regular distribution points, such as near the Champs de Mars, the central plaza where thousands of homeless are living, daily food handouts have drawn crowds of frantic people. Desperation boiled over earlier this week and Uruguayan peacekeepers retreated as young men rushed forward to grab US-donated bags of beans and rice. A pregnant woman collapsed and was trampled.

 

Elsewhere as well, the strong have preyed on the weak, prying donated food from their arms.

"These things should be done is a systematic way, not a random way," said Dr. Eddy Delalue, who runs a Haitian relief group, Operation Hope. "It's survival of the fittest: The strongest guy gets it."

 

At one squatter settlement Julia Jean-Francois, 25, clutching a grocery bag filled with small packets of donated water, told of her encounter with food robbers.

 

"I lost all the rice, beans and oil that were distributed last week. A group of young men shoved me and grabbed the bags and ran away," said Jean-Francois, whose mother was killed in the quake.

 

An hour later, she said, one of the men returned and offered to sell her the same food for the equivalent of $18. She refused, relying instead on a communal kitchen she formed with homeless neighbors.

 

She said Haitian police patrolling nearby did nothing while people were robbed. "We complained, and they got into their truck and left," she said.

 

As she spoke Wednesday, a gang of youths pushed into a line of people waiting for water, shoving an elderly woman, who screamed and swung her bucket at their heads.

 

Port-au-Prince street vendors can be seen openly selling US-donated rice by the cupful from bags marked "not for resale." Fears of OFFICIAL CORRUPTION surrounding the food aid also are surfacing.

 

Paul Coroleuski of the US-based Convoy of Hope, which has distributed aid in Haiti for three years, said he has more than 100 tons of food in a Port-au-Prince warehouse ready to hand out, but it has been delayed for days by Haitian officials who say they will take over distribution.

 

Private agencies like his worry that Haitian officials "will do what they always have done, which is the government takes care of the government and the people are secondary," he said.

 

Haitian officials denied the government plans to take over food distribution from private agencies.

Coroleuski's frustration and distrust of the government is echoed in Port-au-Prince's streets.

 

"If they turn it over to the Haitian government, they would take it all for themselves," said Muller Bellegarde, 30, as he waited for food in the unrelenting tropical sun.

 

Haitians remember that when the government took charge of delivering international aid to the city of Gonaives after deadly hurricane floods in 2008, much of it ended up sold on the black market.

 

- AP

 

 

FRENCH TEAM MAKES NEW 'MIRACLE' RESCUE IN HAITI

 

(01/28/2010 | 04:55 PM - GMA News.TV)

 

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — A French search team that wouldn't go home pulled off another "miracle" rescue in Port-au-Prince, lifting a 17-year-old girl alive from beneath this cityscape of rubble. Above ground, hundreds of thousands of other survivors hoped for a breakthrough of another kind — in delivering badly needed food aid.

 

Key players in the Haiti earthquake relief effort, in what may have been a pivotal meeting, decided to better coordinate by dividing up the city among themselves for handing out food.

 

Food distribution thus far has often been marked by poor coordination, vast gaps in coverage, and desperate, unruly lines of needy people in which young men at times shoved aside the women and weak and took their food.

 

"These things should be done is a systematic way, not a random way," Dr. Eddy Delalue, who runs a Haitian relief group, Operation Hope, said Wednesday of the emergency food program. "It's survival of the fittest: The strongest guy gets it."

 

Wednesday's rescue of teenager Darlene Etienne from a collapsed home near St. Gerard University, 15 days after Haiti's great quake killed an estimated 200,000 people, was the first such recovery since Saturday, when French rescuers extricated a man from the ruins of a hotel grocery store. A man pulled Tuesday from the rubble of a downtown store said he had been trapped during an aftershock, not in the original Jan. 12 quake.

 

Authorities say it is rare for anyone to survive more than 72 hours without water, let alone more than two weeks. But young Etienne may have had some access to water from a bathroom of the wrecked house, and rescuers said she mumbled something about having a little Coca-Cola with her in the rubble.

 

Her family said Etienne had just begun studies at St. Gerard when the disaster struck, trapping dozens of students and staff in the rubble of school buildings, hostels and nearby homes. "We thought she was dead," said cousin Jocelyn A. St. Jules.

 

Then — a half-month after the earthquake — neighbors heard a voice weakly calling from the rubble of a private home down the road from the destroyed university. They called authorities, who brought in the French civil response team.

 

Rescuer Claude Fuilla walked along the dangerously crumbled roof, heard her voice and saw a little bit of dust-covered black hair in the rubble. Clearing away some debris, he reached the young woman and saw she was alive — barely. "I don't think she could have survived even a few more hours," Fuilla said.

Digging out a hole big enough to give her oxygen and water, they found she had a very weak pulse. Within 45 minutes they managed to remove her, covered in dust. A neighbor said he believed she was rescued from the house's shower room, where she might have had access to water.

She was extremely dehydrated and weak, with very low blood pressure. She was rushed to a French military field hospital and then the French military hospital ship Sirroco.

France's ambassador to Haiti, Didier le Bret, praised the "stubbornness" of the French rescue squad.

"They should not have been working anymore because, officially, the rescue phase is over," he said. "But they felt that some lives still are to be saved, so we did not say they should leave the country."

At least 135 people buried in rubble have been rescued by search teams since the quake, most in the immediate aftermath.

On food aid, the U.N. World Food Program, which says it has reached 450,000 people, urgently appealed to governments for more cash for Haiti supplies — $800 million to feed 2 million people through December, more than quadruple the $196 million already pledged.

 

Food remains scarce for many of the neediest survivors despite the efforts of the United Nations, the U.S. military and dozens of international aid groups. Relief experts said the scale of this disaster and Haiti's poor infrastructure are presenting unprecedented challenges, but Haitian leaders complain coordination has been poor.

 

The food agency said rising tensions and security incidents — "including people rushing distribution points for food" — have hampered deliveries.

 

At some regular distribution points, such as near the Champs de Mars, the central plaza where thousands of homeless are living, daily food handouts have drawn crowds of frantic people. Desperation boiled over earlier this week and Uruguayan peacekeepers retreated as young men rushed forward to grab US-donated bags of beans and rice. A pregnant woman collapsed and was trampled.

 

Since the relief effort's first days, however, other problems have also delayed aid — blocked and congested roads, shortages of trucks, a crippled seaport and an overloaded Port-au-Prince airport.

 

In a bid to improve food distribution, representatives of the UN, the US, the Haitian government and private aid groups met Wednesday to discuss coordination. Afterward, Donal Reilly of Catholic Relief Services said they decided to divide Port-au-Prince into zones, designating a major aid agency to be responsible for delivering food to each sector.

 

That may bring some hope to the newly homeless of the rubble-strewn Bizoton slum, who say they haven't gotten food, water or help with shelter in the two weeks since the earthquake.

 

"If it rains now, that's it," Wilson St. Ellis, 50, a father of eight, said Wednesday amid plastic sheets stretched here and there as flimsy shields against the elements. - AP

 

 

Danish Text-TV (for DR1 and DR2):

17-year-old girl rescued by French and Haitian rescuers after 15 days in the rubble. She was happy, shocked and about to cry when she was found and pulled out. She was severely dehydrated and had leg injuries. Tuesday a 31-year-old man was rescued after 12 days in the rubble - his house collapsed by one of the aftershocks.

 

BBC World / News:

Teenage girl pulled out of the rubble of her house 15 days after the disaster. She was happy and shocked despite being severely dehydrated and having a leg injury. One of her rescuers called it "A miracle that she was alive after such a long time".

 

 

German ZDF Text TV:

17-year-old girl rescued from the rubble of her house by French team late Wednesday evening. She was severely dehydrated and had a leg injury. Her house collapsed on the 12 January 2010 in connection with the devastating earthquake.

 

At least 170,000 dead after the devastating earthquake on 12 January 2010 (new official figure).

 

1 million people estimated homeless.

 

Lack of tents and the food situation is at a critical level with insufficient food supplies.

 

 

Danish Text-TV (for DR1 and DR2):

ALSO HAITIAN ANIMALS NEED HELP.

Appeal from the Humane Society International not to forget that the Haitian animals are also quake victims, and long-term aid is needed for the animals as well - in particular vaccinations against contagious diseases among the animals. The animals are coping better with the situation than expected.

[nancyk58]

UPDATES OF THE SITUATION IN HAITI ON 29 JANUARY 2010

 

URBAN (Danish free paper) on 29 January 2010:

THE MIRACLE IN THE RUINS.

'Thanks', was all that the girl said as she was dug out of the rubble after 15 days.

There is still hope of finding survivors in the earthquake-ravaged island of Haiti. It is clear following the rescue of a 16-year-old girl from the rubble of a house in the capital, Port-au-Prince.

"I don't know how she has been able to fight for so long. It is a miracle", says the rescuer J.P. Malaganne to the news agency Reuters.

The girl was severely dehydrated when she was found and had apparently a leg injury according to French and Haitian rescuers. "She only said: "Thanks". She is very weak which indicates that she has been there for 15 days", says Samuel Bernes, spokesman of a French rescue team.

The severely dehydrated 16-year-old girl is now under treatment in a French hospital. "For the time being we have to calm her, anaesthetize her and stabilize her", says Michel Orcel who is the doctor treating her.

 

MetroXpress, Denmark on 29 January 2010:

75% OF PORT-au-PRINCE IS DESTROYED. HAITI. 75% of Haiti's capital, Port-au-Prince, is in ruins after the earthquake on 12 January. This is estimated by UN's special envoy, Paul Farmer to the news agency AFP. At the same time President René Preval estimates that more than 170,000 people have died and a million people have been made homeless. On the other hand, sources tell Ritzau that the security in Haiti has increased considerably.

 

Danish DR1 TTV (Text TV):

HAITI IS RUNNING OUT OF MEDICINE. The hospitals in the earthquake-stricken country are full of thousands of wounded who have exhausted the doctors that are treating the needy. Several hospitals are running out of basic medicaments such as antibiotics and painkillers. The need for medicine is much bigger than the amount of medicine it is possible to get into the country so that it can be distributed. The United Nations also points out that Haitians hospitals are in need of medicine.

 

Danish TV2 TTV:

SEVERAL SCHOOLS TO REOPEN IN HAITI ON MONDAY in the areas of Haiti that are not ravaged by the devastating earthquake in Haiti 16 days ago. The Haitian Ministry of Education is to examine to what extent the earthquake ravaged public and private schools in Port-au-Prince and in other parts of the country.

200,000 people are estimated killed on 12 January 2010.

 

Swedish Television, Text-TV:

HAITI SCHOOLS TO OPEN AGAIN ON MONDAY in the areas that have not been affected by the the devastating earthquake - according to the Haitian Ministry of Education. The authorities and relief organizations are to make a quick assessment of the schools in Port-au-Prince and in other places in the hardest hit areas and in areas having received many internal refugees.

It is estimated that up to 200,000 people were killed by the earthquake on 12 January 2010. It is estimated that between 5,000 and 8,000 schools and 1.8 million children have been affected.

 

German ZDFtext:

INCREASING NUMBER OF RAPES IN HAITI. Several homeless women and girls who had taken refuge in tents have been raped. Haiti's Chief of Police accuses criminals having escaped from the prisons during the devastating earthquake on 12 January 2010 of having committed these crimes.

The Dominican Republic will organize a new conference for reconstruction of Haiti.

At least 170,000 people were killed by the devastating earthquake on 12 January 2010.

 

UNICEF COUNTS THE ORPHANS. Unicef has started its registration of orphans among minors wandering/roaming about the streets of Port-au-Prince. The minors are then placed in extra established emergency camps. The teams on site are confronted with difficult situations: Many childrens are victims of abuse, others are wounded, but have received no medical treatment. 60 adoptive children from Haiti have arrived at Frankfurt Airport.

 

HAITI: EVERYWHERE IN HAITI THERE IS A SHORTAGE OF MEDICAMENTS.

According to info given by aid workers, supplies of medicaments are only in third place after food and tents.

According to Haiti's Chief of Police, several homeless girls and women who had taken refuge in emergency camps / tents have been raped, and he accuses criminals who managed to escape from the prisons during the devastating earthquake on 12 January 2010 of having committed these crimes.

 

BBC World, TTV:

RECONSTRUCTION WILL TAKE SEVERAL DECADES following the devastating earthquake 2 weeks ago. The acting head of the UN Mission in Haiti, Edmond Mulet told BBC that the logistics of the relief effort were a nightmare with Haiti's inadequate infrastructure destroyed and a shortage of vehicles. Mr Mulet said reconstruction was not starting at zero, but "below zero".

As many as 200,000 people died in the earth quake on 12 January 2010, while an estimated 1.5 million are now homeless.

[nancyk58]

UPDATES OF THE SITUATION IN HAITI ON 29 + 30 JANUARY 2010, PART I OF II

 

HAITIANS TIRED OF WAITING, START OWN REBUILDING

 

(01/30/2010 | 07:12 AM - GMA News.TV)

 

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – Defying pleas to wait for Haiti's reconstruction, families lugged heavy bundles of wood and tin up steep hillsides Friday to do the unthinkable: build new homes on top of old ones devastated in the earthquake.

 

The defiance reflects growing anger and frustration among Haitians who complain that their leaders — and any rebuilding plans — are absent more than two weeks after the Jan. 12 earthquake damaged or destroyed thousands of homes in the capital.

 

Few tents have been supplied, rubble remains strewn in many streets, and signs begging for help in English — not Haitian Creole — dot nearly every street corner in Port-au-Prince.

 

It could take another month to get the 200,000 tents needed for Haiti's homeless, said Marie-Laurence Jocelyn Lassegue, the culture and communications minister. Haiti now has fewer than 5,000 donated tents.

 

In the concrete slum of Canape Vert, an area devastated by the quake, dozens of people were pooling their labor and getting on with rebuilding.

 

"I have 44 years' worth of memories in this house," said Noel Marie Jose, 44, whose family was reinforcing crumbling walls with tin and wood.

 

"I got married here. I met my husband here. My mother braided my hair there where these walls used to stand," Jose said. "Even if it's unsafe, I can't imagine leaving. Even if the government helps, it will come too late. This is how it is in Haiti."

 

Surrounding her, concrete homes were either crushed or had toppled down a hill. Jose and other families said they were worried both about the coming rainy season and fears they may lose their plots after demolitions because they either lack clear title or the government does not want them to rebuild on land it considers unsafe.

 

Reconstruction, resettlement and land titles are all priorities of the government of President Rene Preval — but so far in name only. The government has been nearly paralyzed by the quake — its own infrastructure, including the National Palace, was destroyed — and so far it has been limited to appeals for foreign aid and meetings with foreign donors that have yet to produce detailed plans for the emergencies it confronts.

 

Its first priority is moving people from areas prone to more earthquakes and landslides into tent cities that have sanitation and security but have yet to be built. Preval has engaged in dozens of meetings with potential outside contractors to discuss debris removal, sanitation and other long-term needs. Albert Ramdin, assistant secretary of the Organization of American States, has offered help in creating a new Haitian land registry — a process that could take months if not years because countless government records were destroyed in the quake.

 

Haitians ardently defend their property rights. If a family has occupied land for more than 10 years, they gain ownership rights even without a deed. For some families, small homes have been passed on through the generations. Few Haitians have insurance, and the loss of what few assets they have has crippled countless families.

 

Many have tired of living in tents improvised from tarps, sheets and bedspreads, opting to rebuild their homes rather than find new plots.

 

Lassegue said such rebuilding wouldn't be tolerated — and that the government wants to develop and implement a comprehensive reconstruction plan that might feature building codes, an anomaly in this impoverished nation.

 

"We've been sleeping outside but the rains will come soon," said Merilus Lovis, 27, taking wooden planks and erecting them for walls inside the foundation of his former home, where his wife and daughter died. "I'm scared of the floods on this hillside but I don't think that God would let such bad things happen twice."

 

Paul Louis, a 45-year-old porter, has started a business buying wood from scavengers and selling it on the street. He purchased a cracked and worn 1-by-8-foot board for about $2 and was selling it Friday for $3. "People are afraid to build with concrete now," Louis said.

 

In another neighborhood, people dug through destroyed homes to salvage materials. Women did the wash amid the ruins.

 

"I have stayed, but I lost my home," said Thomas Brutus, who lives perched precariously on a debris-strewn hillside in a shack made from the remains of destroyed homes. "So I made this little house, even though I know it's dangerous. We have been here for 14 days and have received no help."

 

Many residents say they're staying because they grow vegetables on their small plots. Thousands of others have swarmed to improvised tent camps, where Elisabeth Byrs, an official of the U.N.'s humanitarian coordination office, said there is a "major concern" about sanitation.

 

About 200,000 people are in need of post-surgery follow-up treatment and an unknown number have untreated injuries, she said.

 

In other developments:

 

• Teams of looters overwhelmed private security guards in the downtown commercial district, carting off refrigerators and washing machines as well as wood and steel from damaged businesses. Hundreds of bystanders protested the failure of Haitian police to stop them, and cheered "Viva US military!" as a patrol from the US 82nd Airborne Division came in to restore order. Police belatedly arrested the men.

