Aid for Haiti

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German ARD Text:

 

CONCERN FOR HISTORIC BUILDINGS IN HAITI

According to Daniel Elie from the UN organization for Education, Science and Culture – UNESCO, there is currently a temptation to tear down all buildings. He elaborates a list of buildings that should not be torn down.

 

 

Danish TV2 Text:

 

ANGELINA JOLIE: DON’T ADOPT HAITIAN CHILDREN Current rumours of Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt wanting to adopt a child from Haiti are denied by the actress according to WENN. She advises people not to remove the traumatized children from the earthquake-ravaged country. “I have adopted children (together with Brad Pitt) and I understand the need / urge to help that way, but the time is just not right”, Angelina Jolie says. She is an adoptive mother of 3 children.

[nancyk58]

Aid for Haiti / News on 16 February 2010

 

UPDATES OF THE SITUATION IN HAITI ON 16 FEBRUARY 2010

 

Danish TV2:

 

SCHOOL COLLAPSES DUE TO HAITIAN HEAVY RAINS

3 children died when a school in North Haiti collapsed during heavy rains in the city of Cap-Haitién. According to the Haitian authorities the heavy rains and a minor earthquake in the night to Monday may have caused the school collapse. - It is now more than a month since Haiti was struck by the devastating magnitude 7.0 (on the Richter scale) earthquake that killed more than 200,000 Haitians.

 

 

Swedish SVT text:

CHILDREN IN HAITI KILLED IN RAVAGED SCHOOL

A landslide in Northern Haiti ravaged parts of a school and killed 4 school children, while 2 children were injured. 4 days of heavy rains triggered the landslide in Cap-Haitian, said the Haitian government's spokesman on Monday. The northern part of Haiti was not much affected by the consequences of the earthquake on 12 January 2010. Cap-Haitian lies at the Atlantic coast in North Haiti about 25 miles from the destroyed capital Port-au-Prince.

 

 

Swedish SVT text:

THE AMERICAN BAPTISTS - INVESTIGATIONS INSTITUTED.

10 American baptists are charged with attempting to take Haitian children out of Haiti illegally. El Salvador has instituted an investigation in relation to the missionaries' legal adviser in Haiti who is suspected of being the leader of a sex trafficking syndicate involving children and girls from Central America and the Caribbean. The Haitian examining magistate says that the Americans will not be released until the investigations have been completed.

 

 

German ZDF Text:

HAITI: CHILDREN RESCUED FROM PRESUMED HUMAN TRAFFICKERS

5 weeks after the devastating earthquake on 12 January 2010, children are still being smuggled out of the poor country. This week-end 22 Haitian children were rescued by border police from the Dominican Republic. The 6 kidnappers were Haitian and have been arrested. The Haitian government fear that children whose parents might still be alive are taken out of the country.

 

 

BBC WORLD NEWS:

CANADA BUILDS HAITI GOVERNMENT HEADQUARTERS

The Canadian prime minister Stephen Harper announced at the start of his 2-day visit that Canada would spend Canadian $12m (£7.3m) on a temporary base after the earthquake destroyed many government offices. The base made of prefabricated modules and inflatable shelters is to house key ministeries for up to a year. CANADA is the second biggest donor to Haiti after the USA.

[nancyk58]

Aid for Haiti / articles from 16 February 2010

 

FEARS OF ANOTHER QUAKE BECOME NEW HAITI BOOGEYMAN

 

(2/16/2010 | 09:00 AM - GMA News.TV)

 

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – Hundreds of houses that survived Haiti's killer quake still stand empty even as quake victims desperate for shelter crowd the streets. The reason is fear: Nobody is quite sure they can withstand another quake.

 

At least 54 aftershocks have shuddered through Haiti's shattered capital since a Jan. 12 quake killed more than 200,000 people. They have toppled weakened buildings faster than demolition crews can get to them, sending up new clouds of choking dust. On Monday, three children were killed when a school collapsed in the northern city of Cap-Haitien. It wasn't clear what caused the collapse, which occurred after a late-night tremor and heavy rains.

 

"I tried sleeping in the house for a night, but an aftershock came and I ran outside," said Louise Lafonte, 36, who beds down with her family of five in a tent beside her seemingly intact concrete house. "I'm not going inside until the ground calms down."

 

That may be awhile. Seismologists say more, damaging aftershocks are likely and there's even a chance of another large quake following quickly after the initial catastrophe in the capital of 3 million people.

 

In 1751, a large quake hit the island that Haiti shares with the Dominican Republic. About a month later, another one destroyed Port-au-Prince.

 

A magnitude-7.4 quake that killed more than 18,000 people in northwestern Turkey in 1999 was followed three months later by another of magnitude-7.2 only 100 kilometers (60 miles) from the initial epicenter.

 

"There are many other examples like that of two significant earthquakes following each other," said Eric Calais, a geophysicist at Purdue University who said he warned the Haitian government two years ago that the country was vulnerable to a major quake.

 

The prospect of another quake is on the minds of planners trying to rebuild the country and on those trying to prevent more deaths.

 

U.N. inspectors have advised people to stay away from dozens of structures. On Jan. 26, four people were trapped when a building collapsed on them, and on Feb. 9, a magnitude-4.0 aftershock shook loose debris at a shattered supermarket, trapping several more.

 

"One of the problems with aftershocks is that lot of buildings are already damaged, so aftershocks can punch above their weight," said Brian Baptie, a seismologist with the British Geological Survey in Edinburgh, Scotland.

 

Even Haiti's President Rene Preval is scared to sleep inside. He said he was staying with friends until he could move to an earthquake-resistant structure. Days after the quake, he said he was considering sleeping in a tent.

 

"Like you, I am nervous to be under cement," Preval said in an interview with AP Television News. "Nobody can say when exactly this fault will erupt again."

 

On Monday, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said his country will spend up to $12 million to build Haiti's government a temporary base to replace official buildings damaged in the quake.

 

Seismologists say Port-au-Prince was particularly vulnerable due to its population density and shoddy construction.

 

Haiti's government on Sunday banned the use of quarry sand in structures, although it is not clear how it will enforce the ban. Engineers say the limestone quarry sand produces brittle concrete easily damaged by quakes.

 

The US Geological Survey estimated at the end of January that there was a 90-percent likelihood of at least one more magnitude-5 quake in the coming month, a 15 percent likelihood of one of magnitude-6 or greater, and a 2 percent possibility of a shock as great, or bigger, than the Jan. 12 quake.

 

At least 15 of the aftershocks near the original epicenter have registered at least magnitude-5.

 

Scientists say the impact of the quake last month may spread far wider.

 

A magnitude-5.8 earthquake struck off the Cayman Islands two days after the Haiti quake. Last week, a magnitude-5.4 quake jolted eastern Cuba. And Montserrat's volcano, more than 1,000 kilometers (600 miles) to the east, shot ash some 15 kilometers (nine miles) into the sky during one of its most dramatic events since a 1997 eruption that drove away half the Caribbean island's population.

 

"These events we're seeing might be because of the passage of seismic waves — what we call dynamic triggering — that shake already damaged fault lines in places like Cuba," Calais said. "The same type of thing could be happening in Montserrat, but it's very difficult to tell."

 

Strong quakes relieve stress along fault lines, but that stress is often shifted elsewhere.

 

Last month's earthquake occurred along the east-west Enriquillo Fault, where two pieces of earth's crust slide by each other in opposite directions like a zipper. Surprisingly, aftershocks haven't clustered on the Enriquillo, but along what appears to be a previously unidentified separate fault.

 

Arthur Lerner-Lam of the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory in New York said there is a heightened risk of quakes for some time because strong temblors force the Earth to rearrange itself.

 

Estimating where a major quake may strike is an imprecise science anywhere — and especially in Haiti, which lacks seismometers and has never logged histories of temblors.

 

That sort of historical record is critical for scientists like Calais, who is advising Haiti's government and the U.N. and is trying to develop an earthquake hazard map that can be used to mitigate risks for the reconstruction effort.

 

"We're half-blind when it comes to Haiti," Calais said. - AP

 

 

HAITI PRESIDENT: 3 YEARS NEEDED TO MOVE RUBBLE

 

(02/16/2010 | 07:44 PM - GMA News.TV)

 

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – It will take three long years to clear the rubble left by Haiti's devastating earthquake, said President Rene Preval who admitted even he's still afraid to sleep under concrete in case another quake strikes.

 

In a rare exclusive sit-down interview, Preval told Associated Press Television News on Monday that Haiti faces a long reconstruction process that will result in fewer people living in the capital, Port-au-Prince.

 

"It will take 1,000 trucks moving rubble for 1,000 days, so that's three years. And until we move out rubble, we cannot really build," Preval said.

 

Sitting in the airport police station that serves as the country's temporary government headquarters, Preval calmly laid out the difficulties of rebuilding an impoverished country amid aftershocks and the threat of more earthquakes.

 

He said the government has destroyed some hastily rebuilt structures in the capital, but he said that until alternative housing plans can be completed, the government's ability to regulate reconstruction will be limited.

 

Asked about residents' assertions that local corruption has interfered with the international aid effort, he replied: "It is possible that there have been irregularities."

 

"However," he said, "I should point out that the government isn't the direct manager of most of this humanitarian assistance."

 

He referred further questions to relief organizations and local and international governments engaged in food distribution.

 

International aid groups have taken pains to at least make Haiti's government the titular head of the relief. But district mayor's offices in Port-au-Prince have been put in control of some food coupon distribution, and some irregularities have been reported.

 

The president, whose five year term is scheduled to end next year, has rarely spoken publicly with his own people in the weeks since a magnitude-7 earthquake pummeled Haiti's capital city on Jan. 12.

 

More than 200,000 people were killed. The presidential palace and his own private residence were destroyed, as were most government buildings and the headquarters of a 9,000-member U.N. peacekeeping force that guarantees his security.

 

Since then, Preval said Monday, he has been staying with friends until a "light, earthquake-proof" structure can be built to replace his home.

 

"Like you, I am nervous to be under cement," he said.

 

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper on Monday said his country will spend up to $12 million to build Haiti's government a temporary base to replace official buildings damaged in the quake.

 

Despite Haitians' desperate need for shelter, many abandoned houses that survived the quake still stand empty because nobody is quite sure they can withstand another quake.

 

At least 54 aftershocks have shuddered through Haiti's shattered capital since Jan. 12. They have toppled weakened buildings faster than demolition crews can get to them, sending up new clouds of choking dust. On Monday, three children were killed when a school collapsed in the northern city of Cap-Haitien. It wasn't clear what caused the collapse, which occurred after a late-night tremor and heavy rains.

 

"I tried sleeping in the house for a night, but an aftershock came and I ran outside," said Louise Lafonte, 36, who beds down with her family of five in a tent beside her seemingly intact concrete house. "I'm not going inside until the ground calms down."

 

That may be awhile. Seismologists say more, damaging aftershocks are likely and there's even a chance of another large quake following quickly after the initial catastrophe in the capital of 3 million people.

