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28th January 2010

Haiti Earthquake Relief
Chief Secretary’s Report #5
Lieut-Colonel Lindsay Rowe

January 23, 2010

More than 700 Salvation Army workers permanently stationed in Haiti are being supported in their Earthquake disaster response efforts by an International Salvation Army team.

Distribution Centers

To date the team has been using as their distribution center The Salvation Army’s facilities in Delmas 2, St. Martin area of Port au Prince, known to be one of the more dangerous areas of Port au Prince. Thousands of people are making their home in a large soccer field behind the main Salvation Army compound in this area and emergency teams have been concentrating their efforts on this group.

Registration of this group, estimated at 12,000 people, has now begun. This registration is important as UN deliveries of food rations will eventually become tied to numbers of registered people in any given district.
Food and water from the Army’s first major shipment of relief supplies was delivered to Port-au- Prince after having been brought over land by UPS trucks from Santo Domingo.
The Army has distributed more than 24,000 meal kits to families occupying the field. The meal kits, provided by the United Nations World Food Program, are enough to supply a family with five days of food. A 10,000 gallon water purification system is also operational. A mobile canteen also distributes food and water to villages and outlying areas of the city. 4,000 pairs of light weight shoes (“ducks”) were distributed to survivors. United Nations security personnel have been providing assistance to ensure an efficient and orderly distribution process.

Team members continue to attend UN ‘Cluster Meetings’ in order to coordinate our relief activities with other major organizations and ensure the most efficient use of resources and most efficient allocation of precious relief materials and services. Food and Water will be distributed as soon as logistics for an orderly distribution are arranged and coordinated with the support of the UN.
Today, the UN Shelter Cluster designated TSA as the ‘lead agency’ for the soccer stadium and another ‘plaza’, both adjacent to the Army’s compound. This designation gives The Salvation Army official responsibility to care for over 20,000 people who have been made homeless by the earthquake.
Workers on the ground have observed that food is such a desperate need that many people, though seriously injured, will line up to receive food BEFORE seeking medical treatment because they feel the lack of food is the greater threat to their immediate survival.

Another 295 families were given medical treatment today. More than 1,200 people have been given medical aid by The Salvation Army doctors, nurses, paramedics and other specialists trained in medical care. These medical teams have delivered several babies at the main compound and have also been dispatched to various orphanages in the area to assist children and infants who have received little help since the earthquake.
We have now received word that an assessment team including two Haitian-born Salvation Army Officers presently serving in appointments the USA, a medical person who is working in the Army’s medical clinic in Port au Prince, and two Haitian Salvation Army Officers are looking for opportunities to add Petit Goave to the Army’s service delivery sites. Petit Goave is a small town some 68 Kilometers south of Port au Prince. It has a population of 12,000 and was very badly damaged by the earthquake. It has been very difficult for aid to reach the area because of excessive debris which has blocked the roadways.

Supplies

We are encouraged to see that opportunities for shipping and receiving aid supplies are beginning to increase. The main dockyard area of Port au Prince which had been rendered unusable by the earthquake is now being repaired and is becoming accessible to supply boats. Supplies are also being shipped by air via Santo Domingo and delivered by road to Port au Prince.

Four 40’ containers of food, water and personal hygiene items arriving from Jamaica will reach the city via Lafiteau, a small port area just 12 miles from Port au Prince. The shipment is due to arrive on Tuesday. Two these containers have been prepared by the Caribbean Territory and will be distributed by The Salvation Army team in Port au Prince.

A second major shipment of more than 80,000 pounds of emergency food and water is en route via the Santo Domingo air port. The shipment consists of 20 pallets of food that will provide more than 91,000 meals in addition to water—packaged in ½ liter bottles and gallon jugs. The flight is being arranged by SAWSO and facilitated through UPS.

Small planes containing medical supplies and Salvation Army relief workers have been arriving in Haiti from Miami since Friday, January 15.

School to reopen tomorrow

In a small sign that life will return to normal, more than a week after Haiti’s earthquake, The Salvation Army will re-open a school in a temporary site at the our compound in Port au Prince. Two of the school’s main buildings were destroyed in the earthquake and people are too terrified to enter buildings that are still standing. Still, Salvation Army relief workers will provide children aged three to six years old with security, nutrition and medical assistance as needed, in a make-shift school day.

Prior to the earthquake, 1,500 children attended The Salvation Army school, sponsored by Kindernothilfe (KNH), each day. The Salvation Army will offer day-to-day schooling and support for hundreds of children aged three to six years old in the coming weeks.

Volunteers

Hundreds of volunteers continue to show up at The Salvation Army’s Territorial Headquarters in Kingston, Jamaica. Here they receive, sort and repack the many donations of food and clothing that arrive at the Army’s Disaster Services Warehouse.

The Salvation Army is working with the Haitian government, the U.S. Military, FEMA, the United Nations, other NGOs and its corporate partners to implement a broad response to the disaster.

We continue to be deeply moved by the support the Caribbean Territory is receiving from around the world.

Our most urgent needs are for prayer and finances to sustain a long term commitment to rebuild a better Haiti.

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