Haiti: Josh Shahryar's Humanitarian LiveBlog (20/21 January)

0641 GMT

Another urgent request for help from three orphanages in Port-au-Prince within a mile of Port-au-Prince. Joanne Stocker of Help Haiti Heal has updates on both:

The orphanages are Foyer Notre Dame Nativite in Fonta Mara Orphanage, Foyer Notre Dame Nativite in Fonta Mara Orphanage and Foyer des Filles de Dieu Orphanage (Home for the Girls of God). If you have any means of getting these children out of harms way and providing them with more supplies, please do so.

Haiti: Josh Shahryar’s News LiveBlog (20/21 January)

(This request is especially intended for the US troops who’ve been helping out greatly with the search and rescue efforts, as well as other relief efforts inside the Haitian Capital.)

If you would like to help – and it would be greatly appreciated – please check the full information on these orphanages by CLICK HERE or contacting Joanne of Help Haiti Heal.

Please help if you can – at least 55 little girls have already died in these orphanages in the past few days.



0600 GMT

Six planes carrying vital medical supplies belonging to Doctors Without Borders (MSF) have been re-routed to the Dominican Republic from Port-au-Prince Airport. These planes were carrying 85 tonnes of supplies badly needed in Haiti to help with the efforts of MSF’s medical staff to treat injured and sick Haitians. MSF has a video report.

0523 GMT

As the scope of the calamity in Haiti became clearer every day, the American people stepped up to the challenge by getting involved both financially and physically to help the people of Haiti. One of these was by making donations through text-messages. One of these was texting “Haiti” to 90999. The US Department of State’s official blog DipNote has an update on this story that gives us all hope:

n January 20, 2010, the text “Haiti” to “90999” campaign passed the $25 million mark. This is the largest mobile donation campaign to date and a true testament of the generosity of the American people. On behalf of everyone at the State Department, we thank you for your contributions.

Within hours of the earthquake, the Department helped launch this mobile fund-raising initiative in partnership with the American Red Cross, Mobile Accord and the mGive Foundation. Donations will appear on customers’ monthly bills or be debited from a prepaid account balance, and 100 percent of the proceeds from this campaign support Red Cross relief efforts in Haiti. As a friend, a partner, and a supporter, the United States will continue to assist the people and government of Haiti in every way we can. This is a long-term commitment that will extend beyond the current emergency.

More ways you can help: Clinton Bush Haiti Fund

More about the crisis and how you can help: state.gov/haitiquake

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Haiti: Josh Shahryar's News LiveBlog (20/21 January)

0255 GMT

Another amazing story of survival and miracles from today in Haiti. CNN’s AC360 reports:

A five-year-old boy named Monley was found alive in the rubble of his home today. His mother was killed and his father is missing. Monley was taken to a hospital where doctors say he has no broken bones, but he is suffering from severe dehydration.

Haiti: Josh Shahryar's Humanitarian LiveBlog (20/21 January)

Anderson was at the hospital when Monley arrived this afternoon. He got details on the rescue from his family.

“The uncle was actually searching through the rubble, looking for the dead body of his brother, this boy’s father. The uncle, with four of his friends, not some international search and rescue team, pulled out the little boy,” Anderson reported earlier today.


0241 GMT

One of the biggest challenges in Haiti has been to figure out just how many people have perished in the aftermath of the apocalyptic earthquake. So far, the numbers are blurry. Reports of total number of victims range from as low as 50,000 to as high as more than 200,000.

The New York Times has a great article on the challenges facing the Haitian government and the international relief agencies in figuring out how many lives have been lost.

The simple truth is that no accurate figure exists. In disasters like Hurricane Katrina, the 2004 Asian tsunami and the 2003 earthquake in Bam, Iran, the toll habitually swings way up at first, taking a couple of weeks to settle at a final, accepted number.

In countries like the United States or China, with vast resources to handle and count the dead, the numbers are likely to be more accurate than in a poor nation like Haiti, experts said.

The fact that the earthquake, with a magnitude of 7, devastated Port-au-Prince, Haiti’s capital, virtually paralyzing a government that was hard-pressed to count the living in normal times, only compounded the problem.

CLICK HERE to read the rest of the article.

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Haiti: Josh Shahryar's Humanitarian LiveBlog (19/20 January)

EA's Josh Shahryar updates on overnight developments on the humanitarian front in Haiti, complementing his News LiveBlog:

0450 GMT

Doctors Without Broders (MSF) has released a video showing there activities on the ground in Haiti. (Warning, the images are disturbing.)

