In the wake of this century’s largest disaster ONE AND A HALF MILLION people and their families have been rendered homeless in Haiti. Now reports reveal that over a million Haitians will need shelter and food provision through December of 2010. Three hundred thousand children under the age of two are currently without proper nutritional food. 90% of Haiti’s schools have been destroyed.
WHAT ARE WE DOING? Before the earthquake CHRF helped provide 3,000 children per day with meals. Now Children’s Hunger Relief Fund has amped up our efforts to help provide 8,000 meals a day in Haiti for children and families; many of them are refugees just outside of Port au Prince. More than just feeding the children CHRF has been helping find new homes for orphans left abandoned and uncared for after their orphanage in Port-au-Prince was destroyed.
One caretaker of 30 children cried and begged for our partners in Haiti to take their starving children, although our facilities were already tight we could not turn away these children and leave them without hope. Now thanks to the generosity of our donors they have a place to sleep and food to eat.
The pictures that follow once again
demonstrate the level of destruction Haiti has suffered. In spite of continued aftershocks, we continue to serve the needs of the children and now struggle to help feed the growing number of refugees settling into the outlying areas of Port au Prince.
See the level of destruction caused by the earthquake in the photos below.
Reported by: Associated Press
Contributor: Cary Williams
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PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI -- The most powerful aftershock yet struck Haiti on Wednesday, shaking more rubble from damaged buildings and sending screaming people running into the streets eight days after the country's capital was devastated by an apocalyptic quake.
The magnitude-6.1 temblor was the largest of more than 40 significant aftershocks that have followed the Jan. 12 quake. The extent of additional damage or injuries was not immediately clear.
Wails of terror rose from frightened survivors as the earth shuddered at 6:03 a.m. U.S. soldiers and tent city refugees alike raced for open ground, and clouds of dust rose in the capital.
The U.S. Geological Survey said Wednesday's quake was centered about 35 miles (60 kilometers) northwest of Port-au-Prince and 6.2 miles (9.9 kilometers) below the surface -- a little further from the capital than last week's epicenter was.
"It kind of felt like standing on a board on top of a ball," said U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Steven Payne. The 27-year-old from Jolo, West Virginia was preparing to hand out food to refugees in a tent camp of 25,000 quake victims when the aftershock hit.
Last week's magnitude-7 quake killed an estimated 200,000 people in Haiti, left 250,000 injured and made 1.5 million homeless, according to the European Union Commission.
Officials Fear Death Toll Could Reach 200,000!
Fate spares CHRF TEAM FROM DEVASTATING Haiti EARTHQUAKE
NOW, MORE THAN EVER, the children of Haiti are in great need!
The CHRF team was originally scheduled to deliver needed funding for feeding and medical projects in Haiti mid January. If not for fate the team would have been caught in the midst of this horrendous 7.0 earthquake that struck Haiti Tuesday afternoon!
Miraculously the trip took place in December. At that time our team provided more than $25,000, support made possible by CHRF’s donors. Now, just three short weeks later our projects have been devastated by this disaster. The hotel where the team stayed has reportedly collapsed. If the trip had gone according to schedule the CHRF team could have been among those missing.
It’s hard to believe that things could get any worse in a country where people and children eat dirt, thousands suffer from starvation and 50% of the children are expected to die before reaching the age of 15! Add a massive earthquake to the mix and things just got worse.
(Associated Press) PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – The strongest earthquake in more than 200 years rocked Haiti on Tuesday, collapsing a hospital where people screamed for help and heavily damaging the National Palace, U.N. peacekeeper headquarters and other buildings. U.S. officials reported bodies in the streets and an aid official described "total disaster and chaos."
United Nations officials said a large number of U.N. personnel were unaccounted for.
Communications were widely disrupted, making it impossible to get a full picture of damage as powerful aftershocks shook a desperately poor country where many buildings are flimsy. Electricity was out in some places.
Karel Zelenka, a Catholic Relief Services representative in Port-au-Prince, told U.S. colleagues before phone service failed that "there must be thousands of people dead," according to a spokeswoman for the aid group, Sara Fajardo.
"He reported that it was just total disaster and chaos, that there were clouds of dust surrounding Port-au-Prince," Fajardo said from the group's offices in Maryland.
State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said in Washington that embassy personnel were "literally in the dark" after power failed.
"They reported structures down. They reported a lot of walls down. They did see a number of bodies in the street and on the sidewalk that had been hit by debris. So clearly, there's going to be serious loss of life in this," he said.
(CNN) -- A major earthquake struck southern Haiti on Tuesday, knocking down buildings and power lines and inflicting what its ambassador to the United States called a catastrophe for the Western Hemisphere's poorest nation.
"The only thing I can do now is pray and hope for the best," the ambassador, Raymond Alcide Joseph, told CNN.
Witnesses reported heavy damage throughout the capital, Port-au-Prince, including to the president's residence and century-old homes nearby, and The Associated Press reported that a hospital collapsed. President Rene Preval is safe, Joseph said, but estimates now put the death toll at over 100,000.
We are raising funds for food, water, tents, blankets, and other emergency supplies.
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