It's true. I can't believe all the destruction.

The new banner is great, by the way. :nice:

The new banner is great, by the way. :nice:

 

Yes it is. A remembrance for victims:sad2:

Coldplay joins Oxfam appeal for Haiti earthquake

 

 

Coldplay singer Chris Martin has joined Oxfam’s call for funds to help those affected by the devastating earthquake in Haiti.

 

Chris Martin, who travelled to Haiti with Oxfam in 2002 to meet coffee farmers supported by the charity, said:

 

“I visited Haiti with Oxfam a few years ago. It's a country of extreme poverty and brutal living conditions. Most people in Port-au-Prince live in tin shacks. The earthquake that has struck Haiti will have turned the city into an unimaginable hell.

 

“The people of Haiti will be desperate for help and assistance. You can make a donation at www.oxfam.org.”

 

The band will make a donation to the Oxfam appeal today.

 

Oxfam today launched an appeal for millions of dollars as it geared up its response to the devastating earthquake in Haiti.

 

The extent of the devastation is still unclear but local officials are reporting a catastrophe of major proportions. Thousands are feared dead, millions are affected, and major buildings - such as the presidential palace - have collapsed.

 

Oxfam has a 100 strong-team working across Haiti – including 15 emergency specialists – and will be responding with public health, water and sanitation services to prevent the spread of waterborne disease. It also has links with a large network of community volunteers who can get aid to affected people quickly.

 

Oxfam has emergency stocks pre-positioned in Panama and in Bicester, Oxford and is primed to send them to the quake zone if needed.

 

Donate

 

The people of Haiti need your support. Help now by donating to our Haiti Earthquake Response Fund:

 

Oxfam America

 

Oxfam Australia

 

Oxfam-in-Belgium, in French or in Dutch

 

Oxfam Canada

 

Oxfam Germany

 

Oxfam Great Britain

 

Oxfam Hong Kong

 

Oxfam Ireland

 

Oxfam Mexico

 

Oxfam Novib (Netherlands)

 

Oxfam New Zealand

 

Oxfam Quebec

 

Intermon Oxfam (Spain)

 

Alternatively, you can also make a donation to the general emergency fund of your nearest national Oxfam affiliate. Your money will be used to fund our emergency work worldwide, which includes responding in countries such as Haiti.

 

http://www.oxfam.org/en/pressroom/pressrelease/2010-01-13/coldplay-joins-oxfam-appeal-haiti-earthquake

I do not believe that any of my money would ever arrive at the poor citizens of this dictatorial state :(

Guys, do you think there is anything we can do here at Coldplaying to help?

If you're in the US and want an easy way to donate, text HAITI to 90999, and $10 will be donated to the Red Cross Int'l Relief fund. The $10 will be charged to your cell phone bill.

http://www.redcross.org/

 

Could I do that considering I don't live in the US?

Because I want to help, but my mother's so stubborn when it comes to spending money online. Seriously, I asked her and told her it was for the relief fund, but she still refused.

I ask my parents this morning if they would give money to oxfam for part of my birthday present and i told them about chris and other celebrities helping so they said sure, so we gave $100, its not a huge amount but anything can help right!

 

and we have a meeting thing at my school tomorrow for like charity kind of stuff so im going to bring up that we should donate somehow

I'm going to try and get a group together at school and do some fundraising. But I'm not sure how to go about doing that...maybe I'll talk to the principal or guidance counsellor about how to start one.

 

Two years ago, my geography class pretty much abandoned the course for a few months and did fundraising for Orphanages for Africa. It was fantastic and we raised $2000 to build a mill so an orphanage in Uganda could become selfsufficient! The school was really responsive, so hopefully it will happen again!

I'm going to try and get a group together at school and do some fundraising. But I'm not sure how to go about doing that...maybe I'll talk to the principal or guidance counsellor about how to start one.

 

Two years ago, my geography class pretty much abandoned the course for a few months and did fundraising for Orphanages for Africa. It was fantastic and we raised $2000 to build a mill so an orphanage in Uganda could become selfsufficient! The school was really responsive, so hopefully it will happen again!

 

 

Sounds great - both your idea and your school. :)

News from Danish text-tv on Thursday 14 January 2010:

 

At 14:11 Danish time on Thursday 14 January 2010, Danish Red Cross had collected ½ mio Danish Kroner to Haiti. The Danes have been most willing to donate money - and this time via digital media sending text (SMS) messages and donating online via the relief organizations' websites.

