TRINIDAD & TOBAGO GUARDIAN
The United Nations is appealing for US$560 million to help victims of the catastrophic earthquake that ravished Haiti earlier this week. The UN launched a global appeal yesterday for the relief efforts in Haiti. The UN had immediately after the disaster released US$10 million from the Central Emergency Response Fund to kick-start relief efforts.
The 7.3-magnitude earthquake that struck Haiti on Tuesday had affected one-third of the nation’s population, left 300,000 homeless and claimed about 50,000 lives, including top UN official in Haiti, Hédi Annabi. In a release, the UN said half of the funds sought in their appeal would be earmarked for emergency food aid. The remaining half would be used to target health, water, sanitation, nutrition, early recovery, emergency education and other key needs of the Haitian people. UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs John Holmes said because of limited detailed information from the ground, the appeal would be revised in coming weeks.
Holmes said “Inevitably and despite everyone’s enormous efforts,” it would take some time to scale up the pace of operations because the obstacles in providing aid posed by a lack of infrastructures and other issues. The UN reported that food and medical help had started to arrive in Port-au-Prince, but on a very limited scale.
The UN also said said it was committed to ensuring the aid reached people as quickly as possible. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon had dispatched his former Special Representative to Haiti and current Assistant Secretary General for Peacekeeping Operations Edmund Mulet to assume full command of the UN Stabilisation Mission in Haiti and co