 

• Haiti hopes schools outside the capital not affected by the earthquake can open in coming weeks and that those not destroyed in Port-au-Prince could start operating in March, Lassegue said. An estimated 200 schools in Port-au-Prince were destroyed or partially damaged, many of them collapsing on students. Getting children into schools would help protect them from predators taking advantage of the quake that orphaned unknown thousands and separated thousands more from their parents. Haiti has always had a problem with traffickers looking for child and sex slaves.

 

• The United Nations asked for a $700 million agricultural investment fund for Haiti to boost food production and create jobs. The 18-month plan is part of the government's strategy to rebuild the country, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization said. Top needs are seeds, tools and fertilizers so farmers can plan for spring planting season.

 

"The food situation in Haiti was already very fragile before the earthquake and Haiti was highly dependent on food imports," Alexander Jones, FAO's emergency response manager in Haiti, said in a statement.

 

• The United States has distributed some 43,000 radios to people in Port-au-Prince so they can hear public service announcements.

 

• The US Drug Enforcement Administration said it had suspended operations in Haiti so its agents can focus on the disaster. Traffickers have long favored Haiti as a transit point for South American drugs. - AP

 

 

NUN TO JUMP FROM PLANE FOR HAITI RELIEF COLLECTION

 

(01/30/2010 | 03:01 PM – GMA News.TV)

 

A Texas-based nun will jump from a plane in a skydiving stunt after a school she headed exceeded its goal of raising $25,000 for relief work in earthquake-hit Haiti.

 

Sister Jane Meyer, head of school at St. Agnes Academy in Houston, promised to take her first skydive if her school can reach the $25,000 goal for Catholic Relief Services (CRS).

 

“I think I am ‘up in the air’ – we just finished counting the money today and we are at more than $40,000. We are sending a check tomorrow. Pray that I don’t have a ‘heart attack’ as I ascend and jump!" Meyer said in a note to CRS, which was posted Saturday (Manila time) on CRS’ Website.

 

She said she agreed to take the skydive because she felt it was her responsibility to help Haiti by motivating people to give.

 

Meyer said she is now preparing to train for her skydive, even as she voiced optimism her school can raise more than $50,000.

 

“I am preparing for my jump and I want my message to motivate others. We will hit over $50,000, I know. The competition is fierce among classes. Anyway, I am beginning to get in training!" she said.

 

CRS said the Academy initially set Ash Wednesday as the cutoff date to reach its $25,000 goal for Haiti relief through bake sales, tournaments, and student competitions.

 

Meyer said she trusts CRS to handle the funds after she took part in a CRS Frontiers of Justice trip to Ghana.

 

“Being on the ground in Ghana, I saw firsthand that the money given to CRS goes directly to the cause," she said. - LBG, GMANews.TV

 

 

5 MORE PINOYS ARRIVE FROM QUAKE-HIT HAITi

 

(01/30/2010 | 10:33 AM – GMA News.TV)

 

A second batch of five Filipinos arrived before dawn on Saturday from earthquake-devastated Haiti, a day after the first batch arrived home.

 

Radio dzBB’s Lito Laparan reported Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) and Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) officials welcomed the five who arrived at 5:55 a.m.

 

The five, initially identified as Victor Torizo, Dicsina Torizo, Allen Vincent Torizo, Bernadette Villagracia and Art Venus Villagracia, arrived at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport on Philippine Airlines PR-109 flight at 5:55 a.m.

 

DFA Office of the Undersecretary for Migrant Workers Affairs executive director Enrico Fos said there were initially supposed to be 18 Filipinos in the second batch.

 

OWWA head Carmelita Dimzon said the 13 encountered “booking problems."

 

“There were glitches in the booking with American airlines, for some reason we do not understand. Some needed to be issued transit visas so only five were able to make the trip home," Dimzon said in an interview on dzBB radio.

 

She said they expect the other Filipinos to return Sunday and Monday.

 

Dimzon said they did not get a chartered flight for the Filipinos in Haiti because relatively few have decided to return.

 

“It is not worth to get a chartered flight, if there are few people returning home," she said.

 

In a separate interview on dzRH, Dimzon said the booking problem occurred while the Filipinos were in the Dominican Republic to take connecting flights in Miami and Los Angeles.

 

“The 13 had problems in booking at the Dominican Republic. They are waiting to get their transit visas," she said.

 

Bernadette Villagracia, an industrial engineer, said she felt fine but decided to return home.

 

She said she felt God was “angry" when the quake hit Haiti," Villagracia said on dzBB radio.

But when asked if she will return to Haiti, she said, “Definitely."

 

In a separate interview on dzRH, she recalled her son was all alone with a nanny.

On Friday, six Filipinos arrived from Haiti after taking connecting flights to Miami and Los Angeles.

 

Dimzon assured the returning Filipinos of assistance in getting home, and help in getting livelihood.

 

The Philippine National Red Cross and Department of Social Welfare and Development will also provide stress debriefing and psycho-social counseling for them, she added.

 

"We know they have been through a traumatic experience and they will not forget it," Dimzon had said in an interview last Friday, while waiting for the first batch to arrive.

 

Full military honors

 

Meanwhile, full military honors await the remains of three United Nations peacekeepers that are expected to arrive this coming Tuesday.

 

Radio dzRH reported the remains of peacekeepers DP3 Perlie Panangui, Sgt. Janice Arocena, and Sgt. Eustacio Bermudez Jr. will be brought to the Villamor Air Base upon arrival. - LBG, GMANews.TV

 

 

6 PINOYS WHO SURVIVED HAITI QUAKE BACK IN RP

 

(01/29/2010 | 07:53 AM – GMA News.TV)

 

Six Filipinos from earthquake-devastated Haiti, one of them wheelchair-bound, arrived home early Friday, with government officials on hand to welcome them.

 

Radio dzBB's Manny Vargas reported that the six, who comprise the first batch of repatriated Filipinos, arrived before 6 a.m. at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 2.

 

Those who arrived were identified as Gregorio Bacurin, Donna Bacurin, Sonny Marlin, Rowena Cruz, Michaela Santos, and Rosario Santos.

 

They arrived aboard a Philippine Airlines PR-103 flight from Los Angeles. A second batch of 18 is due to arrive Saturday. Officials are still finalizing the scheduled arrival of a third batch of about 40 Filipinos.

 

They passed through the Dominican Republic and took connecting flights to Miami and Los Angeles before returning home.

Donna Bacurin, 43, was among those trapped in a building devastated by the quake. She said at least five Haitian co-workers died in the quake.

 

"The building shook and I ran for cover under a table. It was too far for me to run," Bacurin said in Filipino in an interview.

 

When asked if she plans to return to Haiti soon, she said: "Not yet, I have not decided."

 

Rosario Santos said she was lucky because she left a gas station crushed by the quake at the last minute. Her niece Michaela, 13, is a high school student.

 

Government officials including those from the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration, Department of Foreign Affairs and Department of Social Welfare and Development welcomed the six.

 

OWWA head Carmelita Dimzon assured the six of assistance in getting home, and help in getting livelihood.

 

The Philippine National Red Cross and Department of Social Welfare and Development will also provide stress debriefing and psycho-social counseling for them, she added.

 

"We know they have been through a traumatic experience and they will not forget it," Dimzon said in an earlier interview while waiting for the first batch to arrive.

 

At the time of the killer quake last January 12, a total of 462 recorded Filipinos were in Haiti — 290 civilians and 172 military and police peacekeepers.

 

Four Filipinos, three of them members of the RP peacekeeping contingent, were confirmed killed while two others, both civilians, remain unaccounted for.

- RSJ, GMANews.TV

[nancyk58]

UPDATES OF THE SITUATION IN HAITI ON 29 + 30 JANUARY, PART II OF II

 

DR1 TTV: HAITIANS NOW FLEEING BY BOAT.

The first known group of Haitians fleeing from their country by boat after the massive earthquake on 12 January 2010 has/have been picked up near the British Turks and Caico islands South of Miami. According to the authorities 122 people were on board the boat. The Haitian boat people / refugees have been interned in a sports centre and not returned to Haiti. Last week the Turks and Caico islands suspended the repatriation (sending home) of illegal immigrants from Haiti. The islands are situated 145 km North of Haiti and have a population of about 30,000 people.

 

DR1 TTV: DANES HAVE DONATED 50 MILLION DANISH KRONER TO HAITI.

The 5 largest Danish relief organizations have added up the donations received – this for DR News. So far Danes have donated a total of 50 million Danish Kroner via these relief organizations as follows:

 

Save the children, Denmark about DKK 05.7 mio

Danish Church Aid DKK 04.6 mio

UNICEF, Denmark DKK 14.0 mio

Red Cross, Denmark DKK 16.3 mio

Médecins Sans Frontières, MSF DKK 08.5 mio

 

So far Danes have donated 50 mio Danish Kroner for the relief effort in Haiti. And it has been decided that the relief organizations are not to pay value added tax on the donations which has been the case previously.

 

DR1, TTV: RED CROSS, DENMARK:“THE TSUNAMI TOUCHED THE DANISH PEOPLE MORE BECAUSE IT WAS “CLOSER” TO US”.

So far the money collected for the earthquake victims amounts to around DKK 50 million, whereas the organizations collected DKK 340 million after the tsunami in Southeast Asia in 2004.

Red Cross’ Fundraising Manager Kenneth Oerberg is not surprised that the collection of money for Haiti is not as lucrative as the collection of money for the victims of the tsunami. – “In connection with the tsunami many Europeans and many people from Scandinavia including some Danes died or were directly affected by this disaster. Therefore the tsunami disaster somehow touched us Danes more because it was “closer” to us”, says Kenneth Oerberg from Red Cross, Denmark.

 

TV2 News: OUR DONATIONS FOR HAITI ARE KEPT BACK FOR UP TO 2 MONTHS.

Emergency relief is needed several places in the world. But the money is kept back for up to 2 months even though it is technically possible to transfer the money to the relief organizations long before – according to the Danish local newspaper “Jydske Vestkysten”. “The amounts donated by the customers are registered in our databases few seconds after the mobile phone owner donated the amounts”, says Kim Baasch, managing director of Computonic – a so-called gateway firm supplying the technical platform to the emergency relief.

 

DR1, TTV: MORE THAN DKK 130 MILLION COLLECTED TO AFRICA AND HAITI.

This is a record-high amount collected in the 4 years of Denmark’s national, annual collection of money for 12 relief organizations. The exact amount collected during the 4-hour-long show was DKK 130,612,113 million. Last year the result of the televised collection was more than DKK 78 million. The show was aired on DR1. This year’s collected money is earmarked for Africa's women knowing that an African woman spends 90% of her income on her family. So by helping African woman you help the entire family. Due to the devastation earthquake in Haiti it has been decided that half of the money collected will go to Haiti.

 

DR1: WOMEN FIRST IN THE FOODLINE IN HAITI.

The UN establishes 16 distribution points in Haiti where hungry and homeless women can collect food. They distribution points are reserved for women and will open on Sunday, according to the World Food Programme (WFP). The goal is to reduce the long lines of frustrated Haitians. Many women and children have been pushed away from these food lines. Rice and beans have been distributed to hundred thousands of Haitians since the earthquake on 12 January 2010. The 16 centres are to be the foundation for a more long-term system for the months to come.

 

SVT (Swedish Text-TV): USA STOPS INJURED HAITIANS.

According to the Swedish newspaper “Svenska Dagsbladet” the USA has stopped the evacuation of injured from the earthquake-stricken Haiti. The reason is -- according to New York Times – that no one will pay for the care and treatment of the injured Haitians. The pressure on the US hospitals has become too big, and the question who is to pay for the care and treatment of these injured Haitians has not been solved yet. The flights gave the injured the possibility of advanced medical treatment in the USA. In Florida 500 patients have been treated for severe injuries they got on 12 January 2010 when the devastating earthquake struck.

 

BBC World: US HALTS HAITIAN VICTIM EVACUATIONS.

The US military has stopped evacuating Haitian earthquake victims to the US in a reported dispute over medical costs. Flights stopped on Wednesday, because some hospitals were reluctant to take patients from Haiti, a US military official told the New York Times. A doctor in the quake zone warned 100 of his patients would die in the next 48 hours unless they were airlifted. Meanwhile only women will be allowed to collect food from new UN distribution sites in Haiti’s capital.

 

BBC World: UK TO SHIP IRON TO HAITI VICTIMS.

The government has purchased all of the UK’s available corrugated iron sheets to provide shelters for victims of the Haiti earthquake.

Gordon Brown announced the move which should help some 2,000 families, at a charity poetry reading for Haiti in London on Saturday. The 5,700 sheets cost £35,000 and were bought from the £20 million the UK government has allocated to the relief effort. They will be shipped to the stricken country next week.

 

ARD Text: DEATH TOLL NOW 180,000 – INTERNATIONAL AID CRITICIZED:

At least 180,000 people died. President Preval criticized that the international aid was not sufficiently coordinated. He says that the Haitian Government is not involved in decisions, and that the relief organizations do not coordinate their emergency relief effort. Therefore he is going to appoint his own emergency relief coordinator.

The Haitian elections planned to take place at the end of February 2010 will probably be postponed 2 years.

 

ZDF text: PRESIDENT CRITICIZES AID WORKERS:

President René Preval criticizes the insufficient coordination of the international relief work for the earthquake victims. “Many countries engage and give proof of their good intentions. But our government is not involved and the coordination is insufficient“. The aid goes directly to the foreign organizations. Rafael Correa, Ecuador’s president spoke of “the donor countries’ imperialism” . “They donate the money, but most of it returns to the donor countries”, he said in the press conference.

 

ZDF text: ELECTIONS POSTPONED 2 YEARS.

The Haitian elections planned to be held in February 2010 will probably be postponed 2 years. The government plans to postpone the mandate of the delegates. The future administration must be even more decentralized, says President Preval. The seat of the government will according to the constitution also in future be in Port-au-Prince, but the local authorities should have more administrative authority. “We need more streets and more work in the province so that not all Haitians come to Port-au-Prince, Preval pointed out.

[nancyk58]

UPDATES OF THE SITUATION IN HAITI ON 31 JANUARY 2010

 

US HALTS AIRLIFTS OF HAITI PATIENTS, CITING SPACE

 

(01/31/2010 | 08:56 AM - GMA News.TV)

 

MIAMI – The US military has halted flights carrying Haitian earthquake victims to the United States because of an apparent dispute over where seriously injured patients should be taken for treatment.

 

An American doctor treating victims in Port-au-Prince warned that at least 100 patients needed to get to better hospitals or they could die, while the US government said it was working to expand hospital capacity in both Haiti and in the US.

 

It was unclear exactly what prompted the Wednesday decision by the US military to suspend the flights, or when it would end. Military officials said some states were refusing to take patients, though they wouldn't say which states.

 

"There has been no policy decision by anyone to suspend evacuee flights," White House spokesman Tommy Vietor said. "This situation arose as we started to run out of room."

 

The halt came one day after Florida Gov. Charlie Crist wrote a letter to US Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, warning that "Florida's health care system is quickly reaching saturation, especially in the area of high level trauma care."

 

But officials in Crist's office said they didn't know of any Florida hospitals were turning away patients. He asked Sebelius to activate the National Disaster Medical System, which is typically used in domestic disasters and pays for victims' care.

 

Poor coordination and limited resources, not costs, drove the governor's request, said John Cherry, spokesman for the Florida Division of Emergency Management.

 

"We've made it clear that (the cost) is an issue we'll deal with down the road," he said.

 

State health officials say some medical flights landed in Florida without any advance notice, and the poor coordination may be keeping some survivors from getting the help they need, Cherry said. He cited the case of a burn victim flown earlier this week into Tampa, which is not equipped to treat those injuries.

 

Meanwhile on the ground in Haiti, Dr. Barth Green, a doctor involved in the relief effort in Port-au-Prince, warned that his patients needed to get to better hospitals.

 

"We have 100 critically ill patients who will die in the next day or two if we don't Medevac them," said Green, chairman of the University of Miami's Global Institute for Community Health and Development.

 

Civilian flights have not been stopped, but Green said he was relying on US military flights to fly out patients because they are larger and better equipped to handle injured patients.

 

At a temporary field hospital at Haiti's international airport set up with donations to Green's institute, two men had already died of tetanus. Doctors said 5-year-old Betina Joseph faced a similar fate within 24 hours unless evacuated to a US hospital where she can be put on a respirator.

 

The girl — infected with tetanus through a two-inch cut on her thigh — weakly shooed a fly buzzing around her face as her mother caressed her corn rows, apparently unaware that getting the girl out could mean life or death.

 

"If we can't save her by getting her out right away, we won't save her," said Dr. David Pitcher, one of 34 surgeons staffing the field hospital.

 

The White House said federal officials were working with other states and non-government aid groups in Haiti to EXPAND HOSPITAL CAPACITY so they can make more room for critically injured patients aboard the USNS Comfort hospital ship anchored off the coast of Port-au-Prince.

 

There have already been 435 patients evacuated to the US, 18,500 patients treated by HHS personnel on the ground in Haiti, and 19,000 patients treated by the Comfort either on ship or on shore, with 635 patients currently on aboard the Comfort.

 

Captain Kevin Aandahl, spokesman for US Transportation Command, said no evacuation requests have been made by US military medical facilities in Haiti, including the Comfort, since the flights were suspended Wednesday.

