Update

As predicted, Haiti made the news for a whole ten minutes... then the olympics and now the world goes on. When are we going to WAKE UP to the fact that these are our brother and sisters in Christ. God made us all, we were blessed to be born in this country we owe it to God to reach out to our Haitian brothers and sisters to help them.

Yes I know our economy is in a bad place right now. But honestly can't we all find something to give up so that we can help these children. We will be judged by what we do and whom we help and whom we ignore. YES it is easier to say I have bills. We all do. But none of us are living in these horrific conditions. None of us are sleeping in puddles of water being rained on all night long. None of us are watching our children die before our eyes because of NO FOOD NO MEDICINE TO TREAT THEIR ILLNESSES.

Please I beg of you. What is the one thing you can give up this year so that funds can go to help just one child. Is it that Coffee at Starbucks, Is it brown bagging it to work instead of fast food meal (that is not even good for you). Nothing is to small all funds go to help the people of Haiti. Please help us this year.

Below is information you may want to read. Opens your eyes to how life really is in Haiti. All my love V



“FEW EVENTS OF SUCH FEROCITY”
According to a February study by the Inter-American Development Bank, the cost of physical damage from Haiti’s earthquake ranges from $8 billion to $13 billion. It says, “there are few events of such ferocity as the Haiti 2010 earthquake.”
The study looks at natural disasters over the past 40 years and concludes that the death toll, per capita, of Haiti’s earthquake is four times, or more, higher than any other disaster in this time period. Nearly 24,000 people per million of Haiti’s population died. (The total estimated death toll is well over 200,000). The closest equivalent is 4,000 per million, in the 1972 earthquake that struck Nicaragua.
The Partners In Health agency estimates some 1.3 million people were left without shelter by the earthquake. The majority of those people still do not have adequate emergency shelter nor access to potable water, food and medical attention.
According to US AID, there are approximately 600,000 displaced people living in 416 makeshift camps in Port-au-Prince. Sanitation conditions in the camps remain a grave concern. With heavy seasonal rains fast approaching, the population is extremely vulnerable to exposure and water-born disease.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued an alert on March 4 about another deadly danger that lurks: malaria. It said, “Displaced persons living outdoors or in temporary shelters and thousands of emergency responders in Haiti are at substantial risk for malaria.Each year, Haiti has 30,000 confirmed cases of malaria. Officials believe the actual number is closer to 200,000.
Partners In Health says it has established clinics in five of the makeshift settlement in Port au Prince, serving some 80,000 to 100,000 people.
A “BROADLY INSUFFICIENT” RELIEF EFFORT
Two leading directors of Doctors Without Borders have called the relief effort to date "broadly insufficient." In a March 5 interview, they say that, “The lack of shelter and the hygiene conditions represent a danger not only in terms of public health, but they are also an intolerable breach of the human dignity of all these people.”
They call conditions in the makeshift refugee camps where many survivors still struggle to survive “shocking” and “shameful.”
Partners In Health voiced similar concerns in a March 5 press release and conference call. They called on governments and NGOs to do a better job addressing the “inhumane and rapidly deteriorating conditions on the ground in Haiti.”
PIH Executive Director Ophelia Dahl, recently returned from Haiti, told the conference call, “We witnessed hundreds of thousands of people living in makeshift temporary shelters; spontaneous settlements made of scraps of cardboard and plastic bags. What little people have is soaked, because they’re sleeping in the rain, and the makeshift shelters are already breaking down and dissolving. The conditions for the homeless and displaced people are absolutely inhumane and getting worse every single day.”


Vanessa A. Carpenter