 

In 1751, a large quake hit the island that Haiti shares with the Dominican Republic. About a month later, another one destroyed Port-au-Prince.

 

A magnitude-7.4 quake that killed more than 18,000 people in northwestern Turkey in 1999 was followed three months later by another of magnitude-7.2 only 100 kilometers (60 miles) from the initial epicenter.

 

"There are many other examples like that of two significant earthquakes following each other," said Eric Calais, a geophysicist at Purdue University who said he warned the Haitian government two years ago that the country was vulnerable to a major quake.

 

The prospect of another quake is on the minds of planners trying to rebuild the country and on those trying to prevent more deaths.

 

U.N. inspectors have advised people to stay away from dozens of structures.

 

The U.S. Geological Survey estimated at the end of January that there was a 90-percent likelihood of at least one more magnitude-5 quake in the coming month, a 15 percent likelihood of one of magnitude-6 or greater, and a 2 percent possibility of a shock as great, or bigger, than the Jan. 12 quake. - AP

 

E-mail scams exploiting Haiti earthquake generosity (16.2.10) By Razua Iqbal, BBC News

Criminal gangs have been cashing in on the Haiti earthquake by seeking funds for bogus charities via millions of spam e-mails, a BBC investigation has learned.

The Haiti earthquake led to millions of pounds being raised to help people with next to nothing who, literally overnight, found they had even less.

But alongside genuine appeals and donations, something more sinister started to emerge.

Within days, scam e-mails began appearing on the internet. Some had what looked like logos from genuine charities.

One said it was from the British Red Cross, but was traced to a computer in Nigeria; another used the Unicef logo, but was nothing to do with them.

Our investigation focused on two e-mails. One was from a charity called Help the World, which is not registered with the Charity Commission.

There was a mobile number on the e-mail which we rang. A man responded and told us how the funds they were raising were being used.

He told us: "We are repairing the centre of the disaster in Haiti. We focus on the schools in Haiti. We have to let the children have their future back, you know without education there's no future."

None of this was true. Scam e-mails tend to list only mobile numbers, which a bona fide charity would steer clear of.

We checked with the Charity Commission, who have no record of Help the World.

However, unusually for such e-mails, there was a London address which we checked out. It turned out to be a jazz and blues bar.

A second group we investigated called itself the M E Foundation and was also not registered with the Charity Commission.

In the e-mails, a Mr David Isco Iker was said to be running the charity. I asked him how they were getting their donations and what they were using the money for.

He said: "We get mostly phone donations... mostly for food, medical supplies."

This was all also untrue. Unsolicited, the M E Foundation sent us photographs of the Haiti projects they said they were involved with.

One showed rows of white tents with a logo on each one. We discovered the camp belonged to the well established Cambridge-based charity, SOS Children.

Chief executive of SOS Children, Andrew Cates, told us the picture was one of theirs, cut and pasted from their website, and not from Haiti, but from the Pakistani earthquake a few years ago.

He said: "The problem is it's not just about exploiting a donor or a charity, really they're exploiting the victims. Because they're taking money people want to give to the victims of these natural disasters and they're stealing it.

"So I don't feel that they're robbing me, I feel that they're taking from the mouths of children we're trying to help and that is something which is very difficult not to get angry about."

Research from the Office of Fair Trading shows that last year, around two million people were conned out of cash via scam e-mails of various kinds.

But given the scale and nature of the Haiti tragedy, there is something quite different about this cyber crime.

Richard Hurley from Cifas, the UK's fraud prevention service, said: "They're very sophisticated and with that sophistication goes a large level of a very insidious nature which deliberately preys on your feelings for those innocent victims and your desire to help them.

"So it's making use of human suffering and the best in human nature at the same time simply for commercial profit."

The evidence against the M E Foundation was piling up. Their listed address in London turned out to be a newsagents which had been there for 20 years.

The newsagent said he was offended to learn that people were stealing money from others and using his address as a cover.

The other address listed for the M E Foundation was in Malaga, so we went there to try to talk to the people involved. We told our contact in Spain we would send our donation for the charity via courier.

The address given to us was in a run-down area of Malaga, and our courier waited for the contact. It all happened in a flash.

Our courier spoke to the man, in Spanish, very briefly. He clearly identified himself as the man I had spoken to.

However, as soon as the BBC team appeared with a camera and a microphone, he fled, shedding his coat, flip flops, and fake ID.

 

HOW TO AVOID SCAMS

Make sure emails are genuine. If you have any concerns about a request for donations that appears to come from a charity, contact the charity directly

Ask for a charity collector's identification and the charity's name and registration number

Check if a charity is on the public register of charities at http://www.charitycommission.gov.uk

If you think you have been targeted, report it to the police or contact the Charity Commission

If you want to donate to a particular charity online, visit the charity's website

Source: Charity Commission

[nancyk58]

Aid for Haiti - news articles on 17 February 2010

 

UPDATES OF THE SITUATION IN HAITI ON 17 FEBRUARY 2010

 

DANISH TV2 TEXT:

AIR TRAFFIC TO HAITI AGAIN VERY SOON

American Airlines will reopen its air traffic between Miami and Port-au-Prince by the end of this week. From March 2010 there will be air traffic between Haiti - Puerto Rico - the Dominican Republic. This will represent a milestone in the rebuilding efforts. When the commercial flights have been resumed, we can reunite people with their dear ones and offer reliable transport, says Vice President of the American Airlines, Peter Dolara. American Airlines is the first airline to resume commercial flights / air traffic to Haiti.

 

 

DANISH TV2 TEXT: REBUILDING HAITI COSTS AS MANY AS 13.9 BILLION DOLLARS

The rebuilding and reconstruction of schools, houses, ministeries, roads and other infrastructure will amount to between 8.1 and 13.9 billion dollars.

 

SWEDISH SVT TEXT: REBUILDING HAITI COSTS AS MANY AS 13.9 BILLION DOLLARS

This is an estimate made by the InterAmerican Development Bank. The earthquake on 12 January 2010 was not only one of the worst / most destructive natural disasters in modern time when it comes to loss of human lives - it was also the most expensive. At least 217,000 people died in the earthquake according to an official estimate. The capital Port-au-Prince is now largely in ruins.

 

 

INTER-AMERICAN DEVT. BANK STUDY: QUAKE DAMAGE TWICE VALUE OF HAITI ECONOMY

 

(02/17/2010 | 09:14 AM - GMA News.TV)

 

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – Damage from Haiti's catastrophic Jan. 12 earthquake may be twice the value of the country's annual economy, Latin America's main development bank said Tuesday.

 

A report by three Inter-American Development Bank economists found last month's earthquake to be more devastating than the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami was for Indonesia, and five times deadlier than the 1972 earthquake that leveled Nicaragua's capital.

 

"It is the most destructive (natural disaster) a country has ever experienced when measured in terms of the number of people killed as a share of the country's population," the report says — killing one in every 50 Haitians.

 

Economists Eduardo Cavallo, Andrew Powell and Oscar Becerra estimated the magnitude-7 quake wrought damage worth between $8.1 billion and $13.9 billion.

 

Haiti produced only $7 billion worth of goods and services in 2008, according to the World Bank.

 

"This is just an assessment of damage; it gives no indication of the amount of money to get the country back as if nothing had happened," Cavallo told The Associated Press by phone.

 

He said an ongoing assessment will be needed to determine the total amount Haiti needs to rebuild.

 

The authors used statistical models based on data compiled from about 2,000 natural disasters since 1970 — taking into account estimated death tolls, levels of economic development and other factors — and they caution the study is preliminary.

 

They came up with a wide range of potential estimates, including one as low as $4.1 billion.

 

But because there is so little precedent for a disaster this size — killing more than 200,000 people and striking directly at the heart of the country's political and economic center — Cavallo said they believe the final figure will be closer to their highest estimates.

 

That is devastating news for a country whose economy was faltering before the disaster and is the Western Hemisphere's smallest per capita.

 

The Dominican Republic, which shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti and has a similarly sized population, had a $46 billion economy in 2008.

 

Disasters on the scale of Haiti's quake tend to induce long-term poverty that is difficult to reverse.

 

In many of the countries studied after their disasters, the authors found, personal wealth remained 30 percent lower 10 years after the events even with large amounts of international aid.

- AP

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AID FOR HAITI - News on 18 February 2010

 

UPDATES OF THE SITUATION IN HAITI ON 18 FEBRUARY 2010

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8521070.stm

 

HAITI JUDGE 'FREES EIGHT US MISSIONARIES'

 

Eight of the 10 Americans accused of kidnapping children in Haiti after January's quake, have been released from custody.

 

But the group's leader Laura Silsby, and one other member, Charisa Coulter, are being held for more investigation.

 

The five men and five women, mostly from Idaho, denied allegations they tried to smuggle 33 children across the border to the Dominican Republic.

 

They were arrested 17 days after the quake that killed up to 230,000 people.

 

The group walked out of jail shortly after dusk on Wednesday and were taken to Haiti's international airport at Port-au-Prince. Reports said they expected to begin their journey back to the US overnight.

 

"The judge wants to question two of my clients because they were in Haiti before the earthquake," the group's lawyer Aviol Fleurant told AFP news agency.

 

The case has drawn huge media attention and criticism from some - including the Haitian prime minister - that it is distracting from earthquake recovery.

 

Earlier on Wednesday, Haitian President Rene Preval greeted French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who arrived to assess the aid efforts.

 

HAITIAN PASTOR

 

The eight missionaries are being freed without bail but are required to come back to Haiti for any legal proceedings if required.

 

The missionaries, from the New Life Children's Refuge, face charges of child abduction and criminal conspiracy. The group had 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 group's leader, Ms Silsby, has said her group had met a Haitian pastor by chance when it arrived in the country, and that he had helped them gather the children.

 

She also admitted that the missionaries did not have the proper paperwork.

The children, who are aged from two to 12, were later taken into care in the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince.

 

Earlier on Wednesday, the visiting Mr Sarkozy pledged 270m euros (£235m) in RECONSTRUCTION AID as he became the first French head of state to visit the former colony.

 

Mr Sarkozy said: "France will live up to the responsibilities of its shared history and FRIENDSHIP WITH HAITI."

[nancyk58]

Aid for Haiti - second post on 18 February 2010

 

UPDATES OF THE SITUATION IN HAITI ON 18 FEBRUARY 2010

 

Swedish SV2: 8 OF 10 US MISSIONARIES HAVE BEEN RELEASED AND HAVE LEFT HAITI.

They landed early this morning (Swedish time) in Miami airport. The female leader of the group and another woman have not been released, but are held back for further questioning.

 

Swedish SV2:

FRENCH FINANCIAL AID TO HAITI.

France has pledged to give 366 million EURO - including 58 million EURO from debts that have been written off - to the earthquake-ravaged Haiti according to President Nicolas Sarkozy, who is the first French president to visit the former French colony since Haiti became independent in 1804. President Sarkozy saw the destroyed capital Port-au-Prince from a helicopter and visited a field camp hospital established by French relief workers.