 

US Ambassador to Haiti Kenneth Merten said he did not know who ordered a stop to the evacuations but said it is a problem that should be fixed.

 

"I'm sure the Department of Defense wants to do the right thing as do we," he said Saturday in a conference call. "Look, everybody is here working on the ground trying to do the right thing for as many people as possible."

- AP

 

 

HAITI GOV'T SAYS CHILDREN TAKEN WITHOUT PERMISSION

 

(01/31/2010 | 10:10 AM - GMA News.TV)

 

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – Haitian police detained a group of Americans on Saturday on suspicion of trying to take children out of the country without proper papers amid the chaos following the Jan. 12 earthquake.

 

The Americans were taken into custody with about 33 children while trying to reach the Dominican Republic, said Communications Minister Marie-Laurence Jocelyn Lassegue.

 

Sean Lankford told The Associated Press from Idaho that his wife and 18-year-old daughter were among 10 Americans detained.

 

Lankford, a member of the Central Valley Baptist Church in Meridian, Idaho, said the group had intended to take the children to an orphanage they had set up at a hotel in the Dominican Republic. He says the group thought it had the proper paperwork.

 

Lankford says US officials on Saturday were working to locate the 10 church members. He says Idaho friends and relatives have been in touch with those detained via text message and phone calls.

 

Haiti has imposed new controls on adoptions since the Jan. 12 earthquake. The government now requires Prime Minister Max Bellerive to personally authorize the departure of any child as a way to prevent child trafficking.

 

Officials estimate that thousands of kids have been separated from their parents or orphaned by the earthquake.

- AP

 

 

HAITI DETAINS AMERICANS TAKING KIDS ACROSS BORDER

 

(01/31/2010 | 02:14 PM - GMA News.TV)

 

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Ten Americans were detained by Haitian police on Saturday as they tried to bus 33 children across the border into the Dominican Republic, allegedly without proper documents.

 

The Baptist church members from Idaho called it a "Haitian Orphan Rescue Mission," meant to save abandoned children from the chaos following Haiti's earthquake. Their plan was to scoop up 100 kids and take them by bus to a rented hotel at a beach resort in the Dominican Republic, where they planned to establish an orphanage.

 

Whether they realized it or not, these Americans — the first known to be taken into custody since the Jan. 12 earthquake — put themselves in the middle of a firestorm in Haiti, where government leaders have suspended adoptions amid fears that parentless or lost children are more vulnerable than ever to child trafficking.

 

"In this chaos the government is in right now we were just trying to do the right thing," the group's leader, Laura Silsby told The Associated Press at the judicial police headquarters in the capital, where the Americans were being held pending a Monday hearing before a judge.

 

Silsby said they only had the best of intentions and paid no money for the children. She said her group obtained them through a well-known Haitian pastor named Jean Sanbil of the Sharing Jesus Ministries.

 

Silsby, 40, of Boise, Idaho, was asked if she didn't consider it naive to cross the border without adoption papers at a time when Haitians are so concerned about child trafficking. "By no means are we any part of that. That's exactly what we are trying to combat," she said.

 

Social Affairs Minister Yves Cristallin told reporters the Americans were suspected of taking part in an illegal adoption scheme.

 

Cristallin said the 33 children were lodged late Saturday at an SOS Children's Village outside of Port-au-Prince. SOS Children's Villages is a global nonprofit based in Austria.

 

Many children in Haitian orphanages aren't actually orphans but have been abandoned by family who cannot afford to care for them. Advocates both here and abroad caution that with so many people unaccounted for, adoptions should not go forward until it can be determined that the children have no relatives who can raise them.

 

UNICEF and other NGOs have been registering children who may have been separated from their parents. Relief workers are locating children at camps housing the homeless around the capital and are placing them in temporary shelters while they try to locate their parents or a more permanent home.

 

The US Embassy in Haiti sent consular officials, who met with the detained Americans and gave them bug spray and MREs to eat, according to Sean Lankford of Meridian, Idaho, whose wife and 18-year-old daughter were being held.

 

"They have to go in front of a judge on Monday," Lankford told The Associated Press.

 

"There are allegations of child trafficking and that really couldn't be farther from the truth," he added. The children "were going to get the medical attention they needed. They were going to get the clothes and the food and the love they need to be healthy and to start recovering from the tragedy that just happened."

 

Haiti has imposed new controls on adoptions since the earthquake, which left thousands of children separated from their parents or orphaned. The government now requires Prime Minister Max Bellerive to personally authorize the departure of any child as a way to prevent child trafficking.

 

Silsby said they had documents from the Dominican government, but did not seek any paperwork from the Haitian authorities before taking 33 children from 2 months to 12 years old to the border, where Haitian police stopped them Friday evening. She said the children were brought to the pastor by distant relatives, and that the only ones to be put up for adoption would be those without close family to care for them.

 

The 10 Americans include members of the Central Valley Baptist Church in Meridian, Idaho and the East Side Baptist Church in Twin Falls, Idaho, as well as people from Texas and Kansas. Idaho friends and relatives have been in touch with them through text messages and phone calls, Lankford said.

 

"The plan was never to go adopt all these kids. The plan was to create this orphanage where kids could live. And kids get adopted out of orphanages. People go down and they're going to fall in love with these kids, and many of these kids will end up getting adopted."

 

"Of course I'm concerned for my wife and my daughter," he added. "They were hoping to make a difference and be able to help those kids."

 

The group described their plans on a Web site where they also asked for tax-deductible contributions, saying they would "gather" 100 orphans and bus them to the Dominican resort of Cabarete, before building a more permanent orphanage in the Dominican town of Magante.

 

"Given the urgent needs from this earthquake, God has laid upon our hearts the need to go now versus waiting until the permanent facility is built," the group wrote.

- AP

 

 

HAITI WORKERS HAND OUT‘WOMEN-ONLY’ AID COUPONS

 

(01/31/2010 | 06:37 PM - GMA News.TV)

 

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – Relief workers began handing out women-only food coupons, launching a new phase of what they hope will be less cutthroat aid distribution to ensure that families and the weak get supplies following Haiti's devastating earthquake.

 

Young men often force their way to the front of aid delivery lines or steal it from others, meaning aid doesn't reach the neediest at rough-and-tumble distribution centers, according to aid groups.

 

The World Food Program coupons can be turned in by women at 16 sites in the capital starting Sunday, and entitle each family to 25 kilograms (55 pounds) of rice.

 

U.N. officials say they are still far short of reaching all 2 million quake victims estimated to need food aid.

 

Meanwhile, federal agencies scrambled to explain the U.S. MILITARY's SUSPENSION OF MEDICAL EVACUATIONS OF CRITICALLY ILL HAITIANS TO THE UNITED STATES in a dispute over where the victims should be treated.

 

"We have 100 critically ill patients who will die in the next day or two if we don't Medevac them," said Dr. Barth Green, chairman of the University of Miami's Global Institute for Community Health and Development. That included 5-year-old Betina Joseph, who developed tetanus from a small cut in her thigh. Doctors said Saturday that she had just 24 hours to live if not provided with respirator care.

 

White House officials said they were working to increase hospital capacity in Haiti and aboard the USNS Comfort hospital ship as well as in the United States. U.S. Ambassador to Haiti Kenneth Merten said about 435 earthquake victims had been evacuated before the suspension, and that he was "sure the Department of Defense wants to do the right thing."

 

Relief officials were facing a growing sanitation crisis that could spread malaria, cholera and other deadly diseases throughout the chaotic camps.

 

SHORTAGES OF FOOD, CLEAN WATER, ADEQUATE SHELTER AND LATRINES are creating a potential spawning ground for epidemics in a country with an estimated 1 million people made homeless by the Jan. 12 quake.

 

In one camp, a single portable toilet served about 2,000 people, forcing most to use a gutter that runs next to an area where vendors cook food and mothers struggle to bathe their children.

 

Survivors have erected flimsy shelters of cloth, cardboard or plastic in nearly every open space left in the capital.

 

Women wait until night to bathe out of buckets, shielding their bodies behind damaged cars and trucks. Water is recycled — used first for brushing teeth, then for washing food, then for bathing.

 

"My 1-year-old has had diarrhea for a week now, probably because of the water," said Bernadel Perkington, 40. "When the earthquake happened I had 500 gourdes (about 15 U.S. dollars), which I was using for clean water for her. The money for that ran out yesterday."

 

The crowding and puddles of filthy water that breed mosquitoes have begun to spread diseases such as dengue and malaria, which were already endemic in Haiti. Some hospitals report that half the children they treat have malaria, though the RAINY SEASON — the peak time for mosquitoes — won't start until April. - Tight quarters also expose people to cholera, dysentery, tetanus and other diseases.

 

The U.N., Oxfam and other aid organizations have started to dig latrines for 20,000 people, said Silvia Gaya, UNICEF's coordinator for water and sanitation, even if that's a small fraction of the 700,000 people that officials said were living in the camps last week.

 

"In some parks, there is no physical space" even to dig latrines, Gaya said.

- AP

 

 

Swedish Text-TV - SVT Text:

RAIN NEW THREAT TO EARTHQUAKE STRICKEN HAITIANS

 

The UN fears that the rainy season that may start already in February will have disastrous consequences for the earthquake survivors. Diseases may spread very fast. According to the UN as many as 1 million Haitians being without shelter and without access to water and toilets of acceptable sanitary standard may be threatened.

Yesterday Haiti's health minister Alex Larsen said that the government will act as quickly as it can to find shelter for hundred thousands of people who lost their home due to the devastating earthquake on 12 January.

 

 

German ZDF text:

 

PRESIDENT PREVAL APOLOGIZES FOR HIS LONG SILENCE.

President Preval asks the Haitian population to excuse his silence after the devastating earthquake on 12 January. "Also a president is only a human being, and the great pain is silent", he said. He escaped from the earthquake because he had left the presidential palace earlier than normal due to a meeting. According to the Haitian government 180,000 died due to the earthquake on 12 January. The US coordinated the aid in the first days after the earthquake. The Haitians had criticized the president's silence.

 

TV2 TTV:

ANGER DUE TO DRUNKEN DOCTORS IN HAITI.

The government in Puerto Rico has initiated an inquiry into doctors acting in improper ways on pictures from Haiti. The pictures have aroused harm showing doctors from Puerto Rico helping the injured in Haiti posing with firearms, drinking alcohol and laughing while they attended patients. The pictures have been posted on Facebook. The authorities will now investigate whether the doctors broke some rules and thus can be punished for their behaviour.

 

Text-TV, Danish DR1:

THE REASON FOR THE RECORD-HIGH COLLECTION RESULT IS THE TAX RELIEF.

 

The tax relief ensured the record-high collection result. The Danes are very generous every time there is a collection for disaster-stricken and needy people. So far Danish companies and Danes have donated 130 million Danish Kroner to Haiti and African women. The collection took place at a very good time which explains the record-high amount collected. It has just been pay day, and this time the pay was affected by the tax relief implying that many Danes and companies felt that they had a financial reserve.

 

Text-TV, Danish DR1:

THE RESULT OF THE COLLECTION FOR HAITI WAS BETTER THAN EXPECTED.

Last year's record of 72million Danish Kroner collected was broken yesterday. This year's result was record-high 130 million Danish kroner.

The amount donated by Danes and Danish companies allows the relief organizations to make long-term plans for aid to Haiti and Africa. Now the relief organizations can change strategy from direct distribution of water and water purification tablets to establishment of wells and durable water supplies according to Henrik Stubkjaer, who is Secretary General of Danish Churchaid, which is one of the humanitarian organizations involved in the collection.

[nancyk58]

Help Red Cross and Unicef help victims of natural disasters - news on 1.2.10

 

UPDATES OF THE SITUATION IN HAITI ON 1 FEBRUARY 2010

 

BBC WORLD:

AIRLIFT FOR VICTIMS TO RESUME.

The USA will resume within hours emergency evacuation flights for critically injured Haitian quake victims, the White House said. Airlifts stopped last Wednesday because of what Washington described as "logistical issues". Doctors warned that some people would die if flights did not resume.

Meanwhile, some Haitian children identified as orphans by a group of Americans who were taking them abroad may have parents it has emerged.

 

According to German ZDF text the airlifts for victims stopped because it was unclear how to finance the treatment of the quake victims. Florida's Governor Charlie Crist complained that the hospitals/clinics were overloaded and he demanded more personnel and that the injured quake victims be sent to other US states as well.

 

Swedish SV1T:

PATIENT FLIGHTS FROM HAITI RESUMED.

The flights of severely injured Haitian earthquake victims have been resumed today, but it is still not clear where the patients are taken and who is going to pay for their treatment. The White House announced earlier that the USA is "working with the Haitian government and the international community to meet this urgent need and to save lives". Last week these airlifts stopped after complaints from Florida that the hospitals were overloaded and that it was not clear who was to pay for the treatment of the earthquake victims.

 

ZDF Text:

SCHOOLS OPEN AGAIN AFTER THE EARTHQUAKE ON 12 JANUARY 2010.

Almost 3 weeks after the devastating earthquake in Haiti struck, schools are open again in the areas that were less affected by the earthquake. In Port-au-Prince it will take several weeks before the schools reopen. According to Unicef about 3/4 of the schools in Port-au-Prince are destroyed or severely damaged. Before the earthquake struck on 12 January, about 600,000 Haitian children went to school. Schools outside the capital Port-au-Prince also accepted children who had left the capital together with their families.

 

ZDF Text:

UN STARTS MAJOR FOOD DISTRIBUTION ACTION.

Now UN and US soldiers monitor the distribution of food, and according to the World Food Programme WFP there has been no violent incidents reported. Several relief organisations are involved. The UN established 16 distribution sites in Port-au-Prince. 2 million Haitians are to be supplied with food from here in the coming weeks. Haiti's government declared resale of food from distribution sites illegal. At least 180,000 died on 12 January 2010 by the devastating earthquake.

 

German ARD Text:

REMAKE OF "WE ARE THE WORLD":

Quincy Jones and Lionel Richie asked several artists at the Grammy Awards to contribute to the remake of "We Are the World". THE PROCEEDS WILL GO TO THE EARTHQUAKE VICTIMS IN HAITI according to Internetdienst "E!online". U2-frontman BONO, Lady Gaga, Jennifer Hudson, Usher, Akon, Enrique Iglesias and Toni Braxton have accepted to participate.

 

Taylor Swift, Beyonce rule Grammy Awards

(02/01/2010 | 01:39 PM - GMA News.TV)

Many participants in the program wore red cross buttons in support of HAITI EARTHQUAKE RELIEF. Mary J. Blige joined Andrea Bocelli in a rousing rendition of "Bridge Over Troubled Water," which was not only designed to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the song's big Grammy wins, but to RAISE MONEY FOR THE PEOPLE IN HAITI. The performance, introduced by Haitian native Wyclef Jean, will be available via iTunes.com/target, with the FUNDS GOING TO EARTHQUAKE RELIEF./B]

 

Beyonce wins 4 Grammys in pretelecast show

(02/01/2010 | 08:54 AM - GMA News.TV)

Mary J. Blige and Andrea Bocelli were to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Grammy wins by "Bridge Over Troubled Water" with a special performance of the classic song, which will be made available on iTunes. THE PROCEEDS WILL BE DONATED TO HAITI RELIEF.

- AP

[nancyk58]

UPDATES OF THE SITUATION IN HAITI ON 2 FEBRUARY 2010

 

US MILITARY RESUMING HAITI MEDICAL FLIGHTS

 

(02/01/2010 | 08:52 AM - GMA News.TV)

 

MIAMI – The US military will resume bringing Haitian earthquake victims to the United States aboard its planes for medical treatment, ending a suspension that lasted several days, the White House said Sunday.

 

The military had brought hundreds of critically injured Haitians to the United States aboard its planes before halting the flights on Wednesday. Since then, at least a handful of patients were flown on civilian aircraft, and other flights continued to carry US citizens and other mostly non-injured passengers.

 

Late Sunday, White House spokesman Tommy Vietor said the medical airlift was on track to resume by early Monday. The White House received assurances that additional medical capacity exists in the US and among its international partners for the patients.

 

"We determined that we can resume these critical flights," Vietor said. "Patients are being identified for transfer, doctors are making sure that it is safe for them to fly, and we are preparing specific in-flight pediatric care aboard the aircraft where needed."

 

Exactly what led to the suspension of medical evacuation flights was unclear, though military officials had said some states refused to take patients. Officials in Florida, one of the main destinations for military flights leaving Haiti, say no patients were ever turned away.

 

However, the suspension took effect after Florida Gov. Charlie Crist sent a letter Tuesday to Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius saying the state's hospitals were reaching a saturation point.

 

The letter also asked for federal help paying for patient expenses — a request Crist on Sunday said could have been misinterpreted. He also said federal officials have indicated he would receive help covering the costs, totaling more than $7 million.

 

Crist told ABC News' "Good Morning America" on Sunday he was puzzled by the suspension. Military planes carrying 700 U.S. citizens, legal residents and other foreign nationals landed in central Florida over the past 24 hours, and three of those people required medical care at hospitals, state officials said. However, Florida had not received any critical patients needing urgent care since the halt, said Sterling Ivey, the governor's spokesman.

