Urgent needs of Haitian earthquake survivors for food, water, shelter, health services and family support top priority of Red Cross

On Tuesday the Red Cross committed $30 million to the World Food Programme, which will support their effort to feed two million people in Haiti over the next six months. Other Red Cross relief supplies continue to arrive, although significant bottlenecks remain.

• So far, more than 43 flights carrying Red Cross aid have arrived in Haiti. Additional planes, ships and trucks carrying Red Cross humanitarian assistance are en route.
• Approximately 3 million pre-packaged meals from the American Red Cross have left Miami via ship and will arrive later this week in Haiti.
• Shelter remains an urgent need on the ground. The Red Cross is working to provide a range of assistance, including relief items like family-sized tents and kits with tarps, ropes and tools to construct shelter. At the same time, the organization is assessing needs and developing a strategy to meet long-term housing reconstruction needs.
• The American Red Cross and its partners are distributing other relief items, such as hygiene kits, blankets and water containers, for more than 1,000 families (5,000 people) each day - with plans to increase this number daily.

• During this emergency phase of the relief operation, the American Red Cross is focusing its resources on several areas:
  1. Pre-packaged meals and funding for World Food Programme efforts;
  2. Supplies and funding needed to provide clean drinking water;
  3. Shelter items such as blankets, tarps, sleeping mats and tents; and
  4. Health needs of Haitian survivors as well as support to Haitian families in Haiti and the US. This includes providing relief supplies, shipment of blood products, family linking services and providing Red Cross volunteers to the USNS Comfort.

• Exactly two weeks since the earthquake struck, more than 500 Red Cross and Red Crescent workers from around the world are in Haiti supporting thousands of local Red Cross volunteers. Of that, more than 100 are representing the American Red Cross (including the Creole interpreters on the USNS Comfort).
• Each Red Cross team has its own roles and expertise, and all are working together. That is a very powerful engine for relief and recovery.
• For example, Red Cross responders from eight countries are treating approximately 500 people each day at medical facilities throughout the capital city. An additional 200-bed Red Cross field hospital arrived this weekend and has been set up in the Carrefour soccer stadium.
• Others are focused on purifying the water supply available in country and are delivering 400,000 liters of clean drinking water each day, with plans to increase that to 500,000 liters each day - enough for more than 33,000 people. So far, more than 2.5 million liters of water has been distributed.
• Local Haitian Red Cross volunteers are providing first aid support as well as emotional support for traumatized survivors. A special area has been established at each medical center where volunteers are comforting children, many of who are too young to even understand what happened.
• This is already the largest single-country relief operation in global Red Cross history in terms of emergency relief teams deployed. The number of teams in or en route to Haiti is greater than the number that responded to the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, which spanned 14 countries.

• It is also clear that what took minutes to destroy will take many years and the collective support from governments and relief agencies across the world to help mend. The American Red Cross is working in close coordination with other responding organizations and will undoubtedly collaborate on and support long-term recovery projects.
• The American Red Cross is applying experience gained following the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. For the past five years, the organization has been working with partners to construct water and sanitation systems, providing emotional support and healthcare, building shelters, restoring livelihoods, and preparing communities for the next disaster. The American Red Cross plans to offer a similar level of support in close collaboration with Red Cross partners and other international and local aid organizations in Haiti.
• People can donate in support of the relief effort in Haiti at www.indyredcross.org or by calling 317-684-1441 Mobile donors can text "Haiti" to 90999 to make a $10 contribution.
• A $10 donation made through mobile giving can provide a family with two water cans to store clean drinking water, basic first aid supplies or a blanket appropriate to the climate.