 

 

US MISSIONARIES FREED FROM HAITI ARRIVE IN MIAMI

 

(02/18/2010 | 02:20 PM – GMA News.TV)

 

MIAMI - Eight American missionaries freed by a Haitian judge landed in Miami early Thursday, nearly three weeks after the group was charged with kidnapping for trying to take 33 children out of the quake-stricken country.

 

Lt. Kenneth Scholz with the US Southern Command said a U.S. Airforce C-130 cargo plane carrying the Americans landed just after midnight (0500 GMT) at Miami International Airport. The group still hadn't emerged from customs as of early Thursday.

 

The group's swift departure from Haiti began a day earlier when Judge Bernard Saint-Vil said eight of the 10 missionaries were free to leave without bail because parents of the children had testified they voluntarily gave their children to the missionaries believing the Americans would give them a better life.

"The parents gave their kids away voluntarily," Saint-Vil said in explaining his decision.

 

He said, however, that he still wanted to question the group's leader, Laura Silsby, and her former nanny, Charisa Coulter, because they had visited Haiti prior to the quake to inquire about obtaining orphans.

 

Hours later, just after dusk, the bedraggled, sweat-stained group of eight walked out of the Haitian jail escorted by US diplomats.

 

They waited until they were safely inside a white embassy van before some flashed smiles and gave a thumbs up to reporters.

 

Their plane took off from Port-au-Prince shortly thereafter as a group of reporters watched.

 

Silas Thompson, 19, of Twin Falls, Idaho, plopped into the back seat, breathing heavily and beaming with relief. He'd accompanied his father Paul, a pastor, on the mission not knowing that Silsby had not obtained the proper papers, said his US-based lawyer, Caleb Stegall.

 

The missionaries were charged with child kidnapping for trying to take 33 Haitian children to the Dominican Republic on Jan. 29 without Haitian adoption certificates.

 

Their detentions came just as aid officials were urging a halt to short-cut adoptions in the wake of the earthquake and, before their release, Haiti's No. 2 justice official, Claudy Gassent, informed them of the judge's decision but said he also gave them a lecture. - They know they broke the law," he said.

 

The missionaries say they were on a do-it-youself "rescue mission" to take child quake victims to a hastily prepared orphanage in the Dominican Republic, denying the trafficking charge.

 

Silsby originally said they were taking only orphaned and abandoned children, but The Associated Press determined that at least 20 were handed over willingly by their parents, who said the Baptists had promised to educate them and let their parents visit.

 

Saint-Vil said he did not release Silsby, 47, or Coulter, 24, because of their previous activities in Haiti during a December visit.

 

Silsby hastily enlisted the rest of the group after the quake.

 

Coulter, of Boise, Idaho, is diabetic and the judge signed an order Wednesday afternoon authorizing her hospitalization. - AP

[nancyk58]

Aid for Haiti / news articles on 19 February 2010

 

UPDATES OF THE SITUATION IN HAITI ON 19 FEBRUARY 2010

 

German ZDF Text:

UN LAUNCHED A BILLION APPEAL FOR HAITI'S VICTIMS

The United Nations launched a new appeal Thursday for $1.44 billion to help the 3 million Haitians, 1/3 of the Haitian population, affected by last month's devastating earthquake. It is UN's largest appeal ever for a natural disaster. One third of the money goes to food supplies. Haiti must prepare for the rainy season which is expected to begin in May followed by the hurricane season. More than 200,000 Haitians died in the devastating earthquake on 12 January 2010.

 

Swedish SVT Text:

UN LAUNCHES ITS LARGEST APPEAL EVER - FOR HAITI

The United Nations launched a new appeal Thursday for $1.44 billion. The amount requested is higher than for any of the previous humanitarian relief efforts and more than for the tsunami disaster in Southeast Asia. More than 1.2 million people are estimated to be homeless in Haiti, and their situation will worsen when the rainy season begins. There exists an urgent need for tents, water and food before the rainy season begins. "Pledge less and give it - and do it sooner rather than later", said UN's special envoy Bill Clinton according to BBC.

 

Danish Text TV: UN LAUNCHED A $1.44 BILLION APPEAL IN HUMANITARIAN AID FOR HAITI

It is UN's largest appeal ever. A large part of the money will go to the creation of tolerable conditions of living such as shelter for more than 1 million homeless in Haiti. Heavy rain showers in Haiti's capital Port-au-Prince have already caused difficult conditions of life for the many homeless Haitians. Relief workers are battling against the clock to find enough tarpaulins to Haitians living on the streets. Many homeless are digging small ditches to prevent water from entering their shelters.

 

UN APPEALS FOR NEARLY $1.5 BILLION FOR HAITI

 

(2/19/2010 | 10:08 AM - GMA News.TV)

 

UNITED NATIONS — The United Nations launched a new appeal Thursday for nearly $1.5 billion to help the 3 million Haitians affected by last month's devastating earthquake, its largest appeal ever for a natural disaster.The appeal, covering needs in 2010, is more than double the UN's initial request on Jan. 15 for $562 million to help quake victims for six months.

 

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and his special envoy for Haiti, former US President Bill Clinton, launched the $1.44 billion appeal at a meeting with diplomats from many of the 191 other UN member states.

 

"Before last month's disaster we had a plan for Haiti's long-term development and reconstruction," Ban said. "Our challenge today is to reformulate that plan to help Haitians build back better."

 

With the rainy season approaching, he said, the top priority is to provide shelter, sanitation and humanitarian assistance.

 

Clinton told the diplomats the appeal is important to begin long-term rebuilding but first the world must help millions of Haitians living day-to-day and facing many problems: Will their children get diarrhea and die because of contaminated water in camps for the displaced? Will their tents be blown away when the hurricane season starts? Will they have enough food?

 

"We have to move them from living day-to-day to where people are living month-to-month," he said, and that means building some shelters that can withstand hurricanes, scaling up cash-for-work programs to get young people who are reviving gangs into jobs, and reopening schools.

 

Donors have already pledged $673 million, said Stephanie Bunker, spokeswoman for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. That means $768 million is still needed, she said.

 

Clinton told potential donors "it is very important not to have courtesy commitments." "If you can't give what you wish you could, pledge less and give it — and do it sooner rather than later," he said, promising that all donations will be tracked on a Web site in a transparent way.

 

According to the UN, the size of the revised appeal — covering about 30 percent of Haiti's population — reflects the scale of the catastrophe caused by the Jan. 12 quake that killed over 200,000 people.

 

More than 1.2 million Haitians need emergency shelter and urgent santitation facilities, at least 2 million need food, and some 500,000 people who fled Port-au-Prince and other badly affected cities also need help, the UN said.

 

The new appeal also seeks funds to revive agriculture, provide emergency telecommunications, manage camps for the displaced, improve nutrition and start early recovery programs including cash-for-work.

 

Although emergency humanitarian relief efforts will have to continue for many months, UN humanitarian chief John Holmes said, "we have to be engaged in Haiti for the long haul, for life-saving relief as well as reconstruction."

 

"We need a shelter surge and a sanitation surge to go along with the food surge that happened over the last couple of weeks," he told reporters.

 

Haiti's UN Ambassador Leo Merores echoed the urgent need for shelter with the approaching rainy season.

 

The largest UN appeal for a natural disaster before Haiti was the 2005 request for $1.41 billion for the Asian tsunami that struck a dozen countries around the Indian Ocean rim and left 230,000 people dead. - AP

 

 

UN CALLS FOR COORDINATED HAITI RELIEF EFFORTS

 

(2/19/2010 | 12:21 PM - GMA News.TV)

 

UNITED NATIONS — The UN humanitarian chief called Thursday for improved coordination of relief efforts to tackle the massive challenges in Haiti a month after the devastating earthquake, from a lack of shelter to rubble removal.

 

John Holmes was commenting on an e-mail he sent to United Nations staff that, according to a Washington Post report, said that an uneven response to the Jan. 12 quake "is leading others to doubt our ability to deliver."

 

The paper quoted Holmes as saying he was disappointed that several of the "clusters" assigned to coordinate delivery of aid have not yet assessed needs or developed plans to respond.

 

"We've achieved a lot in the first month in particular in areas like water and food and health ... ," he told reporters. "But we recognize that we have a lot further to go."

 

The UN, in major emergencies, divides responsibility for key needs like shelter, water and sanitation, health care and education to 12 different "clusters" in which UN and independent relief agencies coordinate disaster response so efforts aren't duplicated and aid reaches those most in need.

 

Critics of the cluster setups in Haiti have complained that too much time is wasted on meetings that could be better spent getting help into the field.

 

Holmes disputed the negative characterization of the e-mail, saying that would "disrespect" hundreds of people working for the UN, nongovernmental organizations and the Red Cross and Red Crescent working in Haiti "in incredibly difficult conditions and actually doing a very good job."

 

"We are just getting towards realizing the full scale of this catastrophe and what we have to do to address it," Holmes said.

 

"We need a shelter surge and a sanitation surge to go along with the food surge that happened over the last couple of weeks," he said. "Rubble removal is a massive challenge and then we have to get on to early recovery and education and agriculture, cash-for-work and all those kind of areas."

 

Holmes said he was making a technical point about "the kind of trust and leadership support that's needed rather than saying we're failing in some way."

 

"What I'm trying to say is there's still a huge amount to do. We need to have the proper cluster coordination resources to do that — which will go well beyond what are needed in any ordinary disaster," he said.

- AP

[nancyk58]

Berliner Philharmoniker to give benefit concert for Haiti - LIVE on the WEB on 20.2.10 at 8pm GMT + 1

 

www.Unicef.org

 

UNICEF: THE BERLINER PHILHARMONIKER TO GIVE BENEFIT CONCERT FOR HAITI – LIVE on the WEB

 

NEW YORK/GENEVA/BERLIN 18 February 2010 - UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador The Berliner Philharmoniker, conducted by Sir Simon Rattle and featuring pianist Mitsuko Uchida are dedicating a concert on SATURDAY, 20 FEBRUARY (8:00 p.m. GMT +1) to the victims of the earthquake in Haiti. All proceeds from the concert and the Digital Concert Hall webcast will be donated to UNICEF’s emergency assistance for children in Haiti.

 

Classical music fans all over the world can watch the concert online live in the Digital Concert Hall at http://www.berliner-philharmoniker.de.

 

BERLINER PHILHARMONIKER

Sir Simon Rattle Conductor

Mitsuko Uchida Piano

 

PROGRAMME:

György Ligeti

San Francisco Polyphony

Ludwig van Beethoven

Piano Concerto No. 4 in G major

Jean Sibelius

Symphony No. 2

 

"We are giving the concert on the 20 February to raise money for the catastrophe in Haiti," said Sir Simon Rattle, asking people to watch the concert (which is sold out in the Philharmonie) live in the Digital Concert Hall. "As the proceeds from every online ticket will go directly to UNICEF, please join us, enjoy the concert and help us at the same time."

 

The Berliner Philharmoniker has been an international UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador since 2007.

 

The orchestra’s Berlin concerts are broadcast live at http://www.berliner-philharmoniker.de and are available in a video archive within a few days.