 

"We're welcoming Haitians with open arms and probably done more than any other state and are happy to continue to do so," Crist said.

 

Col. Rick Kaiser said Sunday that the US Army Corps of Engineers has been asked to build a 250-bed tent hospital in Haiti to relieve pressure on facilities where earthquake victims are being treated under tarpaulins.

 

Several hospitals in the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince were damaged or destroyed in the Jan. 12 earthquake.

 

US Ambassador to Haiti Kenneth Merten said about 435 earthquake victims had been evacuated before the suspension.

 

Individual hospitals were still able to arrange private medical flights — such as one Sunday that brought three critically ill children to a hospital in Philadelphia.

 

The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia said the trio arrived Sunday afternoon. One is a 5-year-old girl with tetanus, the second, a 14-month-old boy with pneumonia, and the third is a baby suffering from 3rd degree burn from sun exposure after the quake.

 

Doctors have said the makeshift facilities in Haiti aren't equipped to treat such critical conditions and warn that patients in similar condition could die if they aren't treated in US hospitals.

 

Crist also has asked Sebelius for better coordination of the evacuations.

 

The state had been relying on air traffic controllers at Miami International Airport to relay information about the evacuations because the US military flights headed to the state without notice, David Halstead, the Florida Division of Emergency Management's interim director, said Sunday.

 

"The governor's request is, 'Just tell us a plan,'" Halstead said. - AP

 

 

CHAOS EASES AS HAITI FOOD LINES FOCUS ON WOMEN

 

(02/01/2010 | 11:37 AM - GMA News.tv)

 

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — The 79-year-old woman with a 55-pound bag of rice perched on her head gingerly descended concrete steps Sunday and passed it off to her daughter-in-law — who quickly disappeared behind the faded leopard-print sheets that are the walls of their makeshift home on the crowded turf of Haiti's National Stadium.

 

That personal victory for Rosedithe Menelas and her hungry family was a leap forward as well for the United Nations and aid groups that have struggled to help 2 million people who need food aid after the Jan. 12 earthquake.

 

Under a new targeted approach to aid, Menelas and thousands of other women across Haiti's capital no longer have to battle with men at food handouts that in recent days have been chaotic and dangerous scrums.

 

"Every time they give out food there's too much trouble," said Menelas, collapsing into a small wooden chair as two grandchildren quickly scrambled into her lap. "Today, we finally got something."

 

U.N. officials say they are still far short of reaching all of the quake victims estimated to need food.

 

The U.N. World Food Program and its partners, including World Vision, borrowed an approach that has worked in other disaster zones. The agencies fanned out across Port-au-Prince, distributing coupons to be redeemed for bags of rice sites across the city. The coupons were given mainly to women, the elderly and the disabled.

 

Men could redeem coupons for women who were busy taking care of children or who otherwise could not make it.

 

"Our experience around the world is that food is more likely to be equitably shared in the household if it is given to women," WFP spokesman Marcus Prior said at the stadium, now a sprawling encampment of families left homeless by the quake.

 

Officials targeted women because they are primary caregivers in most households and are less likely to be aggressive in aid lines. Many Haitians agreed.

 

Chery Frantz, a 35-year-old father of four who lives in a ravine near one distribution center, said men are more likely to try to sell the donated rice.

"Women won't do that because they're more responsible," Frantz said.

 

Bags of rice will be given out daily for the next two weeks to hold the city until longer-term food efforts can take hold. Workers are handing out 1,700 rations daily at each location. Each bag is intended to help feed a family of six for two weeks with about half the calories they need each day.

 

WFP said that by the end of the day it had distributed some 377 metric tons of rice to more than 100,000 at nine sites.

 

Also Sunday, the White House said it was resuming the military airlift of critically injured earthquake victims, having received assurances that additional medical capacity exists in U.S. hospitals. The flights had stopped four days earlier, worrying doctors in Haiti who said hundreds would die without specialized care. Since then, relief groups were forced to use expensive private jets.

 

The Boston-based aid group Partners in Health arranged for one such plane Sunday to fly a 5-year-old tetanus victim, a 14-month-old boy with pneumonia and a baby boy with third-degree burns to Children's Hospital in Philadelphia.

 

The White House said the airlift would resume in hours. "Patients are being identified for transfer, doctors are making sure that it is safe for them to fly, and we are preparing specific in-flight pediatric care aboard the aircraft where needed," spokesman Tommy Vietor said.

 

The US Army Corps of Engineers has been asked to build a 250-bed tent hospital to relieve pressure on the US Navy hospital ship Comfort and on Haitian facilities where earthquake victims are being treated under tarpaulins in hospital grounds. Several Port-au-Prince hospitals were damaged or destroyed.

 

An effort to help other Haitian children led 10 US Baptists into the arms of police when they were caught trying to bus 33 children to the Dominican Republic. They acknowledged they had not gotten any permissions from Haitian authorities. They were being held without charges on Sunday.

 

The church members, most from Idaho, called it a "Haitian Orphan Rescue Mission" to save abandoned children in the disaster zone. But they put themselves in the middle of a political firestorm over fears that overly quick adoptions could permanently separate children from missing parents — or that traffickers may be exploiting the quake to seize and sell children.

 

There were some glitches in Sunday's food campaign.

At least a dozen people didn't make it into the stadium before UN peacekeepers from Brazil shut the gates. They angrily waved their coupons outside.

 

Inside, the Brazilians distributed sardines, corned beef and water when the rice ran out to separate lines of men and women. The crowd surged forward, prompting the peacekeepers to fire several volleys of pepper spray.

 

Chris Webster, a World Vision spokesman, said his group needed more security before it could open two sites in the seaside slum of Cite Soleil.

 

But a tour of several sites showed the project was largely successful. People hauled away their rice, often dividing it up among friends and family. Some women quickly turned their bags over to husbands and brothers, but most took it themselves to the refugee camps they call home.

 

"Bringing food into a situation where people are desperate is always chaotic," Webster said at one site on the city's Rue J. Poupelard. "But this seems like it's going well."

 

Aid workers worked with community groups and others to make the operation as smooth as possible. UN officials even sought the help of Voodoo priests, who urged people to stay calm, said Max Beauvoir, head of Haiti's Voodoo Priest Association. "Voodoo constitutes a large part of our culture and priests often help mobilize communities," Beauvoir said.

 

Some recipients said it was their first aid since the quake. "I have a big family and we have nothing," said Nadia St. Eloi, 32, a mother of six who carried her rice bag on her head while holding her 2-year-old son by the arm. She said she still needs cooking oil and beans to make a meal but will make the rice last as long as possible. "We have no meat, so this is all we'll eat," she said.

- AP

 

 

HAITIAN CHILD QUAKE VICTIMS FLOWN TO US FOR CARE

 

(02/01/2010 | 12:57 AM - GMA News.TV)

 

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – Doctors skirted a bureaucratic logjam to save the life of two critically ill child victims of Haiti's earthquake on Sunday, flying them to U.S. hospitals on a private jet to avoid a military suspension of medical evacuation flights.

 

A 5-year-old tetanus victim and a 14-month-old boy critically ill with pneumonia were sent to Children's Hospital in Philadelphia by the aid group Partners in Health, based in Boston.

 

The airlift had been in doubt after the U.S. military stopped medical evacuation flights on Wednesday night because of concerns that hospitals would not accept the patients as federal and state officials debated who should pay for their care.

 

Five-year-old Betina Joseph, who developed tetanus from a small cut on her thigh, was in danger of dying if she could not reach a respirator at a U.S. hospital, said Dr. Barth Green, chairman of the University of Miami's Global Institute for Community Health and Development.

"We have 100 critically ill patients who will die in the next day or two if we don't Medevac them," Green said Friday.

 

Meanwhile, relief workers were preparing for a woman-only food distribution system in Haiti's capital, launching a new phase of what they hope will be less cutthroat aid distribution to ensure that families and the weak get supplies following Haiti's devastating Jan. 12 earthquake.

 

Young men often force their way to the front of aid delivery lines or steal from it from others, meaning aid doesn't reach the neediest at rough-and-tumble distribution centers, according to aid groups.

 

The World Food Program coupons can be turned in by women at 16 sites in the capital starting Sunday, and entitle each family to 25 kilograms (55 pounds) of rice.

U.N. officials say they are still far short of reaching all 2 million quake victims estimated to need food aid.

 

Both federal and state officials appeared to distance themselves from the decision to suspend the military's medical evacuation flights.

 

White House officials said they were working to increase hospital capacity in Haiti and aboard the USNS Comfort hospital ship as well as in the United States.

Col. Rick Kaiser said Sunday that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has been asked to build a 250-bed tent hospital to relieve pressures on the Comfort and on Haitian facilities where earthquake victims are being treated under tarpaulins in hospital grounds.

Several Port-au-Prince hospitals were damaged or destroyed in the Jan. 12 earthquake.

 

U.S. Ambassador to Haiti Kenneth Merten said about 435 earthquake victims had been evacuated before the suspension, and that he was "sure the Department of Defense wants to do the right thing."

 

Florida Gov. Charlie Crist told ABC News' Good Morning America on Sunday he was puzzled by the reported suspension. He said 700 people had come from Haiti to Florida over the past 24 hours and said the state was still willing to help emergency cases.

 

"It's all hands on deck here in the Sunshine State. We're welcoming Haitians with open arms and probably done more than any other state and happy to continue to do so," Crist said. - AP

[nancyk58]

HAITI SAYS BAPTISTS MAY BE TRIED IN US

 

(02/02/2010 | 07:28 AM - GMA News.TV)

 

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – Haiti's prime minister said Monday it's clear to him that the 10 US Baptists who tried to take 33 children out of his quake-ravaged country without permission "knew what they were doing was wrong."

 

But Prime Minister Max Bellerive also told The Associated Press his country is open to having the Americans go before courts in the United States because his own nation's judicial system was devastated by the Jan. 12 earthquake.

 

The aborted Baptist "rescue mission" has become a distraction for a crippled government trying to provide basic life support to millions of earthquake survivors.

 

But the prime minister said some legal system needs to determine whether the Americans were acting in good faith — as they claim — or are child traffickers in a nation that has struggled to fight exploitation of children.

 

"It is clear now that they were trying to cross the border without papers. It is clear now that some of the children have live parents," he told the AP.

 

"And it is clear now that they knew what they were doing was wrong."

 

If they were acting in good faith, "perhaps the courts will try to be more lenient with them," he said.

 

Members of the church group, most from Idaho, have insisted they only trying to rescue child victims of the quake. Few if any had any significant experience in international charity.

 

Since their arrest Friday near the border, the church group has been held inside two small concrete rooms in the same judicial police headquarters building where ministers have makeshift offices and give disaster response briefings. They have not yet been charged.

 

One of their lawyers said they were being treated poorly: "There is no air conditioning, no electricity. It is very disturbing," Attorney Jorge Puello told the AP by phone from the Dominican Republic, where the Baptists hoped to shelter the children in a rented beach hotel.

 

One of the Americans, Charisa Coulter of Boise, Idaho, was being treated Monday at the University of Miami's field hospital near the capital's international airport. Looking pale and speaking with difficulty from a green Army cot, the 24-year-old Coulter said she had either severe dehydration or the flu. A diabetic, she initially thought her insulin had gone bad in the heat.

Two Haitian police officers stood besides the cot, guarding her.

 

"They're treating me pretty good," she said, adding that Haitian police didn't bring her group any food or water, but that US officials have delivered water and MREs to eat. "I'm not concerned. I'm pretty confident that it will all work out," she said.

 

Investigators have been trying to determine how the Americans got the children, and whether any of the traffickers that have plagued the impoverished country were involved.

 

Their detained spokeswoman, Laura Silsby, conceded that she had not obtained the proper Haitian documents, but told the AP from detention that the group was "just trying to do the right thing" amid the chaos.

 

The 33 kids, ranging in age from 2 months to 12 years and with their names written in tape on their shirts, were being sheltered in a temporary children's home, where some told aid workers that they have surviving parents. Lassegue said the Social Affairs Ministry was trying to find them.

 

"One (9-year-old) girl was crying, and saying, 'I am not an orphan. I still have my parents.' And she thought she was going on a summer camp or a boarding school or something like that," said George Willeit, a spokesman for the SOS Children's Village.

 

Foreigners adopting children from the developing world have grabbed headlines recently — Madonna tried to adopt a girl from Malawi amid criticism from locals, while Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie have a burgeoning multicultural brood.

 

But in Haiti, a long tradition of foreign military intervention coupled with the earthquake that destroyed much of the capital and plunged it even deeper into poverty, have made this issue even more emotionally charged. Of 20 Haitian parents interviewed in a tent camp by the AP on Sunday, only one said she would not give up her children to give them a chance at a better life.

"Some parents I know have already given their children to foreigners," said Adonis Helman, 44. "I've been thinking how I will choose which one I may give."

 

"My parents died in the earthquake. My husband has gone. Giving up one of my kids would at least give them a chance," said Saintanne Petit-Frere, 40, a mother of six. "My only fear is that they would forget me, but that wouldn't affect my decision."

 

Haiti's overwhelmed government has halted all adoptions unless they were in motion before the earthquake amid fears that parentless or lost children are more vulnerable than ever to being seized and sold. Sex trafficking has been rampant in Haiti. Prime Minister Max Bellerive's personal authorization is now required for the departure of any child.

 

"For UNICEF, what is important is that for children separated from their parents, we do everything possible to have their families traced and to reunite them," said Kent Page, a spokesman for the group in Haiti. "They have to be protected from traffickers or people who wish to exploit these children."

 

The arrested Americans include members of the Central Valley Baptist Church in Meridian, Idaho, and the East Side Baptist Church in Twin Falls, Idaho. The churches are part of the Southern Baptist Convention, which is America's largest Protestant denomination and has extensive humanitarian programs worldwide, but they decided to mount their own "rescue mission" following the earthquake.

- AP

 

 

CRITICISM OF HAITI's GOVERNMENT INCREASING

 

(02/02/2010 | 03:43 PM - GMA News.TV)

 

TITANYEN, Haiti – The mourning is far from over, but the politicking has resumed.Hundreds gathered Monday at a gravel pit where countless earthquake victims have been dumped, turning a remembrance ceremony for the dead into one of the first organized political rallies since the disaster, with followers denouncing President Rene Preval.

 

Many called for ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide's return — a familiar political refrain when things swing between bad and worse in Haiti.

 

"Preval has done nothing for this country, nothing for the victims," said Jean Delcius, 54, who was bused to the memorial service by Aristide's development foundation. "We need someone new to take charge here. If it's not Aristide, then someone competent."

 

Critics were already blaming Preval for rising unemployment, corruption and greed. Then the Jan. 12 earthquake struck, killing at least 150,000 people, flattening most government buildings and turning the capital into an apocalyptic vision of broken concrete and twisted steel.

 

Preval has rarely been seen in public since, leaving his ministers to defend his performance — a job they are growing increasingly weary of.

 

Asked Monday about the criticism of Preval, Communications Minister Marie-Laurence Jocelin Lassegue batted back the questions, frowning and looking irritable.

 

"Those questions are for the president or the prime minister," he told The Associated Press.

 

Haiti's government also has had to deal with the 10 Americans who tried to take a busload of undocumented Haitian children out of the country. Prime Minister Max Bellerive also told the AP that "what they were doing was wrong," and they could be prosecuted in the United States.

 

U.S. Embassy officials would not say whether Washington would accept hosting judicial proceedings for the Americans. For now, the case remains firmly in Haitian hands, State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said in Washington. "Once we know all the facts, we will determine what the appropriate course is, but the judgment is really up to the Haitian government," he said.

 

Meanwhile, discontent with Preval appears to be growing, three weeks after the disaster.

 

"He came Saturday and then just left," said Jude John Peter, 23, in a camp across from Haiti's demolished National Palace, where some 2,000 people are crammed into tents made of bedsheets and sticks, fighting for clean water and one portable toilet. "He's nowhere to be seen at first and then leaves when things get hot."

 

Aristide faced similar criticism during his presidency. The former slum priest had a huge grassroots following among Haiti's poor but was ousted in 2004 as CORRUPTION and DRUG TRAFFICKING grew rampant and some of his former supporters accused him of abandoning his early followers to line his own pockets.

 

Aristide has declared since the quake that he would like to return from his exile in South Africa — a move that would add political instability to the post-quake chaos and likely face resistance from the international community.

 

Before legislative elections scheduled for Feb. 28 were postponed, Haiti's presidentially appointed electoral council had excluded more than a dozen political parties from the next round of elections in 2011. Opposition groups accused the council of trying to help Preval's Unity party win majorities in parliament so he could push through constitutional reforms and expand executive power.

 

The most prominent excluded party is Aristide's former Lavalas party, which now plans more demonstrations. That will force thousands of American soldiers and UN peacekeepers to worry about containing political violence as well as providing relief.

 

"There are people trying to make political capital out of this very difficult moment," said Arnold Antonin, an environmental activist.

 

Some who attended the memorial said they simply wanted new leadership. Voter discontent is a constant in impoverished Haiti, where for years after the dictatorship, some even claimed they wanted the return of Jean-Claude Duvalier, whose father, Francois "Papa Doc" Duvalier, launched a 29-year family dynasty of terror.

