Conditions in Haiti Worsen, CDC Investigates Spread of Disease

In response to reports that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is investigating sudden multiple deaths in Haiti’s Artibonite region, Food For The Poor has started to secure and ship critically needed supplies.

Areas receiving immediate aid from Food For The Poor include, Poirier, Desdunes, Dokozel, Villard and Petit Reviere.

Critical items being sent are:
1) Medicines, including antibiotics and oral rehydration salts. Oral vaccinations may be necessary if the disease is identified as cholera.
2) Water filtration units that purify up to 10,000 gallons of clean water a day. Five units are being deployed from the Food For The Poor Port-au-Prince distribution center. Emergency water packets also will be shipped.
3) Hygiene kits with soap, toothpaste and other personal care items to help prevent spread of disease. Some supplies are prepositioned in the Port-au-Prince distribution center and an additional 57 pallets are ready to ship from the Coconut Creek distribution center starting Friday.
4) Blankets.
5) Gatorade and Pedialyte.

Due to the relatively quiet hurricane season in the Caribbean, Food For The Poor’s pre-positioned emergency relief items such as blankets and hygiene kits are ready to go. Food For The Poor plans to airfreight donations of antibiotics, oral rehydration salts, oral vaccinations, Gatorade and Pedialyte.

“January’s earthquake displaced more than one million people,” said Robin Mahfood, Food For The Poor’s President/CEO. “People in Haiti desperately need our help. Today in Haiti, destitute families have no option other than to live in garbage-filled swamps, and drink contaminated water – the same water they and the wild animals use to bathe. We have been afraid of this since the earthquake. We are praying for the people of Haiti, and we ask that everyone do the same.”

Food For The Poor, the third-largest international relief and development organization in the nation, does much more than feed millions of hungry poor in 17 countries of the Caribbean and Latin America. This interdenominational Christian agency provides emergency relief assistance, clean water, medicines, educational materials, homes, support for orphans and the aged, skills training and micro-enterprise development assistance, with more than 96 percent of all donations going directly to programs that help the poor.

For more information, please visit www.FoodForThePoor.org.