 

 

BACKGROUND on the concert:

Round table discussion on YouTube with Sir Simon Rattle, Mitsuko Uchida, Sabine Christiansen (UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador), Emmanuel Pahud and Pamela Rosenberg (General Manager of the Berliner Philharmoniker).

 

 

A video message from Sir Simon Rattle:

http://dch.berliner-philharmoniker.de/#/en/liveconcerts/2010/2/t295/

 

For further information, please contact:

 

Veronique Taveau, UNICEF Geneva, 011 41 22 909 5716 e-mail: [email protected]

 

Kate Donovan, UNICEF New York, + 212 326 7452 e-mail: [email protected]

[nancyk58]

Aid for Haiti - news on 20 February 2010

 

UPDATES OF THE SITUATION IN HAITI ON 20 FEBRUARY 2010

 

TV2 TTV (Danish text-TV):

EARTHQUAKE VICTIMS FIGHTING OVER SHELTER

 

Survivors of the devastating earthquake on 12 January 2010 are fighting over plastic materials enabling them to build a shelter from the rain. When relief workers were distributing material enabling the survivors to build shelters at the Ministry of Cultural Affairs in Port-au-Prince, fights broke out among the inhabitants of an impromptu tent village. The police had to intervene to stop the disturbance. Outside of Plaza Hotel a group of men threatened each other with bits of rubble while discussing who was the owner of a tarpaulin.

[nancyk58]

Aid for Haiti - Unicef articles and news on 20 February 2010

 

UPDATES OF THE SITUATION IN HAITI ON 20 FEBRUARY 2010

 

TV2 TTV (Danish text-TV):

EARTHQUAKE VICTIMS FIGHTING OVER SHELTER

 

Survivors of the devastating earthquake on 12 January 2010 are fighting over plastic materials enabling them to build a shelter from the rain. When relief workers were distributing material enabling the survivors to build shelters at the Ministry of Cultural Affairs in Port-au-Prince, fights broke out among the inhabitants of an impromptu tent village. The police had to intervene to stop the disturbance. Outside of Plaza Hotel a group of men threatened each other with bits of rubble while discussing who was the owner of a tarpaulin.

 

 

http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/domrepublic_52775.html

 

UNICEF AND DOMINICAN PARTNERS PROTECT UNACCOMPANIED HAITIAN CHILDREN

 

By Jennifer Bakody

 

JIMANI, Dominican Republic, 16 February 2010 – Born and raised in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, 13-year-old Loveson has such a small frame that he could easily pass for 9 or 10. Outside the makeshift UN headquarters here, 5 km from the Dominican Republic’s border with Haiti, he plays with a plush Tiger hand puppet and a toy cell phone.

 

Under the circumstances, Loveson is understandably shy. But when asked how he’s feeling, he smiles. “I have all these people around me,” he says quietly in his native Creole. “Everyone is looking after me now.”

 

Over the past month, Loveson has been through a lot. On 12 January, the earthquake that struck the Haitian capital and other densely populated areas levelled his family’s home. While Loveson managed to escape immediate harm, by all accounts his relatives inside did not.

 

Alone and scared, Loveson somehow found his way to the border. In the chaos, he crossed into the Dominican Republic, where a local family first took him in before bringing him to UNICEF’s offices in Jimani.

 

A SAFE ENVIRONMENT

UNICEF Dominican Republic staff member Moyra Tames has been working with Loveson ever since. The first priority was “that his basic needs were met and that he was examined, fed and placed in a SAFE ENVIRONMENT, under supervision,” she says.

 

Ms. Tames immediately arranged for Loveson to be sheltered with one of UNICEF’s partners on the ground. She made sure he had access to safe water, soap and other essential items.

 

Loveson also has been introduced to a professional psycho-social counsellor to help him begin dealing with a kind of trauma that even adults aren’t equipped to handle.

 

MONITORING, SUPPORT AND PROTECTION

Meanwhile, UNICEF and its partners have been supporting efforts by the Dominican National Council for Children and Adolescents to locate Loveson’s closest surviving relatives and return him home to their care.

His case isn’t unique. UNICEF has been following cases of unaccompanied Haitian minors in the Dominican Republic since shortly after the earthquake struck. Each case requires close monitoring; each child needs life-saving support and protection.

 

As for Loveson, he’s retaining his ready smile and has even made a new friend – a boy his own age who lives in Jimani but comes from Haiti. They spend most of their days outside, racing around amongst the busy aid workers and calling out each other’s names. By meal time, they’ve expended a lot of energy. And like most teen-aged boys, they have very healthy appetites.

 

Updated: 17 February 2010

 

'Baby tents' offer Haitian mothers a safe place to breastfeed

 

 

http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/haiti_52806.html

 

A FATHER'S ACCOUNT OF THE EARTHQUAKE AND ITS AFTERMATH

 

By Jennifer Bakody

 

FOND PARISIEN, Haiti, 19 February 2010 – Dieuveil Marcelin Aristide and his 12-year-old son Lemark are encamped in a small tent with a dozen other strangers located some 50 kilometers from their former home in Port-au-Prince.

On 12 January, Lemark was doing homework when the earthquake struck and the walls of his bedroom collapsed around him.

"A concrete block fell onto my legs," he recalled. "I couldn't move and I was in pain."

 

Mr. Aristide was rocking Lemark's baby brother in the living room. They, too, became trapped. Disoriented and barely able to breathe in the dust, he saw a ray of light through the darkness—a ray of light that led him from the rubble to a hole in an outside WALL.

 

The baby was lowered through the hole first. In time, with help from his neighbours, Mr. Aristide was able to escape. It took four more hours, however, to chip away at the heavy block wedged into Lemark's lower body. A Haitian pastor drove Lemark and his father to the border town of Fond Parisien where Lemark received life-saving care. Despite suffering great pain, Lemark's recovery has progressed steadily. He is now recuperating in a full pelvic cast.

 

GRATEFUL TO BE ALIVE

The Aristide family is grateful to be alive. They praise the authorities and international volunteers for the care they have received. The family of four – mother, father and two sons – were reunited briefly at the 'Love A Child' Christian-missionary camp in Fond Parisien, Haiti. Lemark's mother and brother have since returned to Port-au-Prince, where they have no fixed address.

 

"We have nothing," said Mr. Aristide. "We're in the street, left to fend for ourselves, because everything we had has been destroyed. So, well, there's just God now, who's going to help us. He'll guide us, because we believe in Him."

 

ESSENTIAL AID

Nearly FORTY PER CENT of all Haitians are BELOW FOURTEEN YEARS of age. That is why UNICEF is urgently WORKING WITH GOVERNMENTS AND PARTNERS at this camp and on both sides of the border to PROVIDE ESSENTIAL AID and SAFE WATER TO CHILDREN and their CAREGIVERS. UNICEF will continue to ASSIST PEOPLE like the Aristides in their efforts to BUILD BACK BETTER.

 

Lemark hopes to become an engineer one day. Prior to the earthquake, he was planning on finishing his secondary education and continuing to university. Today, Lemark looks forward to one day returning to school.

 

Updated: 19 February 2010

[nancyk58]

Aid for Haiti - update on 21 February 2010

 

UPDATE OF THE SITUATION IN HAITI ON 21 FEBRUARY 2010

 

ALL 33 HAITIAN ‘ORPHANS’ WITH BAPTISTS HAD PARENTS

 

(02/21/2010 | 11:14 AM - GMA News.TV)

 

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — There is not one orphan among the 33 children that a US Baptist group tried to take from Haiti in a do-it-yourself rescue mission following a devastating earthquake, the Associated Press has found.

 

In the rubble-riddled Citron slum where 13 of the children lived, parents who gave their children away confirmed Saturday that each one of the youngsters had living parents.

 

Their testimony echoed that of parents in the mountain town of Callabas, outside of Port-au-Prince, who told the AP on Feb. 3 that desperation and blind faith led them to hand over 20 children to the religious Americans who promised them a better life.

 

Now the Citron parents worry they may never see their children again.

 

One Citron mother who gave up all four of her children, including a 3-month-old, is locked in a trance-like state but sometimes erupts into fits of hysteria.

 

Her husband and other parents said they relinquished their children to the U.S. missionaries because they were promised safekeeping across the border in a newly established orphanage in the Dominican Republic.

 

Their stories contradict the missionaries' still-jailed leader, Laura Silsby, who told the AP the day after her arrest that the children were either orphans or came from distant relatives.

 

"She should have told the truth," said Jean Alex Viellard, a 25-year-old law student from Citron who otherwise expressed admiration for the missionaries.

 

He took them cookies, candies and oranges during their nearly three weeks of detention before eight of the 10 were released Wednesday on their own recognizance and flew home to the United States.

 

Silsby, 40, and her assistant, Charisa Coulter, 24, remain jailed as the investigating judge interviews officials at the orphanages the two visited prior to the devastating Jan. 12 quake.

 

The judge flew to the neighboring Dominican Republic on Saturday. The two are to appear in court again Tuesday.

 

As they left the jail and boarded a U.S. Embassy van, the freed Baptists waved and thanked Viellard, who later called them "great people who were doing good for Haiti." The Americans, most from an Idaho church group, were charged with child kidnapping for trying to remove the children without the proper documents to the Dominican Republic in the post-quake chaos.

 

Silsby had been working since last summer to create an orphanage. After the quake, she hastily organized a self-styled "rescue mission," enlisting missionaries from Idaho, Texas and Kansas.

 

She was led to Citron by Pastor Jean Sainvil, an Atlanta, Georgia-based Haitian minister who recruited the 13 children in the slum. Sainvil had been a frequent visitor to the neighborhood of unpaved streets and simple cement homes even before more than half of the houses collapsed in the quake.

 

"The pastor said that with all the bodies decomposing in the rubble there were going to be epidemics, and the kids were going to get sick," said Regilus Chesnel, a 39-year-old stone mason.

 

Chesnel's wife, 33-year-old Bertho Magonie, said her husband persuaded her to give away their children — ages 12, 7, 3, and 1 — and a 10-year-old nephew living with them because their house had collapsed and the kids were sick.

 

"They were vomiting. They had fevers, diarrhea and headaches," she said, leaning against the wall of the grimy two-room hovel the couple shares.

 

In a telephone interview from the United States on Saturday, Sainvil confirmed the Chesnels' story. He said a collapsed building adjacent to where the children lived held six or seven corpses.

 

He said he first met Silsby on Jan. 27 in the town of Ouanaminthe on the Haiti-Dominican border and agreed to help her collect children for a 150-bed orphanage the Americans were establishing near the beach resort of Cabarete in the Dominican Republic.

 

Sainvil, a former orphan who says his nondenominational Haiti Sharing Jesus Ministry has 25 churches in the countryside, said the two agreed to meet again in Port-au-Prince on Feb. 13 to get more children.

 

The day after he met Silsby, Sainvil collected the 13 children from Citron. A day after that, the missionaries' bus was halted at the Dominican border and they were arrested. Sainvil, meanwhile, became sick with vomiting and diarrhea and decided to fly back to the U.S. on a military transport plane, he said.

