THE ROTARY CLUB OF BANBRIDGE
Aid for thousands in Haiti with more to follow
27 January 2010
Nearly 100 tonnes of additional
aid is being flown to Haiti this week as thousands of people who lost their
homes in the devastating earthquake are being given the chance to start
rebuilding their lives in ShelterBox tents.
Emergency shelter for more than 20,000 people is now in Port au Prince and
surrounding areas with small camps already set up in Delmas, Petion-Ville,
Carrefour and Leogane.
Hundreds more ShelterBoxes containing disaster relief tents and other
life-saving supplies are being sent to the city in the next few days from Miami,
Curucao and France, meaning another 11,000 people will be given emergency
shelter.
On Friday, ShelterBox is chartering a 747 aircraft with 1,800 boxes to fly from
Stansted Airport to the Dominican Republic where they will be taken overland to
neighbouring Haiti.
It is the second flight chartered by the international disaster relief charity
for the Haiti response after a plane loaded with 700 ShelterBoxes and 100 tents
flew out of Newquay Cornwall Airport last week. ShelterBox Response Team members
Jane Nash (UK) and Gary McCafferty (UK) travelled overland from Santa Domingo
with an aid convoy to ensure the ShelterBoxes reached Port au Prince at the
weekend.
John Leach, Head of Operations for ShelterBox, said: ‘The need in Haiti is
massive. Our team in Port au Prince is working with Dutch marines to ensure the
safe and effective delivery of disaster relief tents and hundreds of these are
already being used in four different locations.
‘Distribution of aid by our highly-trained ShelterBox Response Team members is
underway but the need for emergency shelter is still desperate.’
A number of ShelterBoxes have also
been used at an orphanage and at two hospitals in Port au Prince where tents are
being erected to help save lives.
Speaking from Bernard Mews Hospital in Freres, a suburb of Port au Prince,
ShelterBox Response Team member Wayne Robinson (US) said: ‘Right outside the
hospital there have been hundreds of people who have been laying in the
sidewalks, on the streets and in blankets right on the ground in unbelievable
conditions. They are bleeding, they have missing limbs and there are even women
giving birth.
‘We felt this was a good use of the initial boxes that we had here on the
ground and we’ll be bringing more here and using them as a transitional point
to get people out of the elements while they are waiting for treatment at the
hospital. Buildings have crashed down all around us here and people are just
waiting and waiting to get in here for medical services.’