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5 March 2010
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5 March 2010
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5 March 2010
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Article
What We're Doing in Haiti
Haitians left homeless after the earthquake camp out in a Port-au-Prince park. Photo: Photo: Reuters/STR New, courtesy www.alertnet.org Nearly two months after the devastating 7.0-magnitude earthquake that rocked Haiti, Mercy Corps’ team of emergency response experts is working to meet the immediate needs of survivors. At the same time, our team is laying the groundwork for longer-term recovery, drawing upon Mercy Corps’ three decades of experience helping disaster-struck communities transition from receiving aid to carrying out their own recovery. Haitian authorities estimate that more than 230,000 people died in the earthquake and that three-quarters of the capital city, Port-au-Prince, will have to be rebuilt. At least one million people have been displaced. The Mercy Corps team is coordinating with the United Nations and other aid groups on the ground to ensure the most efficient response. Team of Experts Just hours after the earthquake struck, Mercy Corps deployed an A-team of humanitarian first responders. These experts from around the world have collective experience that includes responses to the China earthquake, Cyclone Nargis in Myanmar, and Hurricane Katrina. Learn more about our Haiti Response Team Right Now: Water, Trauma Support, Jobs The Mercy Corps response is currently focused on immediate humanitarian needs: food to beleaguered hospitals, water and sanitation, trauma support for children and job creation. Five days after the quake, this woman and her baby need water first, then food and shelter. Photo: Cassandra Nelson/Mercy Corps Earthquake survivors like this little girl are living in parks and vacant lots around Port-au-Prince. Photo: Cassandra Nelson/Mercy Corps Clean Water and Sanitation Our water and sanitation team has conducted assessments at 14 separate sites in Port-au-Prince with plans to secure clean water systems and at least 500 safe latrines for more than 42,000 people. Earlier this month, our team installed a water filtration unit at a local hospital. Job Creation and Economic Recovery To jumpstart the decimated economy and begin rebuilding efforts in earthquake-affected areas, Mercy Corps has initiated a cash-for-work program that pays earthquake survivors a daily wage to clear debris, restore buildings and repair basic infrastructure. We plan to employ more than 8,000 workers in some of Port-au-Prince's poorest and most-devastated neighborhoods. Through the cash-for-work approach, survivors carry out their own recovery efforts. Employing survivors gives them the dignity of earning an income they can then spend on the supplies they need for their families. Their purchases in turn help restart local commerce. Trauma Support for Children When the earthquake struck, all schools in Port-au-Prince collapsed. Haitian children who survived the earthquake experienced trauma that could negatively affect them for life. To help restore children’s sense of well-being, Mercy Corps is providing post-trauma help using Comfort for Kids. This counseling methodology was first developed in New York by Mercy Corps and Bright Horizons, a global workplace childcare provider, to help children recover from the trauma of 9/11. Subsequently, Mercy Corps has used Comfort for Kids to help children recover from the China and Peru earthquakes and Hurricane Katrina. Mercy Corps recently announced a partnership with Haiti's First Lady, Elisabeth Delacourt Préval, to implement Comfort for Kids trainings for adult caregivers. The First Lady and UNICEF will organize “safe spaces” in camps to run arts, sports and music activities for children, while Mercy Corps will run simultaneous sessions — in French and Creole — to educate parents and caregivers about child symptoms of trauma and how they can be addressed. Next Steps Mercy Corps will focus on supporting the creation of jobs, especially in the provinces around Port-au-Prince, in sectors such as agriculture, tourism and apparel manufacturing. Mercy Corps also expects to use cash grants to help people rebuild assets like small businesses, fishing boats, food carts. In addition, Mercy Corps is exploring options with microfinance provider FONKOZE and other partners to help small- and mid-size businesses grow using remittances and microfinance. In the coming weeks and months, Mercy Corps plans to expand its work to include the provinces surrounding Port-au-Prince, particularly the Central Plateau area where approximately 500,000 people fled after the earthquake. The agency is striving to make these areas economically viable and provide critical resources to displaced families who have settled there. A Long Track Record of Helping Recovery The earthquake in Haiti left three million people in need of aid, exacerbating the dire humanitarian situation in the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. The Caribbean nation suffers extreme hunger and political instability, and this disaster only increases the needs of thousands of impoverished Haitian families. Mercy Corps has a long track record of helping people living in the world’s toughest conditions to recover and rebuild after natural disasters and conflict. The agency has special expertise in disaster response that establishes a foundation for, and leads directly to, self-sufficiency. HOW TO HELP Mercy Corps is accepting donations toward our earthquake response. Public support thus far has been strong, and corporations such as Amazon.com, ITT Corporation, Best Buy, Western Union, Gap, Nike, and Trilogy/Voilà have generously contributed to our efforts.