He denied leaving out of fear he might be arrested. "I wasn't doing anything wrong," he said.

 

Sainvil said what Silsby was doing did not constitute adoption "because the parents had the right to go visit their children or take them back when their situation changed." The pastor said his deeds are often misunderstood by people in the developed world who don't realize that more than half of the 380,000 children in Haiti's orphanages are not orphans. Many have parents who — even before the quake — were simply unable to care for them.

 

The problem is that some of the "orphans" end up as sex slaves or become domestics who work for food and shelter — and sometimes school. Fearing more such abuse of children after the quake, Haiti's government banned all adoptions except those approved before the disaster.

 

Sainvil said he went to Citron for children because he knew people there were desperate: He had been sleeping under tarps with them. Food was barely trickling in, medical care was just becoming available and hundreds of decomposing bodies were buried beneath the neighborhood's collapsed homes.

 

Under one of the blue tarps sheltering the Chesnels' homeless neighbors, 27-year-old Maletid Desilien lay Saturday on a bed of two soiled rugs. Only her eyes peered out from under a bedsheet.

"She has been like that ever since someone told her she will never get the kids back," said her husband, Dieulifanne Desilien, who works in a T-shirt factory.

 

That was eight days ago. Most of the time she lies catatonic, he said, warning a reporter not to go near because she periodically has fits.

 

"She would get up, take her clothes off and run around pulling her hair out," Desilien, 40, said of his wife. "She would jump up from sleep and say, 'Bring me my kids.'" He said she only calms down and is able to sleep after speaking by phone with her children, who are at an orphanage in the capital run by the Austrian-based SOS Children's Villages charity.

 

The day they arrived, orphanage officials said, the Desiliens' 3-month-old daughter, Koestey, was so dehydrated she had to be hospitalized. The other children are ages 7, 6 and 4. Their father — but not their mother — has visited them.

 

Desilien said a police commander has assured him that he will get the children back. The Social Welfare ministry, however, has yet to decide whether some or all of the 33 children will be returned to their parents.

 

"My wife is sick so I have to find a way to get the children back," Deselien said.

- AP

[nancyk58]

Aid for Haiti - Huge sales of charity songs for Haiti

 

HAITI SUPPORT SONGS ARE DOING WELL ON THE CHARTS

 

Danish i'Tunes Top 40 on 20 February 2010 (weekly countdown) - download & sales

 

2 (new entry) WE ARE THE WORLD 25 / various US artists for Haiti

 

[ VIVA LA VIDA was new entry at no. 8 after X Factor contender's successful performance of VLV on Friday, 12.2.10 ]

 

Swedish weekly sales and download list on 21.2.10

28 (re) Beyoncé: Halõ

23 (-) UK artists for Haiti: Everybody hurts

16 (-) US artists for Haiti: WE ARE THE WORLD

 

UK single hitlist on 21.2.10

01 (01) UK artists for Haiti: Everybody hurts

[nancyk58]

Aid for Haiti / News on 22 February 2010

 

UPDATE OF THE SITUATION IN HAITI ON 22 FEBRUARY 2010

 

Swedish SVTtext + Danish TV2 TTV:

HAITI DEATH TOLL COULD REACH 300,000

According to Haiti's President Réné Préval, the death toll may rise to 300,000 when including those buried underneath the rubble. More than 200,000 bodies were picked up in the streets. This figure does not include those still buried underneath the rubble. The death toll could be as high as 300,000. President Préval said this at a meeting in Mexico with American leaders. According to the Inter-American Development Bank, it may cost 14 billion dollars to rebuild the country after the devastating earthquake on 12 January 2010.

 

Danish DR1 Text-TV:

HAITI DEATH TOLL COULD REACH 300,000

The figure may be as high as 300,000, and if so, then the earthquake in Haiti is one of the most lethal natural disasters in recent times. The tsunami in the Indian Ocean in 2004 cost more than 200,000 human lives.

 

Danish TV2 TTV:

BABY DOC's MILLIONS MAY GO TO HAITI

The equivalent of DKK 48 million may be underway to Haiti's distressed and needy victims of the devastating earthquake. The money comes from ex-dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier - better known as Baby Doc - who ruled Haiti from 1971 to 1986 and who lives in France. Duvalier has previously said that he will donate the many millions to his countrymen. The fortune is however frozen in the Swiss bank UBS. The government in Switzerland will change that by means of a new act. This can be read in the Danish newspaper "POLITIKEN".

 

 

HAITI LEADER SAYS QUAKE TOLL COULD REACH 300,000

(02/22/2010 | 09:55 AM - GMA News.TV)

 

PLAYA DEL CARMEN, Mexico — The president of Haiti said Sunday the death toll from his country's earthquake could reach 300,000 once all the bodies are recovered from wrecked buildings.

 

Speaking after arriving in Mexico for regional meetings that will include discussion of Haitian aid needs, Preval gave no indication of how he reached the figure.

 

"You have seen the pictures, you know the numbers, more than 200,000 bodies picked up in the streets, counting those that are still underneath the rubble, perhaps we could arrive at 300,000 deaths," Preval said at a meeting between Mexican officials and the countries of the Caribbean trade bloc.

 

Haiti's government has placed the death toll at between 170,000 and 230,000. It depends on which official is talking and none have explained in detail the methodology used to arrive at the numbers.

 

The country's chief epidemiologist has said he believes the government is making a lot of estimates.

 

Preval will also attend the Unity Summit of Latin American and Caribbean nations convened by the Rio Group starting Monday. Aid for Haiti in the wake of the devastating Jan. 12 earthquake is expected to be discussed.

 

Arriving Sunday aboard a Mexican government plane, Preval thanked Mexico for all the aid it has sent to his country since the quake. - "I want to thank the Mexican people with all my heart," he said. - AP

[nancyk58]

NO NEWS ARTICLES FOUND 23.2.10 ON HAITI

 

FOUND NO NEWS ABOUT THE SITUATION IN HAITI ON THE FILIPINO GMA News.TV OR ON TEXT-TV IN DENMARK, SWEDEN, GERMANY AND ENGLAND - TUESDAY, 23 FEBRUARY 2010.

[nancyk58]

Aid for Haiti - news on 24 February 2010

 

UPDATES OF THE SITUATION IN HAITI ON 24 FEBRUARY 2010

 

German ZDF Text:

UN's DEATH TOLL ESTIMATE ABOVE 222,000 IN EARTHQUAKE IN HAITI

Now 6 weeks have passed since the devastating earthquake in Haiti on 12 January 2010. According to the latest estimate by the Haitian civil defense authority, the death toll in the earthquake on 12 January is 222,517, and this figure has been communicated by OCHA = The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Port-au-Prince. Haiti's President Réné Préval has said that the government expects the death toll to be up to 300,000. According to the UN, 226,408 people died in the tsunami in Asia in 2004.

 

Swedish SVT Text: MORE DEAD IN HAITI THAN IN THE TSUNAMI

The official death toll after the earth quake in Haiti on 12 January continues to rise. The number of deaths have reached 222,517 according to the UN referring to Haiti's civil defense authority. This is 5,000 more than a week ago. The new figure means that the quake in Haiti cost more human lives than the tsunami disaster in the Pacific in 2004 when about 220,000 people died. The death toll is expected to rise to more than 300,000 according to Haiti's President Réne Préval.

[nancyk58]

AID for HAITI - articles on 25 February 2010

 

UPDATES OF THE SITUATION IN HAITI ON 25 FEBRUARY 2010

 

I did not find anything of interest in relation to the Haiti earthquake when reading text-TV from Germany, England, Sweden and Denmark. Nor did I find anything on the Filipino GMA News.TV.

 

But I found an interesting article from BBCworldNews (see below):

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8536561.stm

 

LESSONS TO BE LEARNED FROM HAITI's TSUNAMI

 

By Victoria Gill, Science reporter, BBC News, Portland

 

THROUGH ALL THE DEVASTATION, ANOTHER SMALL BUT DEADLY EVENT IN HAITI ALMOST SLIPPED UNDER THE RADAR.

 

Researchers have discovered that January's huge quake triggered a tsunami.

 

Along with four Haitian colleagues, Dr Hermann Fritz, a civil engineering professor from the Georgia Institute of Technology, US, travelled around the coast of Haiti gathering evidence about this wave.

 

He wanted to find out what had happened before the perishable evidence disappeared forever.

 

He had heard reports and saw evidence that a wave up to 3m high had hit some areas of the coast south of the capital following the quake near Port au Prince.

It had claimed at least three lives and engulfed buildings.

 

Dr Fritz presented some of his findings at the Ocean Sciences meeting in Portland in the US.

 

"This was a relatively small event," he told BBC News. "Most of the fatalities were due to the earthquake, but at least three victims we know of survived the earthquake were hit by the wave."

 

These three victims were a father and his two young sons. They were standing close to the shore in Petit Paradis, watching the wave instead of heading for higher ground.

 

"And on the border [with the Dominican Republic], fishermen were taking photos and videos of the draw-down of the sea," he said.

 

This ominous draw-back in the water level is a classic sign that a big wave is approaching (although it should be said not all tsunamis are preceded by such behaviour).

 

"It demonstrated a lack of [tsunami] education," Dr Fritz said. "It was pure luck that the misinformation did not kill more people in this case."

 

Despite the devastation it caused, the Haiti earthquake was not of the type or magnitude usually associated with tsunamis. It had a magnitude of 7.0.

 

"Generally anything over 7.5 is cause for concern," explained Eddie Bernard, a tsunami researcher from the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa).

 

"But anything between seven and 7.5 can cause smaller, local tsunamis."It also occurred on land and, to generate a tsunami, an event must be under the sea.

 

"Anything that moves the water generates a wave," said Dr Bernard. "And the deeper the event, the bigger the wave."

 

Dr Fritz explained that the main causes of the Haitian tsunami were "local landslides".

 

"But there are FAULT LINES in this region that are in areas where you are more likely to generate a tsunami and, if you have a much bigger landslide going off submarine, you could have a much bigger wave," he said.

 

"In the north of Hispaniola, we have fault lines running along very deep water."

 

In 1946, a Magnitude 8.1 earthquake hit the Dominican Republic, which shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti. It produced a tsunami that killed almost 2,000 people.

 

In the Caribbean, Dr Bernard explained, most tsunamis were likely to be small and localised. "But there will be few exceptions," he said.

 

"The scientific community only has the relatively short historical record, rather than the geological record, so we don't know all of the trends."

 

And people in Haiti were not aware of the signs that suggested a tsunami was on the way.

 

Dr Fritz said: "Education is critical to local tsunamis. Once you see the water draw down, you really shouldn't be there taking pictures.

 

"There were no tsunami warning signs in Haiti along the beaches that you see in some other Caribbean countries. It's vital to educate locals and tourists about what to do."

 

DISASTER WARNING

 

But the Haitian tsunami gave scientists a chance to find out how well vital and potentially life-saving warning systems were working.

