The Foundation establishes Haiti earthquake fund
13/1/2010

The Rotary Foundation has established the Haiti Earthquake Relief Fund for U.S. Rotarians who want to donate toward recovery efforts after a powerful earthquake rocked Haiti on 12 January.

Use your cell phone to make a one-time US$5 donation to the Haiti Earthquake Relief Fund. Text ROTARY to 90999.

Haiti government officials are estimating that as many as 200,000 people are dead and millions more injured after the quake, the impoverished nation’s strongest in 200 years, crumbled government buildings, hospitals, schools, and shantytowns. Most of the capital, Port-au-Prince, is in ruins.

A ShelterBox response team of two U.S. Rotarians and one from the United Kingdom has already mobilized and delivered 1,700 containers of supplies to the affected areas. Another 1,600 will be dispatched from the U.K. to Port-au-Prince. Also, more than 100 Aquaboxes are being delivered to Haiti to provide safe water.

Claude Surena, a member of the Rotary Club of Petion-Ville and president of the Haitian Medical Asscociation, is sheltering more than 100 people in his damaged home in Port-au-Prince. He is also leading the efforts of the 17 Haitian Rotary clubs to ensure that the ShelterBox containers will be deployed effectively to the thousands left homeless.

The Rotary Club of Curaçao, Netherlands Antilles, has committed US$50,000 to clubs in the affected areas.

"Rotarians are working hard and fast to get help to those in Haiti," says Past RI Director Barry Rassin, of Nassau, Bahamas, who has previously coordinated relief efforts in the country. "We're at the same time working on long-term efforts."

More than $75,000 has been donated to District 7020 in the Caribbean, according to Past District Governor Dick McCombe. The district will be coordinating much of the Rotarian relief effort through its Haiti Task Force, set up two years ago to administer all financial aid to the nation.

A six-member team of Rotarians from District 5890 (Texas, USA) has reported in safe after landing in Haiti for a humanitarian mission 45 minutes before the quake struck. They were scheduled to be there a week but will likely return early.

Dawn Johnson, president of the Rotary Club of Verrettes, L'Artibonite, Haiti, says the infrastructure couldn't handle a quake this massive.

"The government is highly centralized in Port-au-Prince, which is now entombed in rubble," says Johnson, who was in the U.S. while the quake struck. "The scale of this disaster is so huge. It is way beyond anything Haiti has ever dealt with before."

Johnson plans to return to Haiti at the end of the month. Her club is already working on getting clean water to victims. "I cringe a little at what I might see when I get back."