 

Between 20 and 22 TV2 News had a 2-hour-long broadcast about Haiti with focus on the relief organizations. Front figures of all the major relief organizations such as e.g. the Secretary General of the Danish Red Cross were interviewed.

 

During these two hours Danish Red Cross received 800,000 Danish kroner in donations for Haiti so that the total donations now amount to more than 1.3 mio Danish Kroner. Also the other organizations received donations during these two hours meaning donations of more than 1 million Danish kroner from 20 to 22 o'clock Danish time.

 

The Secretary General of the Danish Red Cross talked about a problem with a closed airport in the capital Port-au-Prince. USA helped to reopen the airport and flew in some helicopters and personnel to empty a huge airplane that was full of goods and stuff for the relief work, but there had not been the equipment (trucks etc) and personnel needed to empty the airplane and transport the relief goods and equipment to the affected areas. So until USA had helped so that Port-Au-Prince's airport could reopen, the other planes had to land in the neighbouring state the Dominican Republic. HAITI and the DOMINICAN REPUBLIC constitute the island of Hispaniola.

 

The Secretary General of the Danish Red Cross is heading for the Dominican Republic Friday and from here, he and other representatives of Red Cross and probably also other relief organizations and the press will travel into Haiti in a convoy and will probably arrive on Saturday and then find out what to do to be most efficient and helpful to the victims.

 

The UN has asked Denmark and Sweden to cooperate to deliver a camp (a field headquarter) for 100 relief workers to Haiti.

 

It is expensive for the relief organizations to rent planes for bringing relief goods and personnel to the affected area(s) because in time of natural disasters the price for renting these planes increases (due to the increasing demand).

 

Since the devastating magnitude-7,0 earthquake, Haiti has been hit by 41 aftershocks with a magnitude 4.5+ on the Richter scale.

 

Haiti's Red Cross estimates the death toll to be 45,000 to 50,000, and 3 million people are expected to be affected.

 

USA has donated 100 million dollars to HAITI and President OBAMA has promised HAITI that all Americans stand by / will support HAITI - "HAITI will not be forgotten".

 

Hillary Clinton, the American secretary of state and the Haitian President both talked about this disaster equalling the tsunami in 2004.

 

 

Donations can be made to one of these organizations:

 

http://www.oxfam.org.uk - http://www.redcross.org - http://www.unicef.org - http://www.icrc.org

I've just sent 100€ to the French Red Cross through their Internet website.

From OXFAM's website 15 January 2010

 

Very good contribution, Legal Princess. :)

 

The below is from OXFAM's website:

 

Haiti: Aid arrives, but delivery a major challenge 15 January, 2010

 

Haiti: Oxfam team ready to respond 14 January, 2010

 

Haiti: Waiting for news 14 January, 2010

 

 

I am posting daily updates of the situation in HAITI on the threads: "AID HAITI" and "Updates of the situation in Southeast Asia AND HAITI"

 

 

PLEASE DONATE: http://www.oxfam.org.uk/applications/blogs/pressoffice/?p=9906&v=newsblog

thanks Nancy for all the updates and Legal Princess, I bet your money will be very useful :)

we're going to collect money at school and then send it to some organizations, i think it's a good idea:)

we're going to collect money at school and then send it to some organizations, i think it's a good idea:)

 

that a great idea seeing i have no other way to donate, i'll ask our school's social assistant if we can do the same:D

we're going to collect money at school and then send it to some organizations, i think it's a good idea:)

 

Great idea :) Would be a good thing for my daughters school :thinking:

In my company the employees are unfortunately not so helpful :(

:curtain:

 

just saw this on life.com:

 

http://www.life.com/image/90642170/in-gallery/38602/stars-helping-haiti

DANISH TEXT-TV on 15 JANUARY 2010:

 

THE DEVASTATING HAITI EARTHQUAKE (MAGNITUDE 7.0 ON THE RICHTER SCALE):

 

140,000 are probably killed

 

Up to 250,000 WOUNDED

 

More than 1.5 mio are homeless

 

2 mio survivors need help now and in coming weeks

 

Several UN stockpiles (holding goods for the relief work) have been plundered, but are being rebuilt.

 

40,000 dead bodies buried by the authorities

 

Dead bodies lying in the streets in Port-au-Prince

 

Outbreak of epidemics feared

 

The most important Haitian harbour is still closed.

 

USA - Cuba made a deal: US planes allowed to transport relief goods to Haiti by planes crossing Cuba

 

The UN will establish 200 "street kitchens" - each of them to provide 500 survivors with food and water = the total number of people helped this way will amount to 10,000.