 

"When there's a great deal of discontent among the population, people look at the government and start considering past demagogues," said James Morrell, director of the Washington, D.C.-based Haiti Democracy Project.

 

"This could explain people contemplating the return of Aristide," Morrell said. "But the question that Haitians are really asking is, what would the mechanism be to get capable Haitians into the country who could manage the situation?"

 

Tens of thousands were killed by the Duvaliers — many of them also buried anonymously in the gravel fields of Titanyen.

 

Across the capital, Haitians have voiced anger over the hasty burials of earthquake victims.

Many Haitians believe that bodies must be properly buried and remembered by relatives and family so their spirits can pass on to heaven. In Voodoo, some believe that improper burials can trap spirits between two worlds.

 

The mourners on Monday gathered near a white metal cross erected on a mound of gravel that covered nameless bodies dropped into a pit by dump trucks. The corpse of a woman lay uncovered at the base of a nearby gravel pile.

 

One by one, people tied black pieces of cloth to the cross as a Catholic priest sprinkled the ground with holy water. A choir sang traditional Haitian hymns as religious leaders prayed for the dead.

 

"We've come here to bless these people, to bless this spot," said the Rev. Patrick Joseph Neptune.

 

Meanwhile, others in the crowd planned another political rally for Tuesday.

"If Preval comes, we will kill him!" they shouted.

- AP

 

UN SAYS ARMED GROUP ATTACKED HAITI FOOD CONVOY

 

(02/02/2010 | 06:21 PM - GMA News.TV)

 

GENEVA — The United Nations says the security situation in Haiti is "stable but potentially volatile" in the wake of last month's earthquake.

 

The UN's humanitarian office said an armed group attacked a food convoy at the Jeremie airport in the southwest of the country.

It said UN peacekeepers fired warning shots and there were no injuries.

 

The global body says Haitian national police are stepping up patrols to prevent violence and apprehended 33 escaped prisoners on Saturday.

 

UN spokeswoman Elisabeth Byrs said Tuesday several hundred prisoners are still believed to be on the loose after their prisons collapsed in the Jan. 12 quake.

Four UN human rights experts also warn of growing risk of Haitian children being abducted, enslaved or trafficked. - AP

[nancyk58]

STARS GATHER TO COVER 'WE ARE THE WORLD' FOR HAITI

 

(02/02/2010 | 09:30 AM - GMA News.TV)

 

LOS ANGELES – Twenty-five years after star-studded anthem "We Are the World" raised millions of dollars to aid famine relief in Africa, celebrities of a different generation were set to gather Monday night to re-record the charity tune to benefit Haiti.

 

Among those scheduled to perform on the revamped track the night after the Grammy Awards were Akon, Jason Mraz, Bono, Wyclef Jean, Carlos Santana, Enrique Iglesias, Usher, Toni Braxton and Lady Gaga. The session will be held at the same recording studio where the original was cut — the historic A&M complex in Hollywood.

 

Quincy Jones, who produced the 1985 anthem, announced last week that he planned to redo the song to benefit recovery from the deadly Jan. 12 earthquake in Haiti.

 

The session was all the talk at Sunday night's Grammy festivities. Music producer RedOne said being asked to participate was "the biggest honor a musician can ever do."

 

"Having Quincy, our father of music ... and Lionel Richie asking me to contribute and help, I said of course, because this is not about me," he said. "It's about Haiti."

 

Written by Michael Jackson and Richie, the original "We Are the World" thundered up the charts when it was released on the radio and in record stores in March 1985.

 

An unprecedented number of top pop musicians gathered at A&M the night of Jan. 28, 1985, following the American Music Awards, to record the tune. The song featured 45 American superstars, including Jackson, Richie, Stevie Wonder, Tina Turner, Ray Charles, Bruce Springsteen, Diana Ross, Bob Dylan and Cyndi Lauper.

 

The record raised more than $30 million for USA for Africa, a nonprofit organization founded by the singers to fund hunger relief in African nations.

- AP

 

ZDF Text:

HAITI AID: STARS TO REMAKE "WE ARE THE WORLD". Stars like Barbra Streisand, Celine Dion and Carlos Santana have re-recorded "We Are the World". According to LA Times around 100 artists participated in the remake of the song from 1985 - the eldest being 83-year-old Tony Bennett and the youngest 15-year-old Teenie star Justin Bieber. Producer Quincy Jones announced that the proceeds will go to the earthquake-ravaged Haitians. "We Are the World" was written by Lionel Richie and Michael Jackson and made 50 million $ for an Africa-aid fund.

 

ZDF Text:

POPSTARS SINGING A SONG IN FAVOUR OF HAITI.

More than 75 popstars gathered Monday in a recording studio in Hollywood to sing a new version of the charity song "We Are the World" from 1985. The proceeds are earmarked the Haitian earthquake victims. Pink, Celine Dion, Natalie Cole, Jonas Bros, Kanye West, Tony Bennett, Jennifer Hudseon, Akon and other stars participated in the remake in Henson recording studios where the original song was produced 25 years ago. The original version generated 30 million $ for the relief organisation "USA for AFRICA" founded by the popstars.

 

Swedish teletext:

½ MILLION HAITIANS HAVE LEFT PORT AU PRINCE.

500,000 Haitians have moved from Haiti's severely damaged capital. OCHA says that 90% of those fleeing Port-au-Prince move to relatives in rural districts. A new priority must be to help these host families. The arrival of the inhabitants from Port-au-Prince led to increasing prices of basic goods such as rice and sugar. FAO has asked for 700 million $ to support the agriculture and the production of food.

 

ZDF Text:

BACKGROUND: GOVERNMENT WITHOUT POWER: NO ONE CAN GUARANTEE SECURITY & SAFETY.

Haiti's government is in a disastrous state: It must rebuild Haiti, but has also lost a lot of its government officials on 12 January 2010 when the earthquake struck. The presidential palace and all ministries have been destroyed except the Social Affairs Ministry. The UN Mission is there, but cannot guarantee security / safety. Prisons have been destroyed, and thousand criminals escaped from prisons that collapsed as a consequence of the earthquake. 33 criminals were caught yesterday. There are unruly crowds in connection with food distribution. "Haitians are not looting, they're are not criminals, they're just hungry", a witness said. Haiti is located in the Western part of the island of Hispaniola in the Caribbean Ocean: 27,000 squarekilometers and a population of 9 million Haitians. Haiti is the poorest country in the Western hemisphere. 80% of the Haitian population must live on less than 2 $ per day. Haiti was once a rich French colony, but Haiti has fallen into poverty due to among other things floods and cyclones.

 

News from Danish DR1 on 3 February 2010: Unbelievable, but true: We find happy and singing children in the streets of Port-au-Prince. It is as if hope is slowly returning. And there is a determination to rebuild Haiti in a better shape than it was in.

Unicef has started vaccinating Haitian children against measles and tetanus.

[nancyk58]

UPDATES OF THE SITUATION IN HAITI ON 4 FEBRUARY 2010

 

Swedish SVT text: SWEDISH POLICE TO HAITI

According to a Swedish government resolution, 7 policemen - 3 experts and 4 from the criminal police - will be sent to Haiti to help rebuild the administration of justice that has been severely affected by the devastating earthquake on 12 January 2010, and they are to work within the framework of the UN Mission. Their task is to create safety and security for women and children. In Haiti's capital Port-au-Prince shots have been fired, and only few policemen were in sight.

 

Swedish SVT text: UN CRITICIZES IMF LOAN TO HAITI

A UN expert criticizes the International Monetary Fund for an interest-free loan of 114 million $ granted after the devastating earthquake on 12 January 2010.

Cephas Lumina, a UN independent expert when it comes to countries' indebtedness and human right says: "What Haiti needs is immediate and unconditional aid, not new loans".

Haiti owes a total of 890 million $ to the World Bank and to Inter-American Development Bank, the IDB. These amounts should be cancelled so that Haiti would have resources for rebuilding and reconstructing the country. -----------------------------------------------

 

Danish DR1 Text-TV: UNICEF: THE CHILDREN ON OUR PLANET SUFFER

The Unicef report appeals for nearly $1.2 billion in international donor funding for emergency-response efforts in countries covering six regions. This amount is required to be able to help the children on this planet - children affected by natural disasters and armed conflicts.

The Humanitarian Action Report, launched today by Deputy Executive Director Hilde F. Johnson at a press conference in Geneva, emphasizes the serious situation. The need for financial help is expected to have doubled in 2010. According to Hilde F. Johnson the biggest need is in Africa. According to UNICEF, the increasing need is caused by rising prices of vital food. The rising prices are again caused by the international financial downturn. Last year more than 1 billion people starved.

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

 

http://www.unicef.org/emerg/index_52686.html

 

UNICEF HUMANITARIAN ACTION REPORT 2010 emphasizes power of partnerships

 

By Chris Niles and Tania McBride

 

NEW YORK, USA, 4 February 2010 – As much of the international community continues to focus attention on the disaster in Haiti, UNICEF's flagship Humanitarian Action Report emphasizes the critical role of partnerships in assisting vulnerable children and families caught in crisis situations worldwide.

The Humanitarian Action Report, launched today by Deputy Executive Director Hilde F. Johnson at a press conference in Geneva, is UNICEF's only publication dealing specifically with the needs of children and women in emergencies. It spotlights crises that require exceptional support, and additional funding, to save lives and protect children from harm in an increasingly challenging humanitarian environment.

This year's report – subtitled 'Partnering for children in emergencies' – says the world is seeing crises exacerbated by larger trends, such as climate change and the international financial downturn, that are beyond the capacity of any one agency to address.

 

'UNPRECEDENTED' CHALLENGES

"The tragic events in Haiti are still very present in our thoughts, with some 3 million people affected by the earthquake," said Ms. Johnson. "As we launch UNICEF's Humanitarian Action Report 2010, we know that millions of children are suffering also elsewhere. They suffer from disasters, conflicts and displacement around the world."

Reiterating the importance of partnerships, Ms. Johnson spoke of the collaboration needed at every level to address the urgent needs of children and women in Haiti – and in all of the 28 countries and territories featured in the report.

"The number of children affected by humanitarian disasters and crises, by hunger and malnutrition, is increasing significantly," she said. "Children are put at grave risk. It's unprecedented."

At the same time, armed conflict continues to blight the lives of millions of children. "In countries like Afghanistan, Pakistan, DR Congo and Sudan, emergencies are becoming more and more complex," Ms. Johnson noted. "Children are subject to abuse and grave violations of their rights. This includes sexual violence, killing and maiming, and forced recruitment into armed groups."

 

ENSURING CHILDREN's RIGHTS

The new Humanitarian Action Report emphasizes the need to ensure that all children's rights are secured in a world that has just celebrated the 20th anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

To that end, the report appeals for nearly $1.2 billion in international donor funding for emergency-response efforts in countries covering six regions – from Eastern Europe to Africa to Asia to Latin America. The funding will be used to support a greater emphasis on emergency preparedness, early warning, disaster risk reduction and rapid recovery.

The report points out that UNICEF – working with communities, governments and civil society organizations – is developing new approaches to help vulnerable nations prepare for threats and respond to emergencies quickly and effectively.

"The crises that we now face are unparalleled," said Ms. Johnson. "It's only by working with and through partners that we can deliver on our mission: to protect children in crises, respond to their needs and help fulfil their rights."

[nancyk58]

UPDATES OF THE SITUATION IN HAITI ON 5 FEBRUARY 2010

 

ATTORNEY: 10 US BAPTISTS CHARGED WITH CHILD KIDNAP

 

(02/05/2010 | 07:54 AM - GMA News.TV)

 

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – Ten members of a US missionary group who said they were trying to rescue 33 child victims of Haiti's devastating earthquake were charged with child kidnapping and criminal association on Thursday, their lawyer said.

 

Edwin Coq said after a court hearing that a judge found sufficient evidence to charge the Americans, who were arrested Friday at Haiti's border with the Dominican Republic. Coq attended Thursday's hearing and represents the entire group in Haiti.

 

Group leader Laura Silsby has said they were trying to take orphans and abandoned children to an orphanage in the neighboring Dominican Republic. She acknowledged they had not sought permission from Haitian officials, but said they just meant to help victims of the quake.

 

The children taken from the group, ranging in age from 2 to 12, were being cared for at the Austrian-run SOS Children's Village in Port-au-Prince on Wednesday.

 

The US citizens, most of them members of an Idaho-based church group, were whisked away from the closed court hearing to jail in Port-au-Prince, the capital. Silsby waved and smiled faintly to reporters but declined to answer questions.

 

Coq said that under Haiti's legal system, there won't be an open trial, but a judge will consider the evidence and could render a verdict in about three months.

 

Coq said a Haitian prosecutor told him the Americans were charged because they had the children in their possession. No one from the Haitian government could be reached immediately for comment.

 

Each kidnapping count carries a possible sentence of five to 15 years in prison. Each criminal association count has a potential sentence of three to nine years.

 

Coq said that nine of the 10 knew nothing about the alleged scheme, or that paperwork for the children was not in order.

 

"I'm going to do everything I can to get the nine out," Coq said. That would still leave mission leader Laura Silsby facing charges.

 

State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said in Washington the US was open to discuss "other legal avenues" for the defendants — an apparent reference to the Haitian prime minister's earlier suggestion that Haiti could consider sending the Americans back to the United States for prosecution.

 

SEVERAL PARENTS of the children in Callebas, a quake-wracked Haitian village near the capital, told The Associated Press Wednesday they had HANDED OVER their children WILLINGLY because they were UNABLE TO FEED OR CLOTHE THEIR CHILDREN and the American missionaries promised to give them a BETTER LIFE.Their accounts contradicted statements by Silsby, of Meridian, Idaho.

 

In a jailhouse interview Saturday, Silsby told the AP that most of the children had been delivered to the Americans by distant relatives, while some came from orphanages that had collapsed in the quake.

 

"They are very precious kids that have lost their homes and families and are so deeply in need of, most of all, God's love and his compassion," she said.

 

In Callebas, parents said a local orphanage worker, fluent in English and acting on behalf of the Baptists, had convened nearly the entire village of 500 people on a dirt soccer field to present the Americans' offer.

 

Isaac Adrien, 20, told his neighbors the missionaries would educate their children in the neighboring Dominican Republic, the villagers said, adding that they were also assured they would be free to visit their children there. Many parents jumped at the offer.

 

Adrien said he met Silsby in Port-au-Prince on Jan. 26. She told him she was looking for homeless children, he said, and he knew exactly where to find them.

 

He rushed home to Callebas, where people scrape by growing carrots, peppers and onions. That very day, he had a list of 20 children.

 

As they loaded children onto a bus in Callebas on Jan. 28, the Americans took down CONTACT INFORMATION FOR ALL THE FAMILIES and assured them a relative would be able to visit them in the Dominican Republic.

 

The Americans' journey began last summer after Silsby and her former nanny, 24-year-old Charisa Coulter, resolved to establish an orphanage for Haitian children in the Dominican Republic. Coulter is among the jailed Americans.

 

They began buying up used clothing and collecting donations from their Central Valley Baptist Church in Meridian and in November, Silsby registered the New Life Children's Refuge Inc., the nonprofit organization coordinating the rescue mission. It listed the address of her now-foreclosed home in Meridian as its headquarters.

 

Then the quake hit. Silsby and Coulter moved into high gear, gathering donations and assembling a team to go into Haiti and urgently take out children, the younger woman's father, Mel Coulter, told the AP from his home in Kuna, Idaho.

 

The group packed 40 plastic bins of donated goods into a U-Haul trailer and drove to Salt Lake City on Jan. 22, where they took a flight to the Dominican Republic. They made their way to Haiti, where four days later, they were introduced to Adrien.

 

Adrien, who had served as the go-between and translator for the missionaries, said he had no knowledge of the group's larger plans; villagers said they were told none of their children would be offered for adoption.

 

A Haitian-born pastor who said he worked as an unpaid consultant for the group insisted the Baptists had done nothing wrong.

 

The Rev. Jean Sainvil said some of the children were orphans and might have been put up for adoption. Children with parents were to be kept in the Dominican Republic, and would not lose contact with their families, Sainvil said in Atlanta.

 

"Everybody agreed that they knew where the children were going. The parents were told, and we confirmed they would be allowed to see the children and even take them back if need be," he said.

 

Sainvil stressed that in Haiti it is not uncommon for parents who can't support their children to send them to orphanages.

 

Even Prime Minister Max Bellerive has said he recognized the Americans may simply have been well-meaning who believed their charitable Christian intent justified trying to remove the children from quake-crippled Haiti.

 

Only minutes before the charges, the Americans' Dominican lawyer, Jorge Puello, had said he expected at least nine of the 10 to be released and said he was arranging a charter flight for them from Santo Domingo, the Dominican capital.

 

After the Haitian lawyer's announcement, Puello could not be reached by telephone for comment.

 

"I'm at the airport (in Santo Domingo) and we're getting the plane ready. We're just waiting for the green light," Puello said. "I spoke to a source inside the jail — a government official — who said nine would be released but one would be held for further investigation."

- AP

 

 

German ARD Text: 10 US CITIZENS CHARGED WITH CHILD ABDUCTION.

