Since the Jan. 12 earthquake left Haiti in dire straits, there have been many reports of what’s not being done to meet the country’s needs. News about the Caribbean nation slowed to a crawl soon after the quake and resurfaced only when the cholera outbreak and Hurricane Tomas threatened to take what little the Haitian people have left. According to the Associated Press, more than 1,300 people have died from cholera, and more than 23,000 are sick.
“Our generous donors allowed us to respond immediately and consistently with aid to Haiti,” said Robin Mahfood, President/CEO of Food For The Poor. “We stated from the outset that housing, clean water and sanitation would be priorities in helping the people. That was affirmed again when we learned of the cholera outbreak. We have delivered, with support from our donors and with God’s help we have delivered, and we will continue to walk with the Haitian people every step of the way.”
Food For The Poor’s relief efforts in Haiti have been substantial.
• As of mid-November, Food For The Poor has sent 1,287 containers valued at $175 million in relief to help the people in Haiti. These containers included food, water, and water filtration systems, medicines, building supplies, tools, boots and hygiene kits in response to the cholera.
• The $20.5 million Food For The Poor raised for Haiti emergency earthquake relief had been spent entirely on those efforts by the end of September. The funds were used for purchasing food and other critical items that were not donated, as well as for shipping containers of relief to the country. Some of the relief money went toward building emergency sanitation facilities as well as providing clean water sources.
Since the first days after the quake, Food For The Poor has worked to alleviate suffering and the rebuilding of the lives of the Haitian people.
• Nine months after the earthquake, Food For The Poor had sent more than $155 million worth of aid to Haiti. The charity accelerated homebuilding in the earthquake-ravaged country, and had built more than 1,500 permanent two-room homes outside of Port-au-Prince.
• Six months after the earthquake, Food For The Poor had sent more than $100 million worth of aid to Haiti. That aid was sent in many forms and has transitioned over the weeks and months from emergency relief to relief/rebuilding actions.
1. The charity shipped 845 tractor- trailer loads of goods, including:
-361 containers of food and water
-35 containers of medical supplies
-449 containers of various relief supplies
2. Completed 45 water projects.
• Three months after the earthquake, Food For The Poor delivered 530 tractor-trailer loads of food, medical supplies, pharmaceuticals, building materials and other goods. As of May 31, Food For The Poor had spent $10.7 million in cash outlays. As of June 24, 779 containers of goods were delivered to Haiti, valued at $120.5 million.
1. Food For The Poor provided millions of meals from the rice, beans, canned goods and water shipped into Haiti.
2. The agency installed latrines near tent cities where several thousand people were sharing fewer than a dozen portable toilets.
3. Food For The Poor installed solar lights near the latrines in tent cities and other communities to provide a higher level of safety for the people living nearby.
“There is a great deal of opinion and misinformation about how aid money is being spent – or not spent – in Haiti,” said Angel Aloma, Executive Director of Food For The Poor. “While we cannot speak for other organizations, we can say with full transparency that if donors have entrusted Food For The Poor with money to be used in Haiti, it has gone to that country, and it has gone without delay. It is simply wrong to use outdated figures and lump all aid organizations into one pile, as some are doing, without the necessary research and reporting.”
The same rapid response Food For The Poor took during the earthquake crisis was activated when news of the cholera outbreak reached Food For The Poor.
Less than 48 hours after the first cholera cases began arriving at hospitals the week of Oct. 18, Food For The Poor deployed and installed five solar- powered water filtration units that each can purify up to 10,000 gallons of water a day. To date, Food For The Poor installed 30 water filtration units in the Artibonite region where the cholera outbreak started.
Critical items needed for cholera relief:
• Medicines, including antibiotics and oral rehydration salts.
• Hygiene kits with soap, toothpaste and other personal care items to help stop the spread of cholera. Approximately 31,000 personal care and hygiene kits were shipped.
• Blankets for more than 46,600 people.
• Powerade and Pedialyte.
To see video of Food For the Poor’s rapid response at the start of the cholera outbreak, visit YouTube.
Food For The Poor, the third-largest international relief and development organization in the nation, does much more than feed millions of the 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.
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