It is feared that an estimated 650,000 children have been orphaned as a result of the devastating earthquake in Haiti, on Tuesday 12 January, 2010. We are pleased to report that despite the widespread destruction, all our children in Haiti and the Dominican Republic remained unharmed.
When the Haiti earthquake struck, Kids Alive had feet on the ground so we immediately helped mobilise a rapid response team and assisted nearly 14 different ministries in Haiti providing water, water filters, rice, beans and diesel fuel.
One of those organisations was the Baptist Haiti Mission Hospital. They were almost out of fuel and their generators were about to go quiet when the rapid response team drove a bus, loaded with drums of diesel fuel under armed guard, to the hospital entrance. This unexpected shipment kept their generators running and their lights on. Recently, they thanked us for the fuel saying that the barrels of diesel fuel literally saved lives!
In the government’s effort to protect the unaccompanied children, their release from refugee camps has been slower than we would have hoped. Our representative from Kids Alive has returned from meetings in Port-au-Prince where Kids Alive, and other reputable child care organisations, are encouraging the authorities to begin releasing these children into loving homes. We don’t want these kids - who have suffered so much - to be in limbo any longer than absolutely necessary.
UNICEF announced recently that they currently estimate there are about 230,000 unaccompanied children. They will seek to find parents or close family members for them, but the reality is that there are going to be thousands of new orphans that need a loving home. We can’t help them all by ourselves, but together with others, we must keep working -until every orphan has a home.
As of the 3rd February in Cap Haitian, our first construction team is on-site erecting temporary housing. Our first step is to provide temporary facilities and then construct permanent facilities for up to 50 new orphans at Cap Haitian alone. Our Dominican Republic homes have now received four Haitian children and are prepared and waiting for government approval to receive more children as soon as possible.
Our Director is travelling to the Dominican Republic in March, taking relief resources and financial aid. He hopes to meet some of our Haitian kids. During February, Kids Alive UK sent further funding to Haiti for continued emergency relief and also to the Dominican Republic for emergency provision there.
This is just the beginning. If you would like to help Kids Alive reach out to the helpless and desperate children of Haiti, please get in touch today.