They face a possible sentence of up to 15 years in prison.

 

Swedish SVT Text: US MISSIONARIES FORMALLY CHARGED WITH CHILD ABDUCTION.

Haiti's Minister of Justice, Paul Deins explained on Thursday that he did not see any reason why the 10 Americans should not be tried in the USA.

 

Danish Text-TV: AMERICANS CHARGED WITH CHILD ABDUCTION IN HAITI

Ten US Christian missionaries - 5 men and 5 women from Idaho in the USA - were charged with having the intention of illegal abduction of 33 Haitian children who had allegedly lost their parents in the devastating earthquake on 12 January 2010. The judge found sufficient evidence to charge the Americans who were arrested last Friday.

 

BBC World/News: RECOVERY EFFORT, STILL FOCUS / HAITI WARNS US CASE "DISTRACTING"

The Haitian prime minister has warned that the case of 10 US missionaries charged with child abduction is a "distraction" from earth quake recovery.Jean-Max Bellerive said more than 200,000 people have died in the quake and 1 million still needed help. The group of missionaries has been charged with child abduction and criminal conspiracy. They deny allegations that they tried to smuggle 33 children across the border to the Dominican Republic.

 

German ZDF Text: NUMBER OF HAITIANS WHO DIED IN THE EARTHQUAKE RISEN TO 212,000.

According to Haiti's prime minister Jean-Max Bellerive, 212,000 dead bodies have been recovered in Port-au-Prince and outside of Haiti's capital. More than 300,000 were injured in the quake. Most of them have received medical treatment and care since then. Many Haitians were already homeless before the quake struck on 12 January 2010. Now it is estimated that about 2 million Haitians are homeless.

 

Swedish SVT Text: According to Haiti's prime minister Jean-Max Bellerive, the death toll has risen to 212,000 in Haiti. This is the highest death toll after a natural disaster in America. And Bellerive expected the final death toll to be even higher. There were many homeless before the earthquake on 12 January 2010, so now there are approximately 2 million homeless Haitians.

 

Danish Text-TV: PRISONERS RETURNED TO HAITI's PRISONS.

4 policemen arrested 100 of 4,000 who escaped from the central prison in Haiti on 12 January. Now they are looking for the rest of the escaped prisoners. All 4,000 prisoners fled on 12 January including those convicted of rape and murder.

More than 200,000 Haitians died and 1 million Haitians were made homeless in the quake that struck on 12 January 2010.

[nancyk58]

PERSONAL REPORT FROM HAITI

 

From: UNICEF Denmark([email protected])

Sent: 4 February 2010 at 07:40:18

 

My name is Nadine Perrault, and I work for UNICEF as an expert in protection of

vulnerable children in Latin America and the Caribbean. I am visiting Denmark to talk about the huge reconstruction work facing my country Haiti after the devastating earthquake three weeks ago - a disaster that has affected me deeply. I am a Haitian, and my family members live in Port-au-Prince. Fortunately they are all unharmed, but many of my friends and colleagues have lost a spouse, elderly relatives and children.

 

The earthquake came as a total surprise to the Haitian people, and too many were killed because they did not know how to protect themselves. Many Haitians ran indoors for shelter and were buried in the ruins. Three million people in Port-au-Prince and surrounding areas are now living on the street, and 1.2 million of them are children below 14 years. Many of the children have been separated from their families or orphaned.

 

My job is to ensure the protection of children. In the first weeks after the earthquake, I visited children in hospitals, orphanages and institutions. First we made sure that they got water, food and blankets. Then we took the lost children to some special whereabouts for children where they could get shelter and psychological first aid.

 

At the same time we worked hard to trace the children's families. It was and is still a difficult task because many of the kids are so young that they cannot tell who they are. Other children were so traumatized that it took several days before they said a word.

 

When children are alone without adults to protect them, they are very vulnerable to abuse and exploitation. Several times for example we have experienced that someone tried to steal children by taking them away from hospitals. So we fear a big increase in the number of children who are abducted into prostitution or illegal adoptions. Therefore, UNICEF cooperates with governments in Haiti and the neighbouring Dominican Republic to keep an eye on the children crossing the border in the company of adults who cannot prove that they are allowed to travel with the children.

 

It is hard for me to see what tragic state my country is in. Port-au-Prince is one big ruin. I will return to Haiti in a few days to resume relief work which fortunately is moving forward. I am convinced that, in the middle of this enormous tragedy, we can create lasting improvements to the Haitian children. But it will be a formidable task to regenerate my country, and Haiti is going to need help for a very long time.

 

I am very touched that people in a small country like Denmark can mobilize so much generosity and willingness to help my people at this difficult time.

 

With all my heart: Thank you!

 

Best regards

Nadine Perrault

[nancyk58]

UPDATES OF THE SITUATION ON HAITI ON 6 FEBRUARY 2010

 

Danish DR1: AMERICANS SENT TO PRISON IN HAITI.

A Haitian judge has sent 10 US Christian missionaries to prison charged with illegal abduction of 33 Haitian children.

The Americans were arrested a week ago suspected of having the intention of smuggling the Haitian children from Haiti into the Dominican Republic.

The Americans - all members of a Baptist community in Idaho, the USA - denied the charges and they denied having had any criminal intentions. They just wanted to help the orphans to a better life.

 

 

Swedish SVT: SMUGGLERS OF HAITIAN CHILDREN ARE STILL IN CUSTODY / IN PRISON.

The 10 Americans arrested under suspicion of having kidnapped 33 children and tried to take the children out of Haiti have been denied conditional release and they are still under arrest, their lawyer, Edwin Coq told the French news agency AFP.

Friday last week the ten baptists - 5 women and 5 men - were arrested near the border to the Dominican Republic, Haiti's neighbouring country.

The group was then illegally taking 33 Haitian children, aged 2 monts to 14 years, out of Haiti.

 

 

BBC WORLD / NEWS: CLINTON PLEDGES BETTER HAITI AID.

Haiti faces a massive task helping those who lost homes and livelihoods in the recent earthquake, former US President Bill Clinton has admitted.

Named by the UN as international aid co-ordinator, Mr Clinton was visiting Haiti's damaged capital Port-au-Prince.

There were protests as he met Haiti's president after which Mr. Clinton vowed to speed up sluggish aid deliveries.

Mr. Clinton visited as 10 US citizens facing child abduction charges were denied conditional release.

 

 

German ZDF text: UN URGENTLY LOOKING FOR TOILETS FOR HAITI / CLINTON IN HAITI.

After water, food and shelters the insufficient number of toilets is a problem for Port-au-Prince which was devastated in the earthquake on 12 January. Sanitary installations are urgently needed, UN's spokesman in New York said. "We need 7,000 latrines and 25,000 camping toilets."

In the meantime Bill Clinton, UN's special envoy has arrived in Haiti again. He pledged the poor Caribbean Republic a better co-ordination of the aid.

[nancyk58]

Help Red Cross and Unicef help victims of natural disasters / News on 7 Feb 2010

 

UPDATE OF THE SITUATION IN HAITI ON 7 FEBRUARY 2010

 

BBC WORLD/ News: G7 PROMISES TO WRITE OFF DEBT

 

The world's leading industrialized nations have pledged to write off the debts that Haiti owes them following a devastating earthquake last month.

Canada's finance minister Jim Flaherty announced at a summit in Iquluit, northern Canada, that the Group of Seven countries, G7, planned to cancel Haiti's bilateral debts.

Jim Flaherty said he would encourage international lenders to do the same.

Some $1.2 billion (£800 million) of Haiti's debts to countries and international lending bodies has already been cancelled.

 

 

DR1text: G7 CANCELS HAITI'S DEBTS.

 

G7, the group of influential industrialized countries, cancels Haiti's debts after the devastating earthquake a month ago. Some of Haiti's debts had already been cancelled before the earthquake that completely destroyed large parts of Haiti and paralyzed the economy of the Caribbean country. Haiti still owes about 5 billion Danish kroner to the World Bank and InterAmerican Development Bank. Haiti's economy is in ruins after the earthquake.

 

 

SVT Text: G7 CANCELS HAITI'S DEBTS.

 

Some of Haiti's debts to the 7 countries, the US, the UK, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan, had already been cancelled. But Haiti's outstanding foreign debts corresponds to 6.5 bn Swedish kroner.

[nancyk58]

UPDATES OF THE SITUATION IN HAITI ON 7 and 8 FEBRUARY 2010

 

FOR GMA NEWS TEAM IN HAITI, A FEAR OF THE MOB

 

(2/07/2010 | 12:26 PM - GMA News.TV)

 

Nearly a month after the earthquake that killed an estimated 150,000 people, terrifying AFTERSHOCKS have forced GMA Network’s news team in Haiti to sleep in tents and away from the standing hotels that could have provided a semblance of creature comforts, like working toilets and wifi.

 

“We were afraid it [a hotel] would collapse if another earthquake struck. We slept wherever we could and wherever we could set up our equipment (videophone) – in a military camp, in tents, in our vehicle", said GMA News reporter Jiggy Manicad via email.

 

But getting trapped in the rubble like scores of others was not even their biggest worry. Manicad said just carrying around fuel and food supplies put them in danger.

 

“The Haitians are hungry, so if they see you with food or water, that can be the start of trouble", he said.

 

The CHAOS in the devastated capital of Port-au-Prince and surrounding areas has led to LOOTING, RIOTING, and a spike in crime. Manicad said that the head of the Filipino peacekeepers in Haiti, Lt. Col. Lope Dagoy, assigned two military escorts to guard GMA News’ four-man team.

 

Aside from Manicad, the team includes cameraman Bodgie Sonza and engineers Allan Gutierrez and Eric Mercado. GMA Network was the only Philippines-based media organization that sent a team to cover the aftermath of Haiti’s earthquake.

 

Manicad reports that 80 percent of the capital has been destroyed. "The death and suffering are unimaginable. I’m used to crime reporting, but I still cannot understand why they treat their loved ones like garbage. They burn the bodies which are picked up by garbagemen. The government has no system to handle this crisis and the victims."

 

Joining hundreds of other news teams in Haiti, but mostly from the Western hemisphere, Manicad’s team accompanied a Philippine emergency medical team nearly two weeks ago on a roundabout journey to this island country considered the poorest nation in the Americas.

 

Flying to the Dominican Republic from Miami, Florida, the group had to drive overland for several bumpy hours to reach Haiti. Landing rights at Port-au-Prince’s airport were reserved mostly for relief flights.

 

Among other stories, the GMA team has filed reports on the work of the Philippine medical team, the bodies still lining the streets, the search for survivors, and the grief and suffering of Haitians. Four Filipinos have been confirmed dead, including three UN peacekeepers, while hopes are dwindling that two Filipino civilians trapped in a collapsed supermarket, Grace Fabian and Maggie Lalican, will be found alive.

 

The media have struggled with some of the same logistical problems that relief agencies face: lack of power and security.

 

Manicad’s team brought a generator and their own videophone equipment that enabled them to report live. They sent footage over the Internet. Manicad had previously reported from Baghdad and Mount Everest, among other special assignments.

 

Despite the expense and risks of sending a team to Haiti, GMA Network’s assistant vice president for news Grace dela Peña-Reyes said “we really felt we had to be there."

 

“It’s the biggest story in the world," she said.

 

– Howie Severino, GMANews.TV

 

 

HAITIAN LAWYER FOR JAILED US MISSIONARIES FIRED

 

(02/07/2010 | 08:47 PM - GMA News.TV)

 

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – The Haitian lawyer for 10 US Baptists charged with child kidnapping tried to bribe the missionaries' way out of jail and has been fired, the attorney who hired him said Saturday night.

 

The Haitian lawyer, Edwin Coq, denied the allegation. He said the $60,000 he requested from the Americans' families was his fee.

 

Jorge Puello, the attorney in the neighboring Dominican Republic retained by relatives of the 10 American missionaries after their arrest last week, told The Associated Press that he fired Coq on Friday night. He had hired Coq to represent the detainees at Haitian legal proceedings.

 

Coq orchestrated "some kind of extortion with government officials" that would have led to the release of nine of the 10 missionaries, Puello charged.

 

"He had some people inside the court that asked him for money, and he was part of this scheme," Puello said. - Coq denied the requested $60,000 payment amounted to a bribe.

 

"I have worked for 10 people for four days working all hours," he said. "Look at what hour I'm working now, responding to these calls. I have the right to this money." On Friday, Coq had told the AP that he was working for no fee.

 

Puello said Coq initially requested $10,000 but kept asking for bigger and bigger amounts. He said that when Coq reached $60,000, he said he could guarantee it would lead to the Americans' release.

 

A magistrate charged the group's members Thursday with child kidnapping and criminal association for trying to take 33 children out of earthquake-ravaged Haiti without the proper documents.

 

The Americans said they were a humanitarian mission to rescue orphans after Haiti's catastrophic Jan. 12 quake.

 

But at least 20 of the children had living parents. Some told the AP they gave the kids to the group because the missionaries promised to educate them at an orphanage in the Dominican Republic and said they would allow parents to visit.

 

Coq said Thursday that the group's leader, Laura Silsby of Meridian, Idaho, deceived the others by telling them she had the proper documents to remove the children from Haiti.

 

The Dominican consul in Haiti, Carlos Castillo, has said he warned Silsby on Jan. 29, the day the group was detained at the border, that she lacked the required papers and risked being arrested for child trafficking.

 

Asked if Silsby had deceived the other nine Baptists by assuring them she had the proper papers, Puello said Saturday, "I believe that is true."

 

He referred further questions on that issue to Sean Lankford, also of Meridian and the husband and father of two of the jailed missionaries.

 

Reached by the AP on Saturday night, Lankford would not comment. "I don't have time right now to talk to you," he said. - NBC News reported Saturday that there are divisions within the jailed group.

 

It said some of the missionaries handed an NBC producer a note through bars of their holding cell earlier in the day that listed the names of all of them but Silsby and her former nanny and partner in the orphanage, Charisa Coulter.

 

"We only came as volunteers. We had nothing to do with any documents and have been lied to," NBC quoted the notes saying "Please we fear our lives."

- AP

 

German ZDF Text on 8 February 2010 - Haiti: LAWYER OF 10 US BAPTIST RESIGNS

Relatives of the Baptists claimed that he had asked them for money so that he could bribe the judge. And so far they had not paid him his fee. The suspects are a group of US Baptists who planned to bring 33 Haitian children aged 2 months to 14 years out of Haiti after the earthquake - but without permission to do so.

 

 

MISSING FILIPINA IN HAITI FOUND DEAD UNDER RUBBLE

 

(02/08/2010 | 03:38 PM )

 

A Filipino woman reported missing in the aftermath of the earthquake that devastated Haiti last January 12 was confirmed dead after her body was found over the weekend.

 

The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) confirmed on Monday the remains of Mary Grace Fabian were pulled out of the collapsed Caribbean Supermarket at about midnight Sunday (Manila time).

 

"Ms. Fabian, an employee of the Caribbean supermarket, was identified through her uniform, hair and necklace," the DFA said on its website.

 

Citing a report from Lt. Col. Lope Dagoy, Commander of the 10th Philippine Peacekeeping Contingent, the DFA said the Central National Equipment Retrieval team, assisted by some members of the Philippine contingent headed by Corporal Eric Dedales and Senior Navy Officer I Carlo Dangcalan, recovered Fabian's remains.

 

It said Lowel Lalican, husband of Geraldine Lalican, identified the body. Geraldine is still believed trapped under the rubble of the supermarket.

 

Fabian's sister Rosalyn decided to immediately bury Grace’s remains at the National Cemetery in Port-au-Prince.

 

The Philippine contingent in Haiti is currently securing the Caribbean Supermarket area and is continuing recovery efforts for Lalican.

 

Philippine Honorary Consul to Haiti Fitzgerald Brandt is supervising the recovery efforts.

 

On Friday last week, the DFA welcomed the fifth batch of 32 Filipinos repatriated from Haiti. At least 63 Filipinos have been repatriated.

 

- KBK, GMANews.TV

[nancyk58]

UPDATES OF THE SITUATION IN HAITI ON 9 FEBRUARY 2010

 

OHIO STRIP CLUB HOSTS 'LAP DANCES FOR HAITI'

 

(02/09/2010 | 09:52 AM - GMA news.TV)

 

TOLEDO, Ohio – A strip club in Ohio has raised $1,000 for Haitian earthquake relief during what was billed as "Lap dances for Haiti." Marilyn's on Monroe in Toledo donated the $10 cover charges collected Saturday to ISOH (I-S-O-H)/IMPACT, an organization based in suburban Perrysburg that provides food and clothing for Haiti.

 

Marilyn's general manager Kenny Soprano says his establishment had been looking for a reason to hold a charity fundraiser even before the quake, as a way to improve its image. He says you don't hear much about strip clubs giving back to the community.

 

ISOH/IMPACT CEO Linda Greene doesn't have a problem with where the money came from. She says her group appreciates any donations to help Haiti.

- AP

 

 

SOME HAITIAN HOSPITALS CHARGING PATIENTS - UN

 

(02/09/2010 | 11:41 AM - GMA News.TV)

 

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — The United Nations warned Monday that it will cut off shipments of free medicine to Haitian hospitals that charge patients, saying it had learned some are levying fees for drugs.