 

Hillary Clinton, the American Secretary of State will visit Haiti together with the frontman of the organization US Aid on Saturday.

 

The USA fear great influx of people / refugees from HAITI.

 

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon will visit Haiti as soon as possible.

 

Many UN employees have been killed - at least 37

 

330 of 12,000 UN employees are missing / unaccounted for.

 

FACTS IN HEADLINES OF THE DEVASTATING HAITI EARTHQUAKE (MAGNITUDE 7.0 ON THE RICHTER SCALE):

 

The earthquake struck Haiti on 12/1 at 16:53 local time

 

41 violent aftershocks followed

 

The capital - Port-au-Prince hard hit:

Many buildings collapsed

Extensive damage to official buildings including UN buildings

 

No electricity

Limited access to clean water

Phone system down - still not quite reliable/stable

 

Many roads impassable due to collapsed buildings

UPDATES OF THE SITUATION IN HAITI ON 16 JANUARY 2010

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

Member charities

ActionAid, British Red Cross , CAFOD,

CARE International, Christian Aid , Concern

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

Save the Children , Tearfund , World Vision

 

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

 

 

 

 

UPDATES OF THE SITUATION IN HAITI ON 16 JANUARY 2010

 

WATER DELIVERY DISRUPTIONS IMPERIL HAITI QUAKE SURVIVORS

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

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

 

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

 

- AP

 

 

RP MEDICAL TEAM TO HAITI FORMED, LEAVES MONDAY

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

'As long as needed'

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

 

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

 

Team to take commercial flight

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

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

 

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

 

More Pinoy peacekeepers to be sent

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

Consulate tasked to look after Pinoys

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

 

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

 

- TJD, GMANews.TV

 

 

DFA MISINFORMED, SECOND FILIPINA IN HAITI STILL MISSING

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

'Some confusion' -AFP

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

 

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

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

 

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

 

Pointing fingers?

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

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

 

Sibling: Grace is still missing

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

 

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

 

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

 

'We're doing everything we can'

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

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

- TJD, GMANews.TV

 

 

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

 

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

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

 

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

 

HAITIAN REFUGEES GRANTED TEMPORARY LEGAL STATUS

 

Three days after a massive earthquake devastated Haiti, Homeland Security

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

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

 

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

 

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

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

 

100 FILIPINOS ACCOUNTED FOR, SAFE IN HAITI, SAYS DFA

 

(GMA News.TV)

 

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

 

 

HAITIANS DESPERATE FOR SUPPLIES; RESCUES STILL ON

 

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

 

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

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

- AP

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

 

HAITI QUAKE WORKERS RESCUE LIVING, MOURN DEAD

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

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

 

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

 

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

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

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

Jean-Louis' story had a happier ending.

 

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

 

- AP

 

 

HUNGER AND HOPE, THIRST AND FRENZY GRIP HAITI

 

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

 

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

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

 

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

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

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

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

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

 

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

 

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

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

- AP

 

 

HAITIANS SEARCH DESPERATELY FOR MISSING RELATIVES

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

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

 

- AP

 

 

Federer and Co. stage fundraiser for Haiti victims

 

Clinton lands in Haiti, pledges cooperative effort

 

Bush, Clinton call for long-term help for Haiti

 

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

NEWS from BBC WORLD on 17 January 2010

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

There are also security concerns amid reports of looting.

 

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

 

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

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

 

AIRPORT 'OVERWHELMED'

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

'NO HELP'

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

DESTRUCTION AT EPICENTRE OF HAITI QUAKE IS EXTREME

 

EXTENT OF HAITI DESTRUCTION CLEAR:

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

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

 

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

 

LOGISTICAL CHALLENGES

 

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

 

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

 

International relief supplies have been arriving at the airport.

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

COUNTRY 'DECAPITATED'

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

Seen on BBC News (Text-TV):

 

SENEGAL OFFERS FREE LAND AND REPATRIATION TO HAITIANS

 

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

 

Search continuing for missing UN workers

SITUATION REPORT FROM UNICEF IN HAITI

 

HAITI EARTHQUAKE: UNICEF SITUATION REPORT

 

17 January 2010

 

PORT AU PRINCE

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

THE UN IN HAITI

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

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

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

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

 

UNICEF IN HAITI

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

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

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

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

 

CHILD PROTECTION

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

WASH

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

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

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

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

 

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

 

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

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

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

 

UPDATE FROM JACMEL

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Problems and needs:

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

- Social and psychological support not yet available.

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

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

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

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