Red Cross aid is still getting into Haiti despite a new aftershock this morning and enormous logistical challenges:

• The Red Cross has now been able to reach survivors outside the capital city, providing first aid in camps and prioritizing the need for food, water and other basic supplies.
• Red Cross responders from seven countries are also treating injuries and performing surgery at hospitals and medical centers throughout the capital city.
• More than 70 American Red Cross Creole-speaking volunteers have been trained and will soon join the USNS Comfort offshore in Haiti to translate for patients receiving medical care from the U.S. military.
• Red Cross teams are focused on purifying the water supply available in the country and expect to deliver clean drinking water to 200,000 to 400,000 people each day by truck.
• The American Red Cross is providing approximately 3 million pre-packaged meals in partnership with the World Food Program in Haiti. More than 100 truckloads of meals will leave Miami by air in the next few days and are expected to arrive in Haiti this weekend.
• In the days ahead, the Red Cross will provide tents and shelter supplies for an initial 20,000 families in Haiti.
• So far, 100 tons of Red Cross aid has arrived in Haiti. Planes and trucks carrying Red Cross humanitarian assistance are arriving in the region every day.
• The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) family links Web site, designed to help reconnect separated families, has received 23,000 registrations since the earthquake. Three hundred sixty families have successfully reconnected using the site. Yesterday (1/19/10), the Red Cross helped an additional 117 people in Haiti make international phone calls to their families—mainly in the Untied States—to say they are safe and well.

American Red Cross President and CEO Gail McGovern visited relief operations in Haiti yesterday to help coordinate aid distribution:

• She witnessed the extensive damage and need as well as the growing presence of Red Cross services. The Red Cross—through first aid posts, hospitals, relief distribution sites, water trucking programs and family linking stations—is making life better for people on the ground every minute.
• She also began planning for a multi-year recovery operation with other Red Cross leaders from around the world and heads of state from the region.

This is an enormous relief operation now. It will also be a massive long-term recovery effort. The Red Cross will be there throughout. The Red Cross relief operation in Haiti is already the largest global deployment of Red Cross personnel to a single country in Red Cross history. The number of Red Cross emergency response teams in or en route to Haiti equals those that responded to the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami—an emergency that spanned 14 countries.

• People who want to help those affected by the Haitian earthquake, can make a designated donation to the American Red Cross International Response Fund. Donations may be sent to the American Red Cross of Greater Indianapolis, 441 E. 10th St., Indianapolis, IN 46202-3388, made online at www.indyredcross.org/donate or by phone at 317-684-1441.
• The Red Cross is also receiving money through a third-party mobile fund-raising effort in which mobile donors can text "Haiti" to 90999 to send a $10 donation to the American Red Cross. A $10 donation made through mobile giving can provide a family with two water cans to store clean drinking water, a blanket appropriate to the climate or other supplies to give people the ability to cook for their families.

You can help the victims of countless crises around the world each year, like the earthquake in Haiti, by making a financial gift to the American Red Cross International Response Fund, which will provide immediate relief and long-term support through supplies, technical assistance and other support to help those in need. The American Red Cross honors donor intent. If you wish to designate your donation to a specific disaster, please do so at the time of your donation. Donations can be mailed to the American Red Cross of Greater Indianapolis, 441 E. 10th St., Indianapolis, IN 46202-338, made online at www.indyredcross.org/donate or by phone at 317-684-1441.