 

Noaa's Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory has developed a warning system that picks up signals of tsunamis directly from the sea-floor.

 

It is called Dart - the Deep-ocean Assessment and Reporting of Tsunamis.

 

If seismometers detect an earthquake, the Dart buoys will determine what is happening to sea levels, and whether a big wave might be on the way. This information is then sent via satellite to a central location which can organise an alert.

 

Within 50 minutes of the Haiti earthquake, this system was able to issue an alert to other countries in the Caribbean to say that a small tsunami had been triggered, and that it was unlikely to affect them.

 

Dr Bernard said: "The first 30 minutes following the earthquake, we have to rely on education.

 

"The critical aspects of this are: do you feel the earthquake; do you see the ocean draw down; and do you hear that loud roar? If so, you should run for higher ground.

 

"But after the first few minutes, it's crucial that we have the technology - the measurements to avoid unnecessary evacuation and tell people when it is safe to return."

 

Right now, there are 50 of these Dart buoys all over the globe - four of which are in the Caribbean.

 

Dr Bernard says that, with 75 to 100 buoys worldwide, this system could provide global tsunami warnings within one hour.

 

"That's for everywhere we know that tsunamis have happened. If we wanted to go to half an hour detection, we could probably double or quadruple that number," he said.

 

Of course, the infrastructure needs to be in place. In Haiti, the warning came in by telephone to a police station that had already collapsed.

 

Noaa has provided the system and the UN is co-ordinating the participation of affected countries in the Caribbean.

 

"The important thing is to build on the existing infrastructure for this type of event. So in Caribbean nations, that would be storm warning systems and forecasting. - "The warning could come into a local weather centre," Dr Bernard explained.

 

"In some countries, including Haiti, there may not be sufficient resources to support a [specific] TSUNAMI WARNING CENTRE for something that happens so infrequently."

 

He said that this system was relatively inexpensive to install and operate.

"To get it down to an hour for everywhere affected would cost $50m initial investment and then 10% of that to maintain it," he said. "That's not a terribly expensive system considering the potential savings of lives.

 

 

An article in the Danish free paper URBAN on 25 February 2010

 

HAITI's YOUNG PEOPLE LEND A HAND

 

22-year-old Marie-Sonyne is one among many voluntaries

 

By Dorte Hansen - [email protected] (translated by Nancy Boysen)

 

Many children in Haiti's capital Port-au-Prince were left puzzled and perplexed after having lost parents, family members and friends during the big earthquake that struck the capital in January.

 

In a little village more than 100 children are gathered trying for some hours to think of something else than the big losses they have suffered. One of the adults behind the rendezvous (= meeting-place) is the only 22-year-old MARIE-SONYNE. She was being trained as a teacher when the earthquake struck, and the earthquake stopped her studies for some time.

 

PSYCHOLOGICAL HELP FOR THE CHILDREN

"After the earthquake struck, the children came to us saying: "The schools are closed, what are we to do now?" Then eight of us formed a group to help them", she tells STEVEN THEOBALD from the development organization "Plan International".

 

Four days after the earthquake struck, Marie-Sonyne and the other members of the group carried out the first activities for the children who are encouraged to tell other people about their experiences so that they can cope with them.

 

Since then they have met twice a week. They make the children sing and dance, they are giving school lessons and telling stories. The first time 30 children attended, now more than 100 children attend.

 

SPONSOR CHILDREN

Since the quake Marie-Sonyne and more than 30 other voluntaries have participated in a workshop on providing psychological help arranged by Plan International. Being a child of poor parents, Marie-Sonyne has herself been one of Plan International's sponsor children in Haiti.

[nancyk58]

AID FOR HAITI / NO NEWS found today

 

UPDATES OF THE SITUATION IN HAITI ON 26 FEBRUARY 2010

 

I did not find anything of interest in relation to the Haiti earthquake when reading text-TV from Germany, England, Sweden and Denmark. Nor did I find anything on the Filipino GMA News.TV.

[nancyk58]

Aid for Haiti / Haiti-related news on 27 February 2010

 

UPDATES OF THE SITUATION IN HAITI ON 27 FEBRUARY 2010

 

Swedish SVT Text (page 134):

 

THE FUTURE OF THE HOMELESS BEING PLANNED IN HAITI

Haiti's prime minister has consented to a plan to try to make the homeless leave the temporary camps and return to where they came from.The new strategy is triggered by concerns for the serious situation Haiti is facing with 1.2 million homeless and the imminent rainy season. According to the UN the camps must be emptied due to the lack of latrins and because the camps are situated in the areas threatened by floods. It has been very difficult to move people because many homes have been ravaged.

 

Danish TV2 News / Live brings the same news. The reason why the government asks people in the temporary camps to "go home" and "leave the camps" is the fear of outbreak of diseases such as cholera when the rainy season begins. There are also concerns for contaminated water resources.

[nancyk58]

Aid for Haiti / news on 28 February 2010

 

UPDATES OF THE SITUATION IN HAITI ON 28 FEBRUARY 2010

 

SVT Text: 11 DEAD IN HAITI FLOOD

FLOODS and LANDSLIDES hit southwestern Haiti yesterday. 11 killed and 500 inmates evacuated.

Haiti's third-largest city of Les Cayes that avoided destruction in the January earthquake was swamped by up to 1.5 m of water. The water in the prison rose by ½ meter.

5 were killed in the district of Geli near Les Cayes and 3 in the town of Torbeck. 3 are reported dead elsewhere in the region. The floods may be an indication of what the capital - Port-au-Prince - can expect during the rainy season which begins in 3 weeks.

 

BBC World News: RAIN TRIGGERS DEADLY FLOODS IN HAITI

At least eight people have been killed in floods triggered by heavy rain in Haiti, officials have said. The deaths occurred in or near the southeastern port city of Les Cayes which was swamped by more than 1.5 m (5 ft) of water.

Buildings were affected including a hospital and a prison where more than 100 inmates were evacuated.

About 1 million Haitians are still homeless after January's devastating earthquake which killed up to 230,000 people.

 

The floods have come several weeks ahead of Haiti's traditional rainy season.

 

"The situation is grave... whole areas are completely flooded. People have climbed on to the roofs of their homes," local senator Francky Exius told AFP news agency.

 

Witnesses said some homes had collapsed and people were fleeing for safer areas. At least two people are reported missing in the floods. One report puts the death toll at 11.

 

Staff at the flooded hospital in Les Cayes moved patients to the safety of higher floors, reports say, while UN peacekeepers helped police to evacuate the jail.

 

Les Cayes lies on a peninsula 160km (100 miles) west of the capital Port-au-Prince.

It was unaffected by the earthquake, but its 70,000 population has been swollen by survivors fleeing from earthquake-hit areas.

[nancyk58]

AID for HAITI / news on 28 February 2010

 

Updates of news on 28.02.10 in relation to Chile earthquake

 

CHILE WAS READY FOR QUAKE, HAITI WASN'T

 

02/28/2010 | 09:50 AM

 

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — The earthquake in Chile was far stronger than the one that struck Haiti last month — yet the death toll in this Caribbean nation is magnitudes higher.

 

The reasons are simple.

 

Chile is wealthier and infinitely better prepared, with strict building codes, robust emergency response and a long history of handling seismic catastrophes. No living Haitian had experienced a quake at home when the Jan. 12 disaster crumbled their poorly constructed buildings.

 

And Chile was relatively lucky this time.

 

Saturday's quake was centered offshore an estimated 21 miles (34 kilometers) underground in a relatively unpopulated area while Haiti's tectonic mayhem struck closer to the surface — about 8 miles (13 kilometers) — and right on the edge of Port-au-Prince, factors that increased its destructiveness.

 

"Earthquakes don't kill — they don't create damage — if there's nothing to damage," said Eric Calais, a Purdue University geophysicist studying the Haiti quake.

 

The U.S. Geological Survey says eight Haitian cities and towns — including this capital of 3 million — suffered "violent" to "extreme" shaking in last month's 7-magnitude quake, which Haiti's government estimates killed some 220,000 people. Chile's death toll was in the hundreds.

 

By contrast, no Chilean urban area suffered more than "severe" shaking — the third most serious level — Saturday in its 8.8-magnitude disaster, by USGS measure. The quake was centered 200 miles (325 kms) away from Chile's capital and largest city, Santiago.

 

In terms of energy released at the epicenter, the Chilean quake was 501 times stronger. But energy dissipates rather quickly as distances grow from epicenters — and the ground beneath Port-au-Prince is less stable by comparison and "shakes like jelly," says University of Miami geologist Tim Dixon.

 

Survivors of Haiti's quake described abject panic — much of it well-founded as buildings imploded around them. Many Haitians grabbed cement pillars only to watch them crumble in their hands. Haitians were not schooled in how to react — by sheltering under tables and door frames, and away from glass windows.

 

Chileans, on the other hand, have homes and offices built to ride out quakes, their steel skeletons designed to sway with seismic waves rather than resist them.

 

"When you look at the architecture in Chile you see buildings that have damage, but not the complete pancaking that you've got in Haiti," said Cameron Sinclair, executive director of Architecture for Humanity, a 10-year-old nonprofit that has helped people in 36 countries rebuild after disasters.

 

Sinclair said he has architect colleagues in Chile who have built thousands of low-income housing structures to be earthquake resistant.

 

In Haiti, by contrast, there is no building code.

 

Patrick Midy, a leading Haitian architect, said he knew of only three earthquake-resistant buildings in the Western Hemisphere's poorest country.

 

Sinclair's San Francisco-based organization received 400 requests for help the day after the Haiti quake but he said it had yet to receive a single request for help for Chile.

 

"On a per-capita basis, Chile has more world-renowned seismologists and earthquake engineers than anywhere else," said Brian E. Tucker, president of GeoHazards International, a nonprofit organization based in Palo Alto, California.

 

Their advice is heeded by the government in Latin America's wealthiest nation, getting built not just into architects' blueprints and building codes but also into government contingency planning.

 

"The fact that the president (Michelle Bachelet) was out giving minute-to-minute reports a few hours after the quake in the middle of the night gives you an indication of their disaster response," said Sinclair.

 

Most Haitians didn't know whether their president, Rene Preval, was alive or dead for at least a day after the quake. The National Palace and his residence — like most government buildings — had collapsed.

 

Haiti's TV, cell phone networks and radio stations were knocked off the air by the seismic jolt.

 

Col. Hugo Rodriguez, commander of the Chilean aviation unit attached to the U.N. peacekeeping force in Haiti, waited anxiously Saturday with his troops for word from loved ones at home.

 

He said he knew his family was OK and expressed confidence that Chile would ride out the disaster.

 

"We are organized and prepared to deal with a crisis, particularly a natural disaster," Rodriguez said. "Chile is a country where there are a lot of natural disasters." Calais, the geologist, noted that frequent seismic activity is as common to Chile as it is to the rest of the Andean ridge. Chile experienced the strongest earthquake on record in 1960, and Saturday's quake was the nation's third of over magnitude-8.7.