 

When the catastrophic earthquake struck Jan. 12, authorities immediately decided to make all medical care free. More than 200 international medical relief groups have sent teams to help, and millions of dollars of donated medicine has been flown in.

 

UN officials told The Associated Press they had information that about a dozen hospitals — both public and private — had begun charging patients for medicine.

 

The officials said they could not immediately provide the names of the hospitals but said they were in several parts of the country, including Port-au-Prince.

 

"The money is huge," said Christophe Rerat of the Pan American Health Organization, the UN health agency in the region. He said about $1 million worth of drugs have been sent from UN warehouses alone to Haitian hospitals in the past three weeks.

 

Hospitals don't need to charge patients to pay their staff, because Haitian Health Ministry employees are getting paid with donated money, Rerat added.

 

UN officials said that beginning now, any hospital found levying fees for medicine will be cut off.

 

But they added the UN would consider continuing to supply non-governmental groups working at private hospitals hit with embargoes if the NGO can make a convincing case that none of the people it is treating are being charged.

 

A member of the special Haitian government commission created to deal with the post-quake medical crisis, Dr. Jean Hugues Henry, said he had no knowledge of any hospitals charging for services or medicine.

 

"Tomorrow, we will clarify that the government never gave anyone permission to charge for medicine and services," he said.

 

Haiti now has about 90 hospitals, including public and private hospitals and field hospitals set up in the quake's aftermath.

- AP

 

Danish DR1 Text: HAITIAN HOSPITALS CHARGING PATIENTS FOR MEDICINE

 

Several hospitals and clinics in Haiti have charged patients for treatment and medicine. If it doesn't stop immediately, the UN will discontinue supply of free medicine to the hospitals in question according to a spokesman for UN's health organization.

The abuse has been noted both in Haiti and outside of the capital. Immediately after the devastating earthquake on 12 January the authorities in Haiti decided to suspend all payments for treatment. Currently about 90 hospitals, clinics and field hospitals are treating the earthquake victims.

 

 

SOUTH KOREA TO SEND 240 TROOPS TO HAITI TO REBUILD

 

(02/09/2010 | 03:41 PM - GMA News.TV)

 

SEOUL, South Korea - South Korea's parliament has approved a plan to send 240 troops to Haiti to help rebuild the Caribbean nation hit by a devastating earthquake.

 

The Foreign Ministry said Tuesday the South Korean troops, mostly engineers, will provide HUMANITARIAN ASSISTANCE to and rebuild areas in Leogane, just west of the capital, Port-au-Prince.

 

Haiti's catastrophic earthquake last month killed an estimated 200,000 people and left as many as 3 million in need of food, shelter and medicine.

 

The parliamentary approval came some 20 days after the United Nations Security Council adopted a resolution to increase the UN's Haitian mission by 2,000 troops and 1,500 police officers.

 

The ministry said the South Korean troops will be deployed later this month.

- AP

 

 

Danish DR1: A HAITIAN SURVIVING 28 DAYS IN THE RUINS?

 

A young Haitian may have been rescued out of the rubble in Port-au-Prince 28 days after the devastating earthquake. Family members of the 28-year-old Haitian say that they haven't seen him since the earthquake on 12 January. No eye witness accounts of the rescue of the man or the like that may throw light on his fate. - Doctors say that his state suggests that he has been trapped for a long time and that it is unusual, but not impossible. A brother of the 28-year-old Haitian says that someone gave his brother water during the long time of being trapped.

[nancyk58]

UPDATES OF THE SITUATION IN HAITI ON 10 FEBRUARY 2010

 

HAITI RAISES EARTHQUAKE's DEATH TOLL TO 230,000

 

(02/10/2010 | 09:10 AM - GMA News.TV)

 

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – Haiti's government has raised the death toll for the Jan. 12 earthquake to 230,000 from 212,000 and says more bodies remain uncounted.

 

The government initially estimated 150,000 dead on Jan. 24, apparently from bodies being recovered in the rubble of collapsed buildings in Port-au-Prince, the capital that was near the epicenter.

 

Communications Minister Marie-Laurence Jocelyn Lassegue said Tuesday the government now counts 230,000 deaths.

 

But she says the new figure is not definitive. She says it does not include bodies buried by private funeral homes in private cemeteries or the dead buried by their own families.

 

The new figure gives the quake the same death toll as the 2004 Asian tsunami. - AP

 

 

REMAINS OF PINAY WORKER KILLED IN HAITI QUAKE TO BE REPATRIATED

 

(2/10/2010 | 10:05 AM - GMA News.TV)

 

The remains of a woman overseas Filipino worker (OFW) who died in the magnitude-7 quake that devastated Haiti last January 12 will be repatriated upon her family's request, a Philippine official said.

 

Foreign Affairs Undersecretary for Migrant Workers' Affairs Esteban Conejos Jr. said the family of Mary Grace Fabian requested on Tuesday that her remains be brought home.

 

"The DFA is now coordinating with Overseas Workers Welfare Administration and her family so that we can bring home the remains of Mary Grace Fabian to her family as soon as possible. We would like to honor the family's request to have her home," Conejos said in an article on the DFA Website.

 

Earlier, Fabian's Haiti-based sister Rosalyn asked that her body be immediately buried in Haiti after it was recovered in the rubble. Fabian's body was recovered last February 7 beneath the rubble of the Caribbean Supermarket in Haiti.

 

Lowel Lalican, the husband of Geraldine Lalican, another OFW still trapped under the rubble of the supermarket, identified the body. An employee of the Caribbean Supermarket also identified Fabian through her uniform, hair and necklace.

 

Fabian's sister Rosalyn decided to immediately bury her remains at the National Cemetery in Port-au-Prince.

 

Meanwhile, the DFA said the Philippine contingent in Haiti is continuing recovery efforts for Lalican in the Caribbean Supermarket area.

Philippine Honorary Consul to Haiti Fitzgerald Brandt is supervising the recovery efforts.

 

On February 2, the remains of three Filipino United Nations peacekeepers and a Filipino UN staff member, who were also killed in the Haiti quake, arrived in Manila. The three were DP3 Perlie Panangui, Sgt. Janice Arocena, and Sgt. Eustacio Bermudez Jr.; and UN staff member Jerome Yap.

 

- LBG/RSJ, GMANews.TV

 

 

DOCTOR: VENDOR MAY HAVE BEEN IN HAITI RUBBLE FOR 27 DAYS

 

(2/10/2010 | 11:24 AM - GMA News.TV)

 

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — A rice vendor may have lived under the rubble of a flea market for 27 days with little more than water and possibly fruit, a doctor said Tuesday, in what would be a dramatic tale of survival four weeks after Haiti's devastating earthquake.

 

The man's account could not be independently confirmed, however, and the doctor conceded medical workers were skeptical at first, but he said they began to believe the man when he regained consciousness and told his story.

 

The nab said he had just finished selling rice for the day at a downtown flea market when quake struck Jan. 12. He said he didn't suffer any major injuries and was trapped on his side in an area where food and drink vendors were selling their goods.

 

"Based on that (his story), we believe him," said Dr. Dushyantha Jayaweera, a physician at the University of Miami Medishare field hospital where hundreds of patients have been treated since the quake.

 

Doctors said two men first took the vendor — identified as Evans Monsigrace — to a Salvation Army medical center in Port-au-Prince on Monday and he was then taken to the University of Miami hospital because of his critical condition. The men who brought him also said he had been trapped under the debris since the disaster.

 

The patient was suffering from severe dehydration and malnutrition, but health care workers expressed skepticism about his story when some of his lab work came back relatively normal, Jayaweera said. Then the man regained consciousness and was lucid enough to recount a tale that seems plausible, the doctor said.

 

Still, doctors at the field hospital or at a Salvation Army medical center had no way to confirm the story.

 

The last confirmed survivor found in Haiti was a 16-year-old girl removed from rubble by a French rescue team 15 days after the quake. Doctors said at the time that disaster survivors may be able to sustain themselves with a water supply and without medical attention for up to two weeks.

 

Nery Ynclan, a University of Miami media officer in Haiti, said the rice vendor was in stable condition Tuesday and being treated for dehydration and malnutrition.

 

"Someone could not survive 28 days without water," Ynclan said of the frail 28-year-old man whose legs are rail thin. "You can go nine weeks without food."

 

Jayaweera said the man originally claimed that he had not had any water or food. The man, however, had a normal kidney function with heart palpitations, suggesting he drank at least some water but not enough to avoid getting dehydrated, the doctor said.

 

"He came in delirious, asking to die," Ynclan said, noting Creole translators were at the field hospital.

 

"He's still out of it. He answers basic questions," she said, adding he was nibbling on chocolate and probably would be at the field hospital for a week.

 

The man's mother, who was at the field hospital, told workers that people clearing rubble from downtown discovered him and alerted his brothers.

 

A videotape shot by Michael Andrew, an Arizona-based freelance photographer and a volunteer at the Salvation Army medical center, shows doctors on Monday trying without success to insert a needle into the man's arm to give him fluid. Doctors there then referred the man to the field hospital at the airport, Andrew told The Associated Press.

 

Andrew said the man was delirious and identified himself through an interpreter as Evans Muncie, 28. The Salvation Army, in a brief posting on its Web site, identified him Tuesday as Evan Ocinia.

 

That posting says the two men, whom it didn't identify, found the man in the debris of the market Monday. But Andrew said Tuesday it wasn't clear whether others had provided food and water to the man and that many details of the case had yet to be learned.

 

It also wasn't known why teams of international search and rescue workers were not alerted to the man's reported circumstances in the wrecked market.

 

The Haiti quake killed 230,000 people, the Haitian government said Tuesday.

- AP

 

 

ANGELINA JOLIE VISITS HAITI WITH UN REFUGEE BODY

 

(02/10/2010 | 09:30 PM - GMA News.TV)

 

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – Angelina Jolie began two days of meetings with Haiti earthquake victims Tuesday in her role as a goodwill ambassador for the U.N. refugee agency.

 

The actress, representing the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, met with U.N. officials in Port-au-Prince and visited an SOS Villages camp for orphans outside the capital, where she was cheered by Haitians yelling, "Angie! Angie!"

 

That same camp took care of 33 Haitian children after a U.S.-based Baptist group was arrested at the Dominican border trying to take the kids out of the country. It wasn't known if Jolie spoke with any of the children, and journalists were kept at a distance throughout her visit.

 

The American missionaries have been accused of trying to take the children out of Haiti without proper documentation. The group says it was heading to a Dominican orphanage following Haiti's quake and had only good intentions.

 

Jolie also toured a Doctors Without Borders hospital in a Port-au-Prince suburb, waving to onlookers. She and husband Brad Pitt have contributed $1 million to Doctors Without Borders for its emergency medical operations in Haiti.

 

Jolie was meeting with Haitians employed in quake debris cleanup through a joint U.N.-U.S. Agency for International Development program before spending the night at a Brazilian military camp outside the city.

 

On Wednesday, Jolie planned to visit the southern city of Jacmel, a camp for people made homeless by the quake, as well as a Save the Children relief supply center before returning to Port-au-Prince and leaving for the neighboring Dominican Republic.

 

Jolie has previously visited Iraq, Thailand, Pakistan and other countries with UNHCR. - AP

[nancyk58]

Help Red Cross and Unicef help victims of Natural Disasters - article from 11.2.10 and some more from BBC

 

UPDATES OF THE SITUATION IN HAITI ON 11 FEBRUARY 2010

 

(http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8511252.stm) - source of all the articles below

 

HAITI JUDGE RECOMMENDS FREEING US MISSIONARIES

 

A judge has recommended that 10 US missionaries detained in Haiti for alleged child smuggling should be freed while the case is investigated.

 

The five men and five women, most of them from Idaho, have been charged with

child abduction and criminal conspiracy.

 

They deny allegations that they tried to smuggle 33 children across the border to the Dominican Republic.

 

The group said they were taking the children to an orphanage.

 

But it has since emerged that some of the youngsters' parents are still alive, and many came from the same village.

 

The children, who are from aged from two to 12, are now in the care of the Austrian-run SOS Children's Village in Port-au-Prince.

 

 

HAITI QUAKE TOLL RISES TO 230,000

 

SHATTERED CITY

 

CORRUPTION FEARS STALK HAITI AFTER THE QUAKE

 

By Nick Davis, BBC News, Port-au-prince - last updated at 01:17 GMT, Sunday, 7 February 2010

 

The international community has pledged to assist Haiti with billions of dollars in assistance, not only to help in the immediate aftermath of the devastating earthquake, but also in the long-term reconstruction of the country.

 

But there are concerns that corruption could see some of the money not getting to the people, and the delays in aid deliveries are being seen by some as a sign that something clearly is not right.

 

We drive towards a camp in the centre of Port-au-Prince. Open land only has one use here, and a former Catholic school, its buildings crumbled and damaged, is now home to hundreds of people.

The playground is full of children playing football and basketball. The school fields are packed with row after row of tents and tarpaulins.

It is clear that there are no international relief agencies operating here; the smell is a sign that there is no proper sanitation.

It is just Haitians trying to survive with what little they have left. For the people who now call this home, they don't know who will help them.

"If there is a government, I haven't seen it yet. And if there is a government I would say it's the Americans, the foreigners, who came here to help," says Joseph Lolo Elda, who helps out looking after the women here.

 

Many of the people in the camp believe that because they aren't seeing the aid, it is going missing somewhere - and that someone is making money out of their misery.

 

Haiti is rated as one of the worst countries in the world for corruption by Transparency International, a monitoring group. In the group's annual ranking, Haiti came 168th out of 180 countries.

 

A combination of endemic corruption, the now non-existent institutional infrastructure, and the large amounts of money flowing into the country all make this the perfect time to commit crime.

 

GOVERNMENT 'OVERWHELMED'

Outside the judicial police headquarters, the makeshift new home of the Haitian government, there are hundreds of demonstrators chanting that they want to see the President, Rene Preval.

 

Over and over they shout: "We have no water, we have no food and nowhere to stay."

 

The administration has been conspicuous by its absence since the quake on 12 January, and this is one of a number of protests that have brought Port-au-Prince to a standstill.

The people say that they are not getting any help from those they elected.

 

Having lost thousands of civil servants and most of its buildings, Haiti's government admits it was overwhelmed trying to organise the disaster response between the UN, the international community and numerous aid agencies.

 

But with billions in aid coming into the country, the question of corruption is one it has had to address. The government says the lack of co-ordination over what is being spent where means the system is open to abuse.

 

Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive says: "The problem is I don't know who is receiving aid, what they are doing with it and where it goes, but it's important that the government knows, because we will be held accountable for it.

 

"They will say: 'We gave $3m or $4m to Haiti' and they don't know what we did with it, they will say the government stole it. They say that Haiti and the government is corrupt, but what did I get to steal? Nothing has been given to me."

 

The government wants Transparency International to look at all the assistance, and says it is not receiving any money, that the only funds being spent are by the relief agencies.

 

'THEY DON'T CARE'

But that is not enough for some people.

At another camp on the outskirts of the city, there are people everywhere in what used to be a park, huddled asleep under tarpaulins, cooking up big bowls of rice while children play. There are no officials here either, but a sense of community already exists.

 

A sign saying "unisex haircuts" hangs over a makeshift barber shop made with plastic sheeting. I approach as customers inspect their new trims with a piece of broken mirror.

When I ask those waiting outside the barber shop about the government, they become very animated, and laugh when I ask about corruption.

"They don't care about us, we don't have a government," said Colas Simer, who was one passer-by who got involved in the discussion.

"If the American people want to help us, don't let the money fall in the Haitian hands. Please!"

 

The US has spent more than $750m (£500m) in Haiti over the past five years alone, with little to show for it. Despite efforts by the country's leaders, the issue of corruption is one that still has no gone away.

 

There will be an international conference in March aimed at raising more money for reconstruction, and even more money will come into the country.

 

But many here say the international community needs to help them stop the corruption that has dogged the country for years.

 

 

MIAMI MOBILISES FOR QUAKE VICTIMS

 

By Henri Astier, BBC News, Miami (5 February 2010)

 

Notre Dame d'Haiti , a Catholic church in the heart of Miami's Little Haiti, looks more like a warehouse than a place of worship these days.

Its courtyard is filled with boxes. More are piled from floor to ceiling in church annexes.

Parishioners are busy packing food, clothes and medicines donated by members of the public.

 

Notre Dame has taken a leading role channelling relief supplies to victims of last month's devastating earthquake near the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince.

 

Jocelin Toussaint, one of the volunteers, is making sure the boxes are marked carefully. "This box here has clothes for boys only," he says.

"We've put small children's clothes there, adult clothes here, girls' clothes over there. So immediately when the box arrives, when they open it, they will know exactly who the clothes are for."

 

NINE RELATIVES LOST

Like many Haitian-Americans, Mr Toussaint has been personally affected by the 12 January earthquake - in which an estimated 200,000 people died.

I lost nine relatives in Port-au-Prince," he says. "The quake has affected everybody, rich and poor, and that's why we're all sticking together to help victims."

Another volunteer at Notre Dame d'Haiti, Elizabeth Desrosiers, is sorting piles of shoes into various boxes. She agrees that the bond between Haitian communities everywhere is crucial in such a time of need.

