[News] The Crisis in Haiti Continues - Support Grassroots Earthquake Relief Efforts

[Anti-Imperialist News]

http://us18.forward-to-friend.com/forward/show?u=408fb0e219b2e620647bbeade&id=cabf0a6591
Crisis
in Haiti Continues
6-7 minutes
------------------------------


*The Crisis in Haiti Continues Support Grassroots Earthquake Relief Efforts*

Please Donate to *Haiti Emergency Relief Fund
<http://www.haitiemergencyrelief.org/>*

[image: Haiti's former First Lady, Mildred Trouillot Aristide, donating
blood at UNIFA blood drive.]
*Haiti's former First Lady, Mildred Trouillot Aristide, donating blood at
UNIFA blood drive. Credit UNIFA.*

*On August 14th, a 7.2 magnitude earthquake rocked the Southern Peninsula
of Haiti*, killing over 2,200 people and wounding 12,000. More than
300 people are still unaccounted for. 53,000 homes were destroyed and
another 77,000 damaged, leaving hundreds of thousands of people without
shelter and facing food insecurity. In a country with only one trained
doctor for every 3,000 Haitians, medical help is desperately needed to
treat those who are wounded or sick.  To make matters worse, heavy rains
from Tropical Storm Grace pounded the area, producing mudslides and
flooding, destroying livestock and increasing the danger of water-borne
diseases.

[image: One of the 53,000 homes destroyed by the earthquake]
*One of the 53,000 homes destroyed by the earthquake.*

*Thanks to your generous contributions, the Haiti Emergency Relief Fund has
been able to support grassroots organizations in Haiti as they provide
relief to Sid, Grandans, and Nip—the three main departments impacted by
this horrific disaster.*

*Even as news from Haiti slips from the front pages, the needs remain as
pressing as ever. The work has not ended — in fact, it has just begun. Here
are some of the ways in which your donations have been put to use:*
The University of the Dr. Aristide Foundation (UNIFA) is making an all-out
effort to aid those in need. UNIFA reopened in 2011, following the return
from forced exile of former president Jean Bertrand Aristide and his wife
and colleague Mildred Trouillot Aristide. Since that time, UNIFA has
graduated 523 doctors, 116 nurses, and 46 physiotherapists. Many of these
graduates, as well as other medical students in training, are providing
much needed assistance to the victims of this earthquake. Here is some of
what UNIFA has done:

   - UNIFA mobilized its doctors and nurses, with assistance from medical
   students who live in the earthquake zones, to set up medical clinics and
   provide emergency health care. They sent brigades of medical professionals
   with supplies to the earthquake zones to support the work of local medical
   personnel.

   - Mobile clinics organized by UNIFA med school graduates are currently
   underway in the Grandans department. One clinic was set up at a local high
   school, Lycée de Chambellan, starting on Sept 6, 2021. During the first 2
   days, approximately 300 injured people were treated. The young doctors also
   ventured into the community to see if there were people in homes needing
   care.

   - UNIFA students organized a blood drive on the UNIFA campus. Nursing
   students assisted lab technicians from the Haitian Blood Transfusion
   Center, which then transported the blood to the earthquake zones. The UNIFA
   blood drive sparked other organizations to follow suit.


   - They mobilized mental health workers to support victims of the
   earthquake as they deal with the trauma of what has occurred.


   - UNIFA used telemedicine to connect doctors and nurses in the field
   with colleagues for consultation on the most difficult cases.


   - As a new academic year begins, UNIFA is standing by to offer
   scholarships to students from the earthquake zones.


*UNIFA blood drive. Credit UNIFA.*

Other grassroots groups have purchased tarps and lumber and brought them to
the region of Aken, where little to no aid has reached. With the lumber,
local organizers have been helping displaced residents build more sturdy
shelters.

   - Women’s organizations in the rural areas of Aken have distributed rice
   and beans, bottled water, clothing, sanitary kits, and medical supplies to
   residents.

   - Clean drinking water is in short supply and water pipes have been
   damaged throughout the Southern Peninsula.  Organizers have begun the work
   of repairing pipes, while they continue to deliver bottled water to those
   who need it.

   - In Lazil and nearby rural communities, organizers brought residents
   rice and beans, bottled water, clothing, and first aid supplies.


   - In Okay, local organizers discovered that community ovens and flour
   mills, used for baking bread, had been destroyed.  They have launched a
   project to rebuild these ovens, so vital to the survival of families in the
   areas.

   - In Jeremi and nearby rural communities in the Grandans region, women’s
   organizations and community groups distributed tarps, sugar, sanitary
   napkins, toothpaste, clothes, cooking oil, toothbrushes, and water.

   - In the town of Barade and the nearby mountainous area, local
   organizers brought tarps for families who were living out in the open. They
   distributed supplies of Clorox for disinfection purposes, soap, clothing,
   food, water, kerosene for lamps, and medical necessities (aspirin, alcohol
   to disinfect wounds, bandages).

[image: Relief supplies on back of a truck.]
*Supplies being loaded on their way to the Earthquake Zone.*

All of this work embodies the determination of Haitian grassroots
organizations to meet the needs of their people throughout this crisis and
beyond.  We hope your solidarity will continue as well.

*The Haiti Emergency Relief Fund has no paid staff and no overhead.  Each
and every dollar we raise goes directly to Haitian organizers on the
ground.  Please help us keep the spotlight on the people of Haiti.*

*We Thank You!*

*Haiti Emergency Relief Fund Board of Directors *

*Walter Riley*, Attorney at Law, Co-Chair
*Sister Maureen Duignan*, O.S.F., Co-Chair
*Seth Donnelly*, Educator and Long-Time Haiti Solidarity Activist
*Nia Imara*, Astronomer and Artist
*Pierre Labossiere*, Co-Founder, Haiti Action Committee
*Marilyn Langlois*, Human Rights and Community Advocate
*Robert Roth*, Educator and Co-Founder, Haiti Action Committee
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