5 March 2010
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Cash-for-work in Ethiopia protects the environment, livestock & the people who rely on both: http://bit.ly/bwKBYP
5 March 2010
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Tweet
RT @AlertNet: Aftershocks rattle #Chile, residents panic http://ow.ly/1eB9Z #earthquake #quake
5 March 2010
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5 March 2010
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@kmcdade Thanks for the tweet! You're right -- it's so important to look at the long term implications of aid.
4 March 2010
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How kids in NYC are saying 'Byenvenu a New York' to Haitian children making a new home in the big apple http://bit.ly/auwS0e
4 March 2010
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Article
Earthquake in Haiti: Red Cross Helps Provide 100,000th Vaccination in Haiti Since the Earthquake
By Marco Jiménez with the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies in Port-au-Prince Thursday, March 04, 2010 — When the Haitian government decided that it needed to resume vaccination campaigns to help prevent the spread of disease following the January 12 earthquake, the Red Cross was one of the first organizations to respond – making resources available to protect at least 250,000 children and adults from measles, diptheria, pertussis and tetanus. Starting on February 8 with 120 volunteer vaccinators on the ground, including those from Canada, Haiti, Finland, France, Germany, Japan, Norway and the Republic of Korea, the Red Cross and its partners began vaccinating as many as 10,000 in a single day. A great deal of progress has been made since. “One of the people vaccinated today will be the 100,000th of the campaign,” said Dr. Bathélémy Guibert, the director of the municipal health office at Fonds-Verrettes – a municipality in the Croix-des-Bouquets arrondissement in Haiti’s quake zone. These vaccinations are another opportunity for people to survive the tragedy, children above all.” Vaccinations used to be carried out yearly by the health ministry in Haiti, but it was all brought to a halt by January’s devastating earthquake. The hundreds of thousands of displaced people meant vaccination was an urgent priority – one the Haitian health ministry was anxious to get back on the agenda in an effort to prevent disease. Within weeks of the earthquake, the American Red Cross contributed $374,500 to support the health ministry’s emergency campaign and has made a commitment along with its Measles Initiative partners to assist with future efforts as well. Read More >>
4 March 2010
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Article
'Byenvenu a New York'
A student in the after school program at the New York Action Center colors the Statue of Liberty on the front of a welcome pack the children prepared for children who have been relocated from Haiti to NYC after the earthquake. Photo: Michael Rizzo for Mercy Corps Ten-year-old Georgia Greenleaf sat on the floor of the Action Center to End World Hunger, painstakingly choosing the right shades of brown and green for an outline of the Statue of Liberty she colored on a simple paper packet in front of her. As she worked, she started thinking out loud about just what the statue meant to her and what it will mean for children from Haiti en route to make a new home in New York. “New York might be called the Empire State, but the Empire State Building doesn’t really stand for New York. The Statue of Liberty does — way more than anything else. When we see her and she welcomes us, we know there’s freedom here and that anything is possible.” said Georgia, who lives in a neighborhood along Manhattan’s south edge, where Lady Liberty looms large in the distance from a park along the bank of the Hudson River. Georgia and 20 other students from schools in the neighborhood, who participate in the Action Center’s after school program, will soon meet children from Haiti transplanted to New York with their families in the wake of the January 12’s devastating earthquake. In preparation, the kids spent a recent Tuesday afternoon at the Action Center making welcome packets that just might make the new arrivals feel at home in the meantime. On the cover of the guide the Action Center kids put together, the Statue of Liberty greets the new arrivals along with “Welcome to New York!” — "Byenvenu a New York!" in Creole — just like she’s greeted millions of immigrants who’ve arrived in New York City for more than a century. The short packet also includes pictures drawn by the Action Center kids of their favorite places around the city and a student-produced guide of useful English phrases the children relocating to New York can use when they start school. That guide will help them join games on the playground and learn how to ask for things in the cafeteria. “It’s really important that they can understand it. Their own language will help them feel comfortable,” said Georgia. The guide will be part of a welcome kit put together by kids for kids, including handmade puzzles of New York City landmarks. The students spent a couple hours carefully cutting up postcards of the Empire State Building bought at neighborhood souvenir shops. Georgia and the students at the Action Center belong to the Hang Out for Change program, where 20 students in 3rd-5th grades attend a weekly session where they learn about the causes behind hunger and poverty around the world. The group has been using Haiti as an example and learning about how Mercy Corps helps in places devastated by emergencies or chronic poverty. The Action Center education team is working with Brooklyn-based CAMBA, an agency that serves vulnerable populations in New York City and runs several after school programs, to make it happen. If all goes as planned, the kids from the Action Center will get to say "Byenvenu a New York!" in person sometime in the late Spring.
4 March 2010
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4 March 2010