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzEar6aCTxQ[/youtube]

0409 GMT

Doctors Without Borders (MSF) report on their day’s work in Haiti:

Loris De Filippi, the coordinator for MSF’s work in Choscal hospital in Cite Soleil, says the situation is dire: “Every time we go out of the operating theatre, we see faces imploring us for treatment. And they are begging us there in front of the hospital. It’s a very unacceptable situation. What we are trying to do is to expand our capacity to answer these calls. But we need supplies to get to the airport—and we don’t know why the planes are being re-directed.”

In Carrefour hospital, Paul McMaster, a surgeon, says that the needs are all too obvious: “We’ve not been able to get the equipment we need in the hospital because of these delivery problems. We’re running out. On Saturday we didn’t have one of our anesthetists. We’ve run out of plaster of Paris for fractures and we’ve no crepe bandages at the moment. So it’s just a nightmare to get these basic materials.”

MSF is currently operating in a host of locations in and around the capital. More than 1,500 patients have received treatment at an MSF hospital in Martissant, to name just one, and 120 of them are receiving inpatient care. MSF recently began working in Port-au-Prince’s General Hospital, where staff found a working dialysis machine and immediately began putting it to use. MSF’s nephrology team carried out its first treatment on Monday and will expand their work when new dialysis machines arrive by road from the Dominican Republic. After numerous delays, the construction of an inflatable hospital has finally begun as well; when complete, it will have room for 100 beds and will house two operating theatres.

In Leogane, one of the hardest hit towns outside the capitol, a team is working in a nursing school where, prior to MSF’s arrival, the staff had been struggling to provide basic care. Another team in Leogane is preparing four surgical wards in what was a missionary hospital to accept the large number of referral cases in the area. In Jacmel, another battered town, an MSF team is performing surgery in the hospital’s operating theater.

0334 GMT

Nate Loucks has an urgent appeal for transportation to Jacmel, southwest of Port-au-Prince from Santo-Domingo.

Kristine Brite writes:

We’ve got a team of doctors/nurses in the DR. Plane broke. Can’t get to Jacmel, Haiti now. Do you know anyone that can help?

Confirmed on his blog:


http://www.nateloucks.com/?p=395

If you know of anyone going from DR to Jacmel, write me and I will coordinate with Nate Loucks.

Contact Kristin or Nate on Twitter by clicking HERE and HERE if you can help provide transporation for these doctors. As you know, lives depend on them in Haiti.

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Haiti: Josh Shahryar's News LiveBlog (19/20 January)

EA's Josh Shahryar brings the overnight news from Haiti, complemeting his latest updates on the humanitarian situation:

0500 GMT

The Los Angeles Times has another touching story of a rescue attempt in Haiti:

Newspapers in Mexico this morning carried a happy item about Mexican officials in Haiti finding one of their countrymen who had been missing in the ruins for nearly a week.

But the tale didn’t mention that it was Times correspondent Tracy Wilkinson who came across the victim and relayed his whereabouts to Mexican diplomatic officials here in Mexico City.

Carlos Peralta, a Spanish teacher living in Port-au-Prince, lay writhing in pain on a salvaged pew outside a church when Wilkinson found him Sunday while she was reporting on prayer services in the quake-ravaged city.

Read full entry by CLICKING HERE.

0427 GMT

Catch Pierre’s livestream with news and live updates from Haiti by clicking here.

0400 GMT

Fireside International has more pictures from the tragedy. You can access them by going here. They only ask for your email address, that’s all. CLICK HERE to visit the page. (Be warned, some of the images are going to be very disturbing to some people. Don’t view without understanding that and don’t pass along without a stern warning.)

0352 GMT

Search and rescue attempts at Port-au-Prince’s Caribbean Supermarket seemingly ends after seven days. There are people still trapped under the rubble, but hope for their survival has ends as this story from CNN explains.

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Haiti: Josh Shahryar's Humanitarian LiveBlog (18/19 January)

Josh Shahryar with the latest from the humanitarian effort in Haiti, alongside his LiveBlog of the most recent news:

0837 GMT

The people of Gaza held a fundraiser for the people of Haiti today. They are sending, money, medicine, blankets and other supplies. Hopefully, Israel will help in getting these supplies to Haiti. (The report is from Press TV in Iran.)