"This is important to us because we are all Haitians," she says. "What happened in Haiti could happen to all of us. It's by the grace of God that we are not in Haiti right now."

 

Notre Dame and its congregation mobilised quickly. On the day after the earthquake, a prayer service was held at the church.

Donations poured in and, within two weeks, the church had sent seven containers of supplies to Haiti. The aid is being distributed by church bodies in the ravaged capital and in camps for displaced people around the country.

 

Notre Dame also flew medical teams to the earthquake zone. As Fr Jean Jadotte explains, the relief effort is being supported by many outside Miami's 100,000-strong Haitian-American community.

 

"We have collected piles of food, water, medicines, clothes," Fr Jadotte says. "Everybody came. Not just Haitians, other ethnic groups too: Hispanics, African-Americans. We say thank you for that. We are all part of the same family, the human family."

 

FRIENDS OVERSEAS

One of the many outsiders who have come to Notre Dame to lend a hand is Debbie Benik.

A retired lawyer from Boston, she is currently spending a few weeks on holiday in Miami.

But instead of taking full advantage of the winter sun, she is spending several days a week packing tins of food, conscientiously checking the sell-by dates.

She says doing her bit for the relief effort was the natural thing to do: "I read the stories about what was going on, and about a week-and-a-half ago I came over and I said can I volunteer. And they said 'absolutely'."

Ms Benik felt that, in such an emergency, writing a cheque was not enough. "They needed manual labour, they needed people here as you can see," she says.

The aid effort does need all the hands it can get. Marleine Bastien, co-chair of Miami city's Haiti Relief Task Force , has just returned from a trip to Haiti to assess the country's needs - which she says are enormous.

 

"The situation is catastrophic," she says. "Haiti has been basically crushed. Thousands and thousands of buildings, schools, universities, hospitals have been destroyed."

 

The country, Ms Bastien says, needs more help from the diaspora and international donors.

 

But despite Haiti's desperate situation, Ms Bastien's message to the Haitian people is one of hope.

 

"Do not lose heart," she says. "We have friends overseas who are concerned by what you're going through and want to help - not just in the short term but for as long as you need help."

[nancyk58]

UPDATES OF THE SITUATION IN HAITI ON 12 FEBRUARY 2010

 

LEOGANE: HAITI's 'NEGLECTED' QUAKE-HIT TOWN

 

By Christian Fraser, BBC News, Leogane, Haiti

 

THE MOUNTAIN OF ROCK THAT DOMINATES THE MAIN SQUARE IN LEOGANE WAS ONCE A CATHEDRAL.

It surrounds an altar that is still intact. Next door stand the remains of the funeral home decorated with brightly coloured washing. The line is tied between two broken pillars. A snapshot of normality where life is anything but.

 

At the epicentre of the Haitian earthquake, 90% of the buildings are destroyed, a quarter of the town's population is dead or missing. And those who escaped are still fighting to survive.

 

"It is still working too slowly," says Mayor Santos Alexis.

"Leogane has been neglected. They can't even feed the people in Port-au-Prince - what hope is there for us.

 

"We tell them [aid agencies] what they need. But then co-ordinating staff rotate, and we have to explain it again. We need control on the ground. We know who needs feeding, where the priorities lie, but at the moment my hands are tied," the mayor says.

 

NO TENTS

The truly striking thing about the past month is how much Haitians have helped themselves.

In Leogane, there are three camps with thousands of new homes built from salvaged wood and sheet metal.

There is debate on whether, in the short to medium term, these SHANTY TOWNS are a good thing for Haiti. Most would say they are not - but the people say they are the only place where they have a chance of receiving the food and water they need.

No-one is distributing supplies to those families who have stayed by their homes.

In the football stadium, there is no sign of the tents or tarpaulins they need.

Rosmata Tevel and her nine children are living beneath bed sheets in 10 sq m

(108 sq ft), with one bed and on borrowed rice from her neighbours. They can't afford the corrugated iron to build a shelter - it's about $7 (£4) a sheet. But they know they need to find better cover.

 

There's a hard deadline just round the corner. "The rains will come in May," Mrs Tevel says. "We will be flooded in here, but I have nowhere else to take them."

 

In the camps it is paper coupons that are the new currency. Families hide them; soldiers guard them; the mayor would certainly like control of them.

For 2,500 women who queued for a food drop, the little scraps of paper were like diamonds. We counted at least four women who had forged them.

"This is the only way to do it," says Eberhard Hallbach, a co-coordinator with the German aid agency GTZ.

 

"We can't drop food without soldiers. And it has to be tightly controlled. There are so many desperate people."

First to get her box was 19-year-old Chlesland, who is seven-months pregnant. She had waited five hours in the baking sun for her food.

Her box contained flour, rice, sugar, cooking oil and beans. Welcome relief, but it will feed her family for only four days. "We have had just two deliveries here since the earthquake," she says. "We eat when we can."

 

Facts on the ground speak volumes of the UN chain of command. "We know it's not enough," says Mr Hallbach. "We do what we can. "It is getting better. But we all have to recognise that HAITI IS IN A STATE OF SHOCK and there is colossal amounts of work to do," he adds.

 

'LUXURY'

Four weeks on, it is still the smaller agencies like his which have formed their own alliances and are driving the operation in Leogane.

The priorities for the UN are still in Port-au-Prince, which is an hour's drive away.

But it is little comfort to Chlesland - in two months' time she will have to provide for another mouth.

The Medecins Sans Frontieres hospital is delivering babies every day - 16 this week - to women who can barely feed themselves.

But at least they now have somewhere to go and give birth safely. And the MSF provides more than just a field hospital. They have showers and toilets, a luxury the majority of Haitians go without.

"It is true the demands are huge," says Pier Luigi Testa, MSF's emergency co-ordinator.

"But at least IN HEALTH we are making some PROGRESS. In Leogane, we are moving to secondary care. This week we have had 2,000 consultations, 176 surgeries, six skin grafts, we have even provided consultations for 103 mental patients."

And in the next week they plan to build another 1,300 sq m (14,000 sq ft) of hospital for 150 new patients.

 

For now the major UN agencies are conspicuous by their absence.

Haitians are resilient but they can only do so much. They need all the help that's been promised and they hope that at least some shelter arrives before the rains.

For now, families do what they can but their future comes one day at a time.

 

 

FROM OTHER NEWS SITES

 

Telegraph: Haiti holds national day of mourning

 

Times Online: One month on, Haiti pauses to mourn the dead

 

Washington Post: Haitians hold day of mourning on quake anniversary

 

ABC News: Haitians Hold Day of Mourning on Quake Anniversay

 

Sky News: X Factor Star's Plan To Help Haiti Children

 

 

HAITI WILL NOT DIE, PRESIDENT RENE PREVAL INSISTS

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8511997.stm - updated at 17:41 GMT, Friday, 12 February 2010

 

Haiti's President Rene Preval has vowed that his country will live on, during a day of national mourning held a month after the earthquake struck. He spoke at an emotional ceremony in the capital Port-au-Prince, near the ruins of the National Palace.

 

"Haiti will not die, Haiti must not die," he told mourners.

 

At least 217,000 people died in the 12 January devastating earthquake, which also left about 300,000 injured and one million homeless.

 

Representatives from Haiti's two official religions - a Catholic bishop and the head of the Voodoo priests, both robed in white - joined ministers from Protestant denominations for the main prayer service in central Port-au-Prince.

Hundreds of people gathered for the service in the shade of mimosa trees. President Preval wept during the service, and was comforted by his wife.

Other prayer services were held across the country, including one at the site of a mass grave outside the capital which is believed to hold tens of thousands of victims.

Later, at the exact time the earthquake hit, 1653 local time (2153 GMT), Haitians at home and abroad will be asked to kneel and pray.

The Associated Press news agency reports that the remaining churches in Port-au-Prince's Petionville suburb were so packed that loudspeakers had to be set up so those left outside in the streets could follow the service.

"All families were affected by this tragedy and we are celebrating the memory of the people we lost," one mourner, Desire Joseph Dorsaintvil, told AP.

 

RAIN THREAT

The BBC's Mike Wooldridge says the act of national reflection comes as one of the largest humanitarian operations ever mounted grapples with challenges on many fronts.

He says a heavy downpour on the eve of the anniversary provided a foretaste of the misery that lies ahead for the many people who still have only the flimsiest shelter in impromptu camps, if the pace of getting out more tents and stronger shelter materials is not stepped up before the start of the rainy season.

In the biggest of the camps that sprang up in the capital after the earthquake, people are still living under sheeting strung across wooden poles.

The government says the seasonal rains could be the biggest threat now to the nation's attempts at recovery.

 

The European Union has proposed a military mission to step up the provision of shelter before the rains worsen.

 

This week's Haitian government figures suggesting up to 230,000 dead means the quake toll is approaching that of the 2004 Asian tsunami, which killed 250,000 people.

 

 

HISTORY:

 

Magnitude seven quake strikes south-west of Port-au-Prince at 1653 local time (2153 GMT), 12 January

 

Government now reports between 217,000 and 230,000 dead, 300,000 injured

 

About three million affected, one million homeless, 250,000 homes destroyed

 

Quake sparks massive international aid effort - more than $500m (£320m) donated from US

 

UN says 53 million tonnes of rubble must be removed

 

 

US HAS ASSIGNED 13,000 MILITARY PERSONNEL

 

By Mike Wooldridge, BBC News, Titanyen

 

Amid scrub-covered hills to the north of Port-au-Prince, some 50 worshippers led by a Haitian bishop celebrated mass on the graves where tens of thousands of the earthquake victims lie buried.

A small wooden table atop one of the mass graves in the scrub-covered low hills served as the altar.

Swinging incense above the graves and sprinkling water on them, the bishop said he aimed to give dignity to their hasty burial.

"Tend to your brothers and sisters, calling out from under the ground," he said.

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

AFTER 1 MONTH OF CHAOS, HAITIANS HELP THEMSELVES

 

(02/12/2010 | 10:36 AM - GMA News.TV)

 

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — In the month since the worst disaster in Haitian history, an enormous international aid effort has not provided the people of the Marassa 14 neighborhood with the food, shelter and security they need. So they built a new community from scratch.

 

Cardboard street signs mark the rows of makeshift plastic tents where more than 2,500 people sleep in the dirt. Handwritten ID cards stamped by a security committee show who belongs, and women serve cheap fried plantains and breadfruit for families struggling to feed their children.

 

One month after 40 seconds of terrifying shaking killed more than 200,000 of their relatives and neighbors and leveled most of their capital, Haiti's endlessly resilient people are struggling to recreate their lives.

 

Food has yet to reach all of the 3 million people who need it. Infrastructure problems and supply backlogs continue to hamper an international aid effort that has drawn $537 million from the United States alone. Schools remain closed. And on Thursday morning, in a taste of the new horrors the impending rainy season promises to bring, an early morning downpour muddied the dirt in which 1.2 million people have pitched makeshift camp.

 

Downtown, hundreds of Haitians marched Thursday from the destroyed National Palace to the temporary government headquarters demanding the resignation of President Rene Preval, who has been largely out of sight since the catastrophe. He appeared Wednesday to bicker publicly with his own communications minister over the death toll.

 

Amid the chaos and unmet needs, there are obvious signs of progress: The UNITED NATIONS, itself devastated by the quake, has established a TENT-and-TRAILER CITY on the airport grounds to coordinate the efforts of 900 aid agencies who finally appear to be overcoming huge problems with communications, transportation and infrastructure.

 

Cell phone coverage has vastly improved. Gas stations have reopened — though that has also meant traffic is back to its normal, intolerable state. Massive amounts of rubble are still everywhere — loaded into dump trucks, the convoy would stretch from Port-au-Prince to Moscow, officials said — but at least it has been pushed to the side of the road.

 

And while handwritten signs still plead for foreign help, opportunistic vendors are back on the streets, selling miniature American flags as soldiers' wide desert-camouflage Humvees roll by. The once ubiquitous dead, and their overpowering smell, have largely been carried away.

 

But even though top foreign and Haitian officials say immediate needs are being met, in villages like Marassa — a district whose name means "twins" in Creole — children are going unfed and families are competing for disgraceful shelter they know will not hold up for long.

In such communities, people are looking out for themselves.

 

In Marassa, people have made their homes in a dry riverbed that constantly floods in the rainy season. Before dawn Thursday, a surprise downpour soaked everyone's few belongings, rendered their cooking charcoal unusable and coated their beds in mud.

 

"We're living in a hole," said Dieusin St. Vil, a 46-year-old tailor who heads the new neighborhood's security committee. "We heard on the radio that the government was supposed to build tent cities around here, but they haven't come by."

 

That's because, unbeknownst to the people of Marassa, those plans have changed. On Wednesday, with just 49,000 of a requested 200,000 tents provided, officials announced that deliveries will stop. Foreign governments, aid groups and Haitian officials have decided that tents take up too much space and will not last long enough.

 

"Tents are great, they're a lot better than nothing, but they basically impede the process of economic development and reconstruction," said Lewis Lucke, the US Special Coordinator for Relief and Reconstruction.

 

Instead, 250,000 families will get one sheet of plastic each between now and May 1, and will later receive temporary, earthquake-resistant structures of metal and wood. If those numbers hold up, they will help about 60 percent of the population in need.

 

The European Union, criticized for its slow response to Haiti's earthquake, said Thursday it will mount a MILITARY OPERATION TO BRING STRONG SHELTERS TO HAITI that can withstand the Caribbean's HEAVY RAINS and HURRICANES.

 

In the meantime, there's not enough space, even in the riverbed that is Marassa — and the self-appointed leaders decided to split their sprawling community into two camps.

 

In the western half, members of St. Vil's security committee patrol with sticks and make sure residents produce ID tickets that match numbers written in no obvious order on their tents.

 

The eastern half is similarly organized by a different committee.

 

An abandoned grandmother named Dieudonne Bernard kept getting her tarps stolen, so the security committee on the western side told her to move into the hollowed-out wooden trailer of a junked tap-tap, as Haiti's colorful buses are known.

 

Since she can't get to one of the 16 fixed UN food distribution sites, the 87-year-old woman eats only if relatives bring her rice or a neighbor snags a high-energy biscuit from a handout meant for children.

 

Even when FOOD AID does arrive in the village — as did 2,000 hot meals of rice and beans from a Dominican Republic government agency Thursday afternoon — those without the right connections risk not getting any.

 

"Even if the government says they are going to help everyone, everyone isn't going to get help," said the Rev. Moise Farfan, who holds prayer meetings amid the tents of Marassa every night because his church collapsed in the earthquake.

 

Nearby, an earthquake widow sold fried bits of potato, breadfruit and plantain from her tent, charging whatever her neighbors had in their pockets.

 

St. Vil appeared with a scowl, furious that it would keep them from receiving food.

 

"The journalists are blocking the aid!" he bellowed as a heated argument broke out among residents.

 

His concerns are not entirely unfounded. When pleading for aid it is much easier to speak in absolutes than to explain the much more complex reality: There is FOOD IN HAITI, but especially following the earthquake it has grown INCREASINGLY EXPENSIVE and HARD TO GET./COLOR]

 

The price of heavily subsidized imported rice — already at levels that caused rioting in April 2008 — has shot up 25 percent since the earthquake to $3.71 a 2.7-kilo (6-pound) bag, according to USAID. Corn is up more than 25 percent, wheat increased by half. Charcoal, needed for cooking, has shot up 17 percent.

 

With no jobs or homes, and nowhere to go, help from others — and each other — means everything.

 

"The conditions here are no good, but being dead is even worse," said Johnny Joseph, a 48-year-old father of six. "As long as you're living, you might have a friend who's alive too. - AP

[nancyk58]

UPDATE OF THE SITUATION IN HAITI ON 13 FEBRUARY

 

I haven't looked at today's news, because I have been busy elsewhere (in relation to the coldplayer meet-up in London in July).

 

2 articles from 12/2:

 

DR1 Text 12/2:

BOAT REFUGEES RETURNED TO HAITI

78 Haitian boat refugees have been sailed back to Haiti by the US Coast Guard. The refugees were taken to Cap Haitian on the North Coast. Last Saturday they were stopped near Bahamas on the way to the USA in an overcrowded cargoboat using sail.

 

The USA and the other Caribbean states have increased patrolling since the earthquake in Haiti on 12 January 2010 which might lead to an increase in the number of Haitian refugees. According to the news agency AP, the American authorities have seen no indication of more Haitians trying to make the dangerous trip.

 

 

DR1 Text 12/2:

MONEY COLLECTED ON THE WAY TO HAITI.

The Haitian earthquake victims will soon - and sooner than normal - benefit from the money collected at Denmark's big televised annual collection of money in favour of African women and HAITI. The Danes donated the record-high amount of Danish kroner 130 million, and DKK 45 million hereof is on the way to Haiti.

TDC, the largest telecom corporation in Denmark, has at once paid the amount of DKK 15 million. The remainder comes from payments by credit card (Dankort). It takes some time for payments made via online donations to "be capitalized", and people have to pay their telephone subscriptions before we get the money from SMS's / Small text messages and phone calls - according to TDC project manager Stig Fog.