Emergency relief struggling as Haiti suffers strongest quake in 200 years
The earthquake that devastated the Caribbean’s most impoverished and unstable nation has left the Haitian capital reduced to ruins and the death toll increasing.
As aid agencies scramble to bring emergency relief and join in the rescue effort, hundreds of thousands of survivors continue to face the untold suffering of burying their loved ones, searching for buried victims, and sleeping in the streets with no electricity, food or water.
The 7.0 magnitude quake struck 15km southwest of capital Port-au Prince at around 5 pm local time. The tremor toppled everything from simple shacks to the ornate National Palace and the headquarters of the UN peacekeepers.
President Rene Preval and his wife survived the quake. The United Nations fears that up to 250 people may have been in its wrecked headquarters. Alain Le Roy stated, Chief UN Peacekeeper, said “It is a tragedy for Haiti and a tragedy for the UN”. The quake, the strongest to hit Haiti in 200 years, was felt as far away as Cuba and the Dominican Republic.
Dame Anne Owers, Chair of Christian Aid, said she was deeply concerned about the impact of the earthquake on already severely impoverished communities in the Caribbean nation. She said there was an urgent need for emergency supplies, including food, shelter and medicine, while in the longer term, rebuilding would require “massive international assistance”.
Edward Brown, Relief Director for World Vision in the US, said: “We would be very concerned about a quake of this magnitude anywhere in the world, but it is especially devastating in Haiti, where people are acutely vulnerable because of poor infrastructure and extreme poverty.”
According to the Chief Executive of TearFund, Matthew Frost, communications had been severely disrupted, making logistics extremely difficult for emergency and relief agencies.
The NSW Government has offered assistance to Haiti, saying it has put an emergency services taskforce on standby. “The New South Wales Urban Search and Rescue Taskforce, equipped with specially trained firefighters, rescuers and paramedics is currently rostered on to assist during any international emergencies. Should we be requested to provide support to Haiti, we stand ready to assist,” NSW Emergency Services Minister Steve Whan said.
Haiti is the poorest country in the western hemisphere and one of its most politically unstable. Seventy per cent of Haiti’s population lives on less than $US 2 a day and half of its 8.5 million people are unemployed. More than 96 per cent of its population are descendants of African slaves. The literacy rate is 45 per cent and life expectancy is 52 years.
Food insecurity already affects more than 1.9 million people, with women and children the worst affected. The World Food Program serves one meal a day to more than 500,000 Haitian school children; for many of them it is their only meal of the day. The organisation also feeds 100,000 women who are pregnant or breastfeeding, and 50,000 children under five. Despite the presence of a UN stabilisation force of 9,000, the impoverished country has continued to be rocked by violence including bloody feuds between drug trafficking gangs.
Our prayers are with the victims of the Haiti earthquake. This is an important opportunity for the community to give generously to organisations who are providing humanitarian relief and development aid to Haiti. Click on this link to donate to a humanitarian organisation.
As we monitor news reports from Port-au Prince, the scale of the latest catastrophe is yet to be fully understood, but it is safe to predict that Haiti’s future as a viable nation hangs in the balance. Haiti’s future will depend on how the world community will act.
