February 3, 2010

While roads are starting to clear and food and aid are reaching hundreds of thousands of people, the needs are still enormous in Haiti. Toppled buildings, sprawling camps and tented homes set up on the roadside are sobering reminders of the long road ahead.

New fears loom about the oncoming rainy season and the critical needs for emergency shelter and sanitation. "It's going to turn into Woodstock out there," says Lane Hartill of Catholic Relief Services, as he explains that the grass has all but worn away under the tents in Pétionville at the former golf course turned into a CRS-led organized camp that attracts as many as 50,000 people during the day and up to 80,000 at night. To help prepare for the coming rains, CRS and our partner, Caritas Haiti, have ordered materials for 20,000 temporary shelter kits, and are planning for more.

Nevertheless, we are making strides daily and reaching more people than ever. CRS and Caritas Haiti are distributing an average of 62 metric tons of food per day. In addition to Pétionville, CRS has been designated as lead agency for coordinating relief efforts in the town of Léogâne, as well as for serving around 50 smaller church-identified sites. As a result, CRS and Caritas are anticipating helping hundreds of thousands of people in the next few months.

CRS and Caritas Haiti medical teams are treating an estimated 300 people per day. They are seeing a gradual change in needs from acute wounds to more waterborne illnesses, such as diarrhea and typhoid, so a public health campaign has been created to encourage better sanitary health practices to limit these outbreaks. Additionally, CRS is working with a team from the University of Maryland shock trauma unit, which will be performing round-the-clock surgeries and saving many more lives. The 22-person team brought 8,000 pounds of donated and purchased medical supplies, equipment and medications.

CRS is extremely grateful for the outpouring of support we have received in response to this terrible crisis.

However, the unprecedented level of destruction in Haiti leaves us anticipating that many millions more dollars will be needed. CRS had been working in Haiti for 55 years and we will be there responding for years to come, long after the media spotlight fades. Please donate today to help CRS' response in Haiti.
Your support is a blessing we cherish!

God bless you,

Ken Hackett
President
Catholic Relief Services

January 20, 2010

Each day more CRS staff from around the globe arrive in Haiti, joining our existing staff of just over 300. Our headquarters building in Haiti was damaged but did not collapse. While aftershocks continued—including a 6.1 temblor this morning— staff slept outside and worked at desks pulled into the streets.

Despite enormous logistical challenges, one week after the devastating earthquake CRS staff has unloaded 120 containers (2100 metric tons) of vegetable oil and grains from the U.S. government onto the only operating wharf in Port-au-Prince. We are in the process right now of arranging for secure transport to our warehouse, where it will be distributed to the growing number of camps.

CRS has been asked by the United Nations to lead the response at one of the first formally organized camps, located at a golf course, where as many as 50,000 people are sleeping every night. CRS has arranged to supply the camp with water, food, and plastic sheeting for shelter, which continue to be trucked in from CRS warehouses in the neighboring Dominican Republic, where volunteers are working continuously to keep additional relief supplies coming.

CRS has formed six medical teams to provide health care at shelters and area hospitals and CRS teams have already distributed medical supplies and drugs. In addition, Project C.U.R.E. has donated 3000 pounds of additional medical supplies that are en route.

Three operating rooms at St. Francois de Sales Hospital—which withstood the quake — are now running, and surgeries are being performed on the most critically injured patients. Food, water and medical supplies have also been provided to the hospital. An AIDSRelief site, this is one of Haiti's oldest hospitals and one that CRS helped build. Its mission is to provide free care and treatment for the poor.

CRS is extremely grateful for the outpouring of support we have received in response to this calamity. But we can't stress enough how significant the damage is and how many of our brothers and sisters are affected.

God bless you,

Ken Hackett
President
Catholic Relief Services

January 16, 2010

Almost immediately following the earthquake, CRS began delivering lifesaving supplies, including food and water, to desperate survivors. The supplies were already in place in CRS' Port-au-Prince warehouse.

"We are fortunate to have had water in our warehouse," says Karel Zelenka, country representative for CRS Haiti. "We also trucked in family food kits from Les Cayes."

CRS has a staff of 313 on the ground, with more personnel arriving daily. CRS Haiti's headquarters building was damaged but did not collapse. Until its structural integrity is assured, aid workers are working and sleeping outside in tents or cars.

Additional food will arrive soon. "Fifteen hundred metric tons of wheat and oil will arrive in port shortly," says Schuyler Thorup, Regional Director for CRS Latin America. "We will distribute it immediately."

In the neighboring Dominican Republic, CRS is preparing food packages to feed 50,000 people. The packages are five-gallon buckets loaded with ready-to-eat foods that don’t need to be cooked. CRS is also readying water storage containers, water purification tablets, hygiene kits, cookware and plastic sheeting in Haiti and the Dominican Republic.