0800 GMT

As people in Haiti continue to hastily bury victims of the earthquake for fear of health risks, BBC reports on the myths and realities of the supposed health risk and the emotional trauma hasty burials will cause the family of the victims:

“There is this myth that bodies have to be disposed of incredibly quickly, which often leads to bodies being shoved into pits without any form of identification,” Sir Nicholas Young, British Red Cross chief executive and a trustee of the main fundraising group, the Disasters Emergency Committee, told the BBC. “[This makes it] impossible for the relatives to grieve. Impossible to know how many people died and impossible for people to identify their relatives. This is a terrible shame.

“The risk is absolutely minimal, unless there is disease in the population. This is a mistake and a waste of resources.” The charity has its own guidelines on cadaver management for disaster zones and signs up to 2009 advice from the Pan American branch of the World Health Organisations – Management of Dead Bodies After Disasters: A Field Manual for First Responders.

You can access the field manual on the Red Cross’ website by CLICK HERE.

0735 GMT

NEW UPDATE on this situation. Shaun King’s people are reportedly going to make a visit there tomorrow. (Thank you for the compassion!)

Foyer de Sion Orphanage in Port-au-Prince is running out of water and in desperate need of it, according to one twitterer who is in touch with them. If you know someone who can get water to their facilities, please get in touch with twitter user robinbauer. They had earlier received  some aid from the LDS church:

With gratitude we are glad to announce that food, water and medical supplies arrived from the LDS church and the children are receiving it. Praise God!.  Prayers precede miracles and we thank you for your prayers. Satisfied tummies tonight.

Thanks for everyone’s support. Still much to be done. In the meantime please help with our Haiti Relief Fund. http://www.foyerdesion.org/donations-GiftsOfHope.php We are finding ways to get that help to Guesno.

0650 GMT

Convoy of Hope has released a new report explaining Haitians immediate needs and what they have done so far:

Food supplies are running low in Haiti and show no signs of improving anytime soon. But even when food is available—as it is in limited amounts on some street corners from vendors—many families simply do not have the cash to pay for it. “My house is damaged, I need food, but I have no money to buy it,” says Ralph, a twenty-something-year-old who could be speaking for tens of thousands of hungry Haitians.

“The situation regarding food and water remains dire,” says Kevin Rose, Haiti director for Convoy of Hope. “The lack of fuel and security issues has made it very difficult to move food around the city. But through our network of partners we are getting food into some of the most desperate places.” Rose says the food being distributed to earthquake victims is inventory from Convoy of Hope’s warehouse that is used to feed 7,000 children each day who are a part of Convoy of Hope’s feeding initiative in Haiti.

“That supply will last 10 to 14 more days,” admits Rose. “So, we need to replenish the warehouse as fast as we can to ensure that we can keep feeding the children in our program while also continuing to provide food for those who are suffering from the earthquake.” Hundreds of desperate Haitians are in line waiting for food at Quisqueya Chapel—Convoy of Hope’s main distribution point in Port-au-Prince. Yesterday, the Convoy of Hope team distributed 100,000 meals here and at five other distribution points.

“Having partners like Haiti 1, the national Assemblies of God church and Mission of Hope has allowed us access to parts of the city we could have never gotten into,” says Paul Coroleuski, Convoy of Hope’s director of field services who is in Haiti. “Without our partners we would be like many other relief organizations who have food and supplies in country but are facing enormous logistical and security problems getting those items distributed.”

You can help Convoy of Hope help more Haitians by CLICKING HERE and donating.

0539 GMT

Pastor Jean Romain of Good Shepherd’s Love Orphanage located on 15 October Blvd, Tabarre Haiti Goureau in Delmas – Port-au-Prince has sent a call for help. There are children and other survivors there in immediate need of assistance and supplies. If you have a way of getting medical supplies, food and water to these people, please get in touch with Pastor Romain by calling 011-509-3462-0624 or 011-509-3874-5726 or emailing jeanromain56@yahoo.fr.

Please hurry, time is of the essence.

0529 GMT

Thanks to your generous donations, Mercy Corps was able to raise more money through Western Union for Haiti. They blog:

Over the holiday weekend, the Western Union Foundation gave us $50,000 to match donations to our Haiti Earthquake Fund. We finished the challenge on Martin Luther King Day. Thanks to everyone who gave through Twitter and helped us finish the match.

(Thank you, citizens of earth!)

0508 GMT

Hospice Saint Josesph also have a new update on their medical work in Haiti. Though they are not an organization as large as the Red Cross, CARE International or MSF, they are still doing what they can to help Haitians – because life matters. You can read there update by clicking here or visit their website by clicking here.

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