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Haiti Relief Survey

eagle.ca

Update on eagle.ca Haiti Relief Challenge

January 18, 2010
updated 5:00 p.m.

The people of Northumberland County are truly amazing. When I first wrote to clients last Thursday I was confident that we could send two ShelterBoxes to Haiti. I was hopefully optimistic that we could secure five. This afternoon I sent the first of our collective efforts to ShelterBox Canada. We are now working on our ninth ShelterBox.

We have eagleMembers calling home from Florida to donate.  We have local business owners buying ShelterBoxes. We have had many people contribute $20, $50, $100 and more to the cause.

We're at eight boxes and counting. St. Mary's Secondary School in Cobourg is having a dress-down day on Friday.  Students will pay for the privilege of not wearing their school uniform for a day. They hope to raise $2,000 for ShelterBox Canada. Other area schools are also planning fund raising events.

I don't think that we can begin to imagine how overwhelmed the relief workers in Haiti are. Even more heartbreaking is the frustration and despair of Haitians. Their lives have come to an abrupt end. They are literally starting over.

They live in the poorest nation in the western hemisphere. We live in arguably the most fortunate nation. To all of you who have contributed to our Challenge and other relief agencies, thank you.  To those of you who wish to help, please do so soon. ShelterBoxes are only distributed as they are paid for. ShelterBox Canada and the people of Haiti need our help now.

Below is today's update from ShelterBox Canada:

ShelterBox Response Team (SRT) members are in Haiti, the Dominican Republic and in Miami. 

ShelterBoxes are on the ground in Port-au-Prince (PAP) with Red Cross and members of the El Salvador military. The team on the ground in PAP is continuing to work with ACTED and local Rotarians in order to ensure the fastest and most effective delivery of the boxes.

The team has commenced 'Train the Trainer' sessions with on the ground contacts to help them deliver boxes and pitch tents. The SRT in PAP are well but dealing with a logistical nightmare. There are water, food and fuel shortages. Security is calm but unpredictable.

1,700 ShelterBoxes have already been despatched. These include the prepositioned stock in Curacao, the boxes from El Salvador, the boxes sent to France to fly across with the Red Cross and boxes being flown into Miami by Virgin Atlantic.

Another 1,600 boxes are being packed making a total of 3,300 committed so far. This is enough aid for up to 33,000 people. Volunteers will still be packing round the clock throughout the coming weeks. It's likely that some of these boxes will fly from England this week

The ShelterBox Logistics team in Miami is coordinating deployment of  boxes are on the ground there. An SRT will be heading to Santa Domingo, Dominican Republic to coordinate logistics from there.

Quote from Head of Operations, John Leach: 'The people in Haiti need everything now. We're doing all we can to land emergency shelter provision in Port au Prince but we're mindful of not adding to the logistical nightmare on the ground. This is a massive logistical challenge and that is why we have teams on the ground in Miami and Santa Domingo to coordinate ShelterBox's logistical effort.'

Key Facts The UN estimates that 200,000 families - up to one million people - are in need of immediate shelter in Haiti. The UN have also described this as the worst disaster they've ever had to deal with. The situation remains fluid and is still changing constantly.