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American Red Cross Meeting Urgent Needs in Haiti
Sunday, January 17, 2010
First Aid Posts are Established in the Streets; Other Services are Progressing
American Red Cross Meeting Urgent
Needs in Haiti
First Aid Posts are Established in the
Streets; Other Services are Progressing
TUCSON, January 17, 2010 -- The Southern Arizona
Chapter of the American Red Cross will be celebrating MLK day and his legacy
tomorrow by helping the people of Haiti. Our office at 5301 E. Broadway Blvd., Tucson, will be open tomorrow from 9 am - 5
pm. A team of 13 AmeriCorps volunteers
will be on the street out front with our Emergency Response Vehicles collecting
drive-by donations.
On Saturday, we raised about $10,000 just from
walk-in donations.
* SITUATIONAL UPDATE *
We're making progress. The American public has reached
out to help and their support is getting to Haitian earthquake survivors.
- The
American Red Cross is performing first aid, delivering water, addressing urgent
needs and mobilizing a massive response operation in Haiti.
- First aid posts
have been set up in the streets, where Red Cross workers and volunteers from Haiti and other
countries are working side-by-side to clean and stitch up wounds amidst the
rubble.
- More than 100 Red
Cross staff from two dozen nations are supporting several thousand local
volunteers, and more Red Cross teams from around the world are en route.
- Red Cross workers
from around the world will be providing a wide range of help and support,
including food, water, field hospitals, emotional support, telecommunications,
sanitation facilities and helping restore links between families.
Relief materials are being delivered, and more help is
on the way by air, land and sea.
- Today (Sunday),
the Red Cross is setting up a field hospital in Jacmel which will be able to
treat approximately 200 people per day.
- The Red Cross has
already supplied medical kits to treat 2,000 patients, and hundreds of blankets
and plastic sheets have also been distributed.
- A Red Cross water
trucking program is now providing clean water for about 1,000 people living in
a makeshift camp in the Delmas neighborhood. Latrines have also been built in
the same area to help address sanitation issues.
- Over the weekend,
three planes carrying Red Cross humanitarian assistance were expected in the
region, delivering a field hospital and needed materials such as tarps,
blankets, hygiene items, buckets, shelter supplies and kitchen sets. Another
20,000 relief items should arrive Monday on a cargo plane provided in
partnership with FedEx.
- In the days
ahead, the Red Cross will begin to provide temporary shelters in Haiti. Kits,
containing tarps, rope and tools, as well as tents and blankets, will be made
available for an initial 20,000 families.
- American Red
Cross President and CEO Gail McGovern is going to Haiti on Monday with Red Cross
leadership from around the world and will visit relief operations.
- The Red Cross is
training 40-100 Creole-speaking volunteers who will work as translators on the
USS Comfort when Haitians will be brought aboard for medical care.
The damage is extensive, and we know that this is
going to be a massive and costly long-term recovery operation.
- As of January 16,
the American Red Cross has raised more than $87 million for relief efforts. We know that we are going to spend
much more than that to help the people of Haiti. The Red Cross has already
released $10 million for Haiti
relief efforts, and will be adding more. Future allocations will be made once
we know more about the situation on the ground in Haiti and the greatest needs for
both the short and long term.
- Terrible times like these bring out the best in
people, and we are grateful for the support being given to the American Red
Cross.
The Red Cross is helping reconnect families that have
been separated by the earthquake.
- As of Sunday
morning, more than 21,600 people had registered with a special Red Cross Web
site to help people search for their loved ones. The Web site of the
International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) enables people in Haiti and
abroad to search for and register the names of relatives missing since the
earthquake. The web address is: www.icrc.org/familylinks. People in Haiti are
registering to let their loved ones know they are safe and well.
* WAYS TO HELP *
The Red Cross is the largest nonprofit organization with
permanent presence in Haiti
and plays an important coordination role among other humanitarian groups within
the country.
Our more than 97 million volunteers worldwide – and hundreds
of local responders from Haiti – give the Red Cross the expertise, scale and
scope to manage catastrophic disasters from the moment they strike.
Financial Contributions:
Give Online: www.redcrossarizona.org.
Make your gift to the International Response Fund.
Send a Check or
Money Order to:
American Red Cross
Southern Arizona Chapter
2916 E. Broadway Blvd.
Tucson, AZ 85716
Place in memo of check: International
Response Fund or Haiti
Earthquake Response Fund
Text to Give: Text "HAITI" to "90999 to send
a $10 donation to the Red Cross, through an effort backed by the U.S. State
Department. One-hundred percent of your $10 gift (which is tax-deductible) will
go to support American Red Cross relief efforts in Haiti.
By telephone: (520) 318-6740, or 1-800-341-6943.
In-Kind Donations: Because this is
an international relief effort, we are unable to accept in-kind (product and
supply) donations at this time.
Contact Your Local Red Cross for Questions:
520-318-6740
800-341-6943
www.redcrossarizona.org
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About the American Red Cross:
The American Red Cross
shelters, feeds and provides emotional support to victims of disasters;
supplies nearly half of the nation's blood; teaches lifesaving skills;
provides international humanitarian aid; and supports military members
and their families. The Red Cross
is a charitable organization — not a government agency — and depends on
volunteers and the generosity of the American public to perform its
mission. For more information, please visit http://www.redcrossarizona.org/ or join National's blog at http://blog.redcross.org/.
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