Wednesday January 13, 2010.
Port-au-Prince, the Haitian capital, was devastated by an earthquake at about 5 pm, Eastern Time, on 12 January. The Unitarian Universalist Service Committee (UUSC) and Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations (UUA) have launched a joint fund aid to help survivors.
Most people in the capital spent the night outdoors, without shelter, or who joined frantically digging through the ruins to save tens of thousands of trapped underneath. The situation is chaotic, disrupted communication systems, and debris impede movement around the city. However, the UN estimates that 2.2 million people have been affected and fears the loss of lives could reach the tens of thousands. The destruction is widespread, with extensive damage to homes, hospitals, roads, water and sewer services, as well as electrical and communications systems. The main news dispatches talk of severe devastation. An alarming number of buildings including the National Palace and the local headquarters of the United Nations, collapsed.
Haiti is the Western Hemisphere's most impoverished and least developed nation. Their society is suffering from a situation of great social inequality, in which large sectors of society are completely left out any welfare or opportunity. 80% of the population lives in poverty. Many people live daily with what they manage to get in the informal sector. for the hundreds of thousands of poor people in Port-au-Prince, the daily struggle for food, water and medical care was in itself in an emergency situation, the earthquake has made these challenges infiinitamente more difficult to overcome, creating a humanitarian disaster on an already dire humanitarian crisis. Poor Haitians had no access to basic services will have to fight hard to acquire the most basic items after the effects of this earthquake.
The task of UUSC
UUSC's response to the disaster in Haiti will focus on the survivors with less access to aid, such as child domestic workers (Restaviks), households headed by women working in the informal sector and people living with HIV / AIDS. Haiti has a vibrant community-based movement based on a vision of empowering people .. The UUSC work closely with local partners in this grassroots movement to reach people with the greatest risk of being omitted from the efforts of international aid. This afternoon, we established connections with 3 organizations and in the next 24 hours we hope to reach others in order to give concrete shape to our effort. will update our website regularly as this develops our project. Finally, we are deeply saddened to this scourge that has devastated the lives of people in Haiti - please support our efforts to help .
The relief fund can receive transfers by VISA, AMEX and MASTERCARD .
