Stamford, Conn., Jan. 12, 2012 – Two
years after the devastating Haiti earthquake, AmeriCares has
delivered $54 million in aid for survivors, including medicines and
supplies to fight the recent cholera epidemic. To date,
AmeriCares has completed 950 aid shipments to more than
100 hospitals and health clinics throughout Haiti.
Today, on the second anniversary of
the disaster, AmeriCares is publishing a “Haiti Earthquake Two-Year Special
Report” on its relief efforts in the small island nation –
the poorest in the Western Hemisphere. The report can be found here www.americares.org/haiti2yrreport.
“Two years after one of the
worst urban disasters in history, more than 500,000 Haitians are still
living under tarps and plywood, with dismal sanitation and limited access to
clean water,” said AmeriCares President and CEO Curt Welling. “With so many
survivors crowded together in squalid conditions, Haiti’s health crisis today deserves
as much attention as the initial disaster. Nearly 7,000 lives have
already been lost to the cholera epidemic and thousands
more are at stake.”
AmeriCares has been delivering aid
to Haiti since 1984 and opened an office and warehouse in Port-au-Prince after a
massive outpouring of support from donors following the January 12,
2010 earthquake. Today, AmeriCares sends over 300 aid shipments a year to Haiti –
an average of one shipment a day – to health care facilities throughout
the country.
Now, as AmeriCares enters its third
year of relief operations, much of the focus is on supplying cholera treatment
centers that offer the only chance for survival for those infected.
Contracting the deadly disease is almost inevitable
for families still living in temporary settlements because
cholera spreads rapidly through contaminated water. Pre-positioning
treatment supplies, including IV fluids, is a top priority for AmeriCares
Haiti relief workers since the most seriously
ill patients can die of dehydration in as little as 10 to 12 hours.
AmeriCares has provided medical
relief and humanitarian assistance to millions affected by natural disasters
and man-made crises around the world for nearly 30 years. Our emergency
response work includes the 2004 tsunami in Southeast Asia, the 2010
Chile earthquake and last year’s earthquake and tsunami in Japan. Our
relief efforts often last years beyond the initial disaster as we rebuild
hospitals and clinics and restore health services.