 

"It's quite likely that every person there has felt a major earthquake in their lifetime," he said, "whereas the last one to hit Port-au-Prince was 250 years ago." "So who remembers?" On Port-au-Prince's streets Saturday, many people had not heard of Chile's quake. More than half a million are homeless, most still lack electricity and are preoccupied about trying to get enough to eat.

 

Fanfan Bozot, a 32-year-old reggae singer having lunch with a friend, could only shake his head at his government's reliance on international relief to distribute food and water.

 

"Chile has a responsible government," he said, waving his hand in disgust. "Our government is incompetent."

 

— AP

[nancyk58]

AID for HAITI / Article from ICRC dated 1 March 2010

 

UPDATES OF THE SITUATION IN HAITI ON 1 MARCH 2010

 

International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC)

 

Six weeks after the earthquake struck, the ICRC continues to respond to vital needs in many stricken parts of Haiti.

 

Over the past fortnight it has reunited four children with their families in Port-au-Prince, while homeless families in Martissant have received sets of emergency household supplies.

 

At the same time, the organization is resuming the work it was doing before the earthquake, such as visiting people in detention.

 

 

01-03-2010 Operational update

 

HAITI: ICRC STILL MEETING QUAKE NEEDS WHILE RESUMING TRADITIONAL ROLE

 

Six weeks after the earthquake struck, the ICRC continues to respond to people's vital needs in many stricken parts of Haiti. Over the past fortnight it has reunited four children with their families in Port-au-Prince.

 

Volunteers of the Haitian National Red Cross Society have been at the forefront of providing disaster relief from the moment the earthquake struck, running first-aid posts, passing on health messages and helping in vaccination campaigns and aid distributions.

 

The International Red Cross and Red Crescent relief effort is being coordinated and led by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.

 

For more details on the overall Red Cross and Red Crescent response to the earthquake, please visit the Federation website.

 

 

CHILDREN REUNITED WITH THEIR FAMILIES

 

The ICRC, working closely with the government's Institut de bien-être social et de recherche and with the Haitian Red Cross, reunited four boys with their families over the past two weeks. The children, aged between two and 12 years, were from various parts of Port-au-Prince. The family reunifications were the first to be completed by the ICRC since the earthquake rocked the capital.

 

Since children are highly vulnerable, especially in times of natural or man-made disaster, every precaution needs to be taken to ensure that records are kept when parents and their children are separated, for whatever reason. Before going ahead with any family reunification, identities must be verified and authorizations must be obtained from the Haitian authorities – and it must be confirmed that the family members are being reunited of their own free will.

 

RISK OF DISEASE

The dire sanitation situation in the camps in Port-au-Prince continues to be of primary concern. Growing rubbish heaps must be removed, and latrines emptied, or they could become breeding grounds for mosquitoes spreading malaria and dengue fever in the weeks ahead, once the rainy season starts.

 

The risk of an outbreak of contagious disease is all the higher considering that tens of thousands of camp dwellers are squashed together in makeshift shelters. As a preventive measure, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, together with the Haitian Red Cross and the ICRC, have begun a massive, earthquake-related vaccination campaign, led by the Haitian government, to inoculate children against German measles, whooping cough, tetanus and diphtheria, and adults against the latter two diseases.

 

DISTRIBUTION OF AID IN VIOLENCE-PRONE MARTISSANT

Over the past few days, the ICRC has distributed 3,050 sets containing tarpaulins and rope, blankets, mosquito nets, kitchen items, soap and jerrycans to earthquake-affected families in Martissant, one of the poorest, most violence-prone neighbourhoods of the capital. The ICRC has been working in Haiti since 1994 and in the slum neighbourhoods of Port-au-Prince for more than a decade. As a result, community leaders accept the ICRC's neutral, impartial and humanitarian work, and distributions such as the one in Martissant take place with very little disruption and a great deal of goodwill.

 

Registration cards for the distribution were given only to women. They waited patiently in long lines for their turn to collect sets of tarpaulins, blankets, mosquito nets, kitchen items, soap and jerrycans. "My legs ache waiting here," remarked one woman. "But it is worth it." Two ICRC staff members gave out information about the distribution procedures and encouraged the women to be patient as they queued by entertaining them with songs and role-play. "We share jokes and make them laugh," commented Marie Wongglère J. Sully, one of the staff. "At the same time, we can help speed up the distribution process by explaining what the women have to do when they get to the head of the queue."

 

CONCERN ABOUT DETAINEES

The ICRC is resuming its traditional activities, including visits to places of detention and police stations throughout the country, where many detainees are being placed temporarily as the central prison was damaged by the earthquake. Given the current difficult situation, the ICRC is concerned more than ever about the welfare of detainees and is discussing overcrowding, treatment, prisoner records and other detention-related matters with prison authorities.

 

Two large tents were donated to the Ministry of Justice, the premises of which were ruined in the earthquake. One tent will provide a temporary location for a tribunal; the other will serve as office space.

 

 

Over the past two weeks, ICRC activities in Haiti have included the following:

 

Restoring family links

On 18 February, the ICRC reunited three boys, aged eight, 10 and 12, with their families in Port-au-Prince. It reunited another boy, aged two-and-a-half, with his mother on 25 February after transporting him to Port-au-Prince from Cap-Haïtien.

 

The ICRC is currently processing over 100 tracing cases. These include not only people seeking news of missing loved ones, but also 52 unaccompanied children for whom the ICRC is looking for their parents or guardians. This can sometimes be a lengthy process. However, the ICRC firmly believes that it is in the long-term interest of all concerned that the legal and practical formalities are completed before a child and his or her family are reunited.

 

Haitian Red Cross volunteers run tracing posts where people can register their names on the ICRC tracing website. The database currently contains over 28,400 names, including those of more than 5,700 people in Haiti announcing that they are alive.

 

Detainee welfare

In Port-au-Prince, ICRC delegates visited the prison in Carrefour and the women's prison in Pétionville, where they delivered a total of 440 hygiene kits containing toothbrushes, soap and other toiletries. They also provided prison authorities with cleaning materials and gave detainees and their families the opportunity to contact each other by telephone.

 

An ICRC delegate is visiting prisons and police stations in the south of the country to assess needs relating to the earthquake as well as to perform the ICRC's usual tasks. In this region, too, the ICRC has made it possible for detainees to talk with their families by telephone.

 

A total of 815 tarpaulins were donated to prison authorities in Port-au-Prince and Jacmel to be used for temporary sheltering.

 

ICRC water engineers coordinated the cleaning and disinfecting of the civilian prison in Archaie. Similar work had previously been carried out in the Port-au-Prince civilian prison.

 

Health

As at 26 February, some 73,000 children and adults of just under 200,000 targeted people had been vaccinated. The figure includes 13,365 children below eight years of age. They were also given vitamin A supplements and de-worming medication. The ICRC has so far been supporting the campaign in three areas where it has worked for years: Martissant, Bel-Air and Canapé-Vert.

 

Ten ICRC-supported Haitian Red Cross first-aid posts treated over 1,200 patients.

 

In addition, Red Cross volunteers promoted hygiene practices and disseminated public health messages in several camps. A mobile health clinic, staffed by members of the Finnish, Swedish and French National Red Cross Societies, worked with the Haitian Red Cross first-aid posts in Carrefour-Feuille and Canapé-Vert. It is due to expand its service to Martissant in the coming days.

 

Water and sanitation

Work has begun to install 50 latrines in the Asile neighbourhood. Twenty per cent of them will be adapted for use by the disabled. Latrines will be installed at other sites in the coming days.

 

A waste-management programme is about to start using waste collected during ongoing ICRC sanitation activities in six locations in Port-au-Prince, including the overcrowded camps for displaced people (IDPs) in Place Boyer and Boliman.

 

In Cité-Soleil, the biggest shantytown with over 200,000 inhabitants, ICRC water engineers repaired leaks to the secondary water-distribution network.

 

The ICRC continues to provide clean water for some 16,000 people living in camps and in the Cité-Soleil neighbourhood.

 

Protocols have been agreed with the Port-au-Prince water board (CAMEP) concerning the provision of fuel to three pumping stations in the Duvivier neighbourhood.

 

For further information, please contact:

Jessica Barry, ICRC Port-au-Prince, mobile: +509 3456 3392, satellite: +88 165 146 6175

 

Marçal Izard, ICRC Geneva, tel: +41 22 730 24 58 or +41 79 217 32 24

[nancyk58]

Aid for HAITI / Haiti-related news on 5 March 2010

 

UPDATES OF THE SITUATION IN HAITI ON 5 MARCH 2010

 

DR1 text: According to the United Nations the presidential election in HAITI is important. The United Nations encourages Haiti to hold the presidential election in 2010 in spite of the chaos caused by the massive earthquake. Two elections - a general and a presidential election - were scheduled to be held in 2010. The parliamentary election scheduled for February 2010 was cancelled. According to the UN it is important to prevent a constitutional crisis while the country is being rebuilt. Haiti's president, Réné Préval has promised to resign at the end of his 5-year term as president in February 2011.

[nancyk58]

AID for HAITI / news on 9 March 2010

 

UPDATE OF THE SITUATION IN HAITI ON 9.3.10

 

Danish DR1: HAITI’s PRESIDENT: STOP EMERGENCY AID IN THE FORM OF FOOD SUPPLIES

Haiti’s President, Réné Préval will tell the US President Barack Obama that the emergency aid in the form of food supplies must stop in order to avoid damaging Haiti’s economy. The two presidents are to meet on Wednesday in the White House. Emergency aid such as food and water has been a lifeline for > 1.2 million Haitians who lost their homes in the earthquake. If foreign countries keep sending emergency aid to Haiti, then Haiti’s own production will face competition. Instead he appeals for assistance to rebuild Haiti and to create jobs in Haiti.

 

Danish TV2 text plus TV2 News / live: HAITI: EMERGENCY AID IN THE FORM OF FOOD SUPPLIES TO BE DIMINISHED

Foreign aid in the form of food supplies to earthquake-stricken Haiti must not harm Haiti’s internal competition. Therefore the Danish relief organization, Danish ChurchAid has now decided to stop this kind of emergency aid to the disaster-hit area. “Foreign relief organizations are not to keep pumping food supplies into Haiti, because this will - in the long term - totally destroy Haiti’s own production and trade. We have to diminish our aid in form of food supplies so that the population begins to buy food from the local peasants”, states Secretary-General Henrik Stubkjær.

 

Swedish SVT Text, Danish TV2 + TV2 News/live at noon Danish time: HAITI: US MISSIONARY RELEASED

One of the US Baptist missionaries arrested in Haiti suspected of having kidnapped Haitian children during the chaos following the strong earthquake has been released. 8 other missionaries were released in February. Only the leader of the group of missionaries is still in custody.

[nancyk58]

Aid for HAITI / interesting article from 9.3.10

 

NOT MORE QUAKES, JUST MORE PEOPLE IN QUAKE ZONES

 

(Seth Borenstein, AP Science Writer - 03/09/2010 | 11:24 AM) - GMA News.TV

 

First the ground shook in Haiti, then Chile and now Turkey. The earthquakes keep coming hard and fast this year, causing people to wonder if something sinister is happening underfoot. - It's not.

 

While it may seem as if there are more earthquakes occurring, there really aren't. The problem is what's happening above ground, not underground, experts say.

 

More people are moving into megacities that happen to be built on fault lines, and they're rapidly putting up substandard buildings that can't withstand earthquakes, scientists say.

 

And around-the-clock news coverage and better seismic monitoring make it seem as if earthquakes are ever-present.

 

"I can definitely tell you that the world is not coming to an end," said Bob Holdsworth, an expert in tectonics at Durham University in northern England, referring to the number of quakes.

 

A 7.0 magnitude quake last month killed more than 230,000 people in Haiti. Less than two weeks ago, an 8.8 magnitude quake — the fifth-strongest since 1900 — killed more than 900 people in Chile. And on Monday, a strong pre-dawn 6.0 magnitude quake struck rural eastern Turkey, killing at least 51 people.

 

On average, there are 134 earthquakes a year that have a magnitude between a 6.0 and 6.9, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. This year is off to a fast start with 40 so far — more than in most years for that time period.

 

But that's because the 8.8 quake in Chile generated a large number of strong aftershocks, and so many occurring this early in the year skews the picture, said Paul Earle, a seismologist at the U.S. Geological Survey.

 

Also, it's not the number of quakes, but their devastating impacts that gain attention with the death tolls largely due to construction standards and crowding, Earle said.

 

"The standard mantra is earthquakes don't kill people, buildings do," he said.

 

There have been more deaths over the past decade from earthquakes, said University of Colorado geologist Roger Bilham, who just returned from Haiti. In an opinion column last month in the journal Nature, Bilham called for better construction standards in the world's megacities. Last year his study of earthquake deaths, population, quake size and other factors produced disturbing results. And that was before Haiti, Chile and Turkey.

 

"We found four times as many deaths in the last 10 years than in the previous 10 years," Bilham told The Associated Press Monday. "That's definitely up and scary."

 

Other experts said they too have noticed a general increase in earthquake deaths. The World Health Organization tallied than 453,000 deaths from earthquakes from 2000 to 2009, up markedly from the previous two decades. In the 1970s, however, a massive quake in China killed about 440,000 people.

 

But those numbers fluctuate every year. Statisticians say the hit-or-miss nature of earthquake fatalities makes it hard to see a trend in deaths.

 

A quick analysis by two statistics experts found no statistically significant upward trend since the 1970s because of the variability — despite the earthquake experts' perceptions that deaths have been rising, at least since the 1980s.

 

The Haiti quake likely set a modern record for deaths per magnitude of earthquake "solely as a function of too many people crammed into a city that wasn't meant to have that many people and have an earthquake," said University of Miami geologist Tim Dixon.

 

Disaster experts say they've seen more deaths especially from quakes that wouldn't have been as bad decades ago. They point to two in Turkey and India — a 1999 earthquake in Izmit that killed 18,000 and the 2001 disaster that killed 20,000 in Bhuj.

 

"Look at some of the big ones recently," said Debarati Guha-Sapir, director of the WHO's disaster epidemiology research center. "Had the Izmit or Bhuj quakes happened 30 years ago, the events would have been relatively insignificant as the population of these cities were a third of what it was when it did happen. Increasing population density makes a small event into a big one."

 

Disaster and earthquake experts say the problem will only worsen. Of the 130 cities worldwide with more than 1 million population, more than half are on fault lines, making them more prone to earthquakes, Bilham said.

 

"I've calculated more than 400 million people at risk just from those," he said.

 

Developing nations, where the population is booming, also don't pay attention to earthquake preparedness, Bilham said. "If you have a problem feeding yourself, you're not really going to worry about earthquakes."

 

He said, when he went to Haiti after the January quake, he had hope that construction would be quake-proof because of the emphasis on it. Instead, people rebuilt their houses their old unsafe ways.

 

Another reason quakes seems worse is that we're paying attention more. The phenomenon of Haiti quickly followed by the 8.8 in Chile got everyone's attention.

 

But it won't last, said disaster researcher Dennis Mileti, a former seismic safety commissioner for the state of California.

 

"People are paying attention to the violent planet we've always lived in," Mileti said. "Come back in another six months if there has been no earthquakes, most people will have forgotten it again." - AP

[nancyk58]

AID for HAITI / RED CROSS Press Release on 10.3.10

 

UPDATES OF THE SITUATION IN HAITI ON 10 MARCH 2010

 

RED CROSS PRESS RELEASE on 10.3.10

 

http://www.redcross.org/

 

Posted in Press Releases, 03/10/10

 

RED CROSS PASSES THE $100 MILLION MARK IN AID FOR HAITI EARTHQUAKE RELIEF AND RECOVERY

 

Priorities in the months and years ahead will include shelter, water and sanitation, livelihood programs and disease prevention.

 

AMERICAN RED CROSS PASSES THE $100 MILLION MARK IN AID FOR HAITI EARTHQUAKE RELIEF AND RECOVERY

 

National Headquarters

2025 E Street, N.W.

Washington, DC 20006

http://www.redcross.org

 

Contact: Public Affairs Desk

FOR MEDIA ONLY

[email protected]

Phone: (202) 303-5551

 

WASHINGTON, Wednesday, March 10, 2010 — The American Red Cross today announced it is allocating an additional $24.4 million for Haiti earthquake RELIEF and RECOVERY, increasing its total commitment to date to $106.4 million.

 

The Red Cross made its funding announcement the same day that Haitian President Rene Preval is visiting the White House to discuss the urgent need for more aid from the international community to help that island nation recover from the January 12th earthquake.

 

The latest allocation of funds by the American Red Cross includes $16.1 million to support the construction of transitional shelters that will be coordinated by the global Red Cross network; $3.7 million will go to Habitat for Humanity for the purchase of emergency shelter materials, and $4.6 million will support cash grants to 16,000 families so they can buy essential items as part of a program to be run in close coordination with Haiti’s largest microfinance institute, Fonkoze .

 

“We are gravely concerned about the upcoming rainy season as well as the hurricane season for hundreds of thousands of Haiti’s homeless people,” said David Meltzer, senior vice president of international services with the American Red Cross. “The Red Cross is working feverishly to get tents and tarps to everyone who needs them, but we also recognize that these temporary shelters are not hurricane proof.”

 

“We hope that this additional infusion of millions of dollars today to Habitat for Humanity, among others, will provide emergency shelter to more people who are now sleeping out under the stars.“ Meltzer added.

 

The American Red Cross had previously spent or allocated $82 million for food, water, emergency care, shelter, relief supplies and family services for Haiti. To date, the American Red Cross has raised approximately $354 million for Haiti relief and recovery efforts.

 

Since the earthquake struck, the Red Cross global network and its partners have provided emergency shelter materials to more than 650,000 people ahead of spring rains and are reaching 80,000 people a week by delivering tens of thousands of tarps, tents, ropes, timber uprights and toolkits.

 

The remainder of the people in need are on track to receive emergency shelter on or before the beginning of May.

 

“No one ever feels that humanitarian relief is moving fast enough,” said Meltzer. “We know there are immediate and long-term needs in Haiti, and we are determined to meet them.”

 

In addition to shelter supplies, more than 400,000 people have received basic relief items from the Red Cross, such as hygiene kits, cooking tools, buckets, blankets, and mosquito nets. The Red Cross and its partners resumed a wide ranging vaccination campaign that will protect at least 250,000 children and adults from measles, diphtheria, pertussis, and tetanus. To date, more than 100,000 people have received vaccinations.

 

American Red Cross President and CEO Gail McGovern will arrive in Haiti on Thursday, her second visit to Haiti since the earthquake, to get an update on the progress that has been made since her visit in January as well as to assess next steps in the recovery.

 

Red Cross priorities in the months and years ahead will include shelter, water and sanitation, livelihood programs and disease prevention.

 

Among the group of 16,000 families to receive cash grants are 6,000 host families residing in rural communities, who are now stretching scarce resources in order to care for loved ones who fled the disaster zone.

 

An additional 10,000 women heads of households, who have lost their homes, businesses or both, will also receive a small grant to help meet their families’ immediate needs, as well as a modest loan to restart their businesses, restore their families’ source of income and hopefully begin the process of empowering them after so much tragedy and personal loss.

 

The American Red Cross will also play an important role in helping to prepare Haiti for future emergencies, including the upcoming Caribbean hurricane season.

 

“The American people have entrusted us with their hard earned money to help the people of Haiti survive and thrive following earthquake in January,” added Meltzer. “We at the American Red Cross take this responsibility very seriously and are doing our best to ensure that every dollar counts today, tomorrow and in the years to come.”

 

You can help the victims of countless crises, like the recent earthquakes in CHILE and HAITI, around the world each year by making a financial gift to the American Red Cross International Response Fund, which will provide immediate relief and long-term support through supplies, technical assistance and other support to help those in need. The American Red Cross honors donor intent. If you wish to designate your donation to a specific disaster, please do so at the time of your donation by mailing your donation with the designation to the American Red Cross, P.O. Box 37243, Washington, D.C. 20013 or to your local American Red Cross chapter. Donations to the International Response Fund can be made by phone at 1-800-REDCROSS or 1-800-257-7575 (Spanish) or online at http://www.redcross.org.

 

About the American Red Cross:

The American Red Cross shelters, feeds and provides emotional support to victims of disasters; supplies nearly half of the nation's blood; teaches lifesaving skills; provides international humanitarian aid; and supports military members and their families. The Red Cross is a charitable organization — not a government agency — and depends on volunteers and the generosity of the American public to perform its mission. For more information, please visit http://www.redcross.org or join our blog at http://blog.redcross.org.

 

 

HOW THE RED CROSS IS HELPING

 

As part of its largest international response since the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, the global Red Cross network has helped nearly 1.9 million Haitians since the country’s January 12 earthquake.

 

It has so far spent or allocated $82 million to meet the MOST URGENT NEEDS of earthquake survivors and will continue to SUPPORT hundreds of thousands of additional survivors in the years ahead until the last donated dollar is spent.

 

Since the earthquake, the Red Cross has focused its activities in four primary areas:

 

HEALTH:

• Nearly 33,600 people (or more than 1,000 people per day) have been treated by Red Cross health care facilities and mobile teams.

• Approximately 60,000 people have been vaccinated, including against measles.

• More than 23 million text messages with key health messages have been sent to survivors.

 

RELIEF:

• More than 31,500 families (or 157, 500 people) received items like hygiene kits and other basic relief supplies.

• More than 1 million people have received food items.

 

WATER and SANITATION:

• 30 million liters of drinking water (or more than 1.5 million liters per day) have been distributed.

• An estimated 290,000 people are benefiting from this regular service.

• More than 580 latrines have been built near settlements.

 

SHELTER:

• More than 350,000 people received shelter supplies, including tents, tarps and tools.

 

The Red Cross is also providing support to Haitian families in the United States, shipping blood products to the region and restoring family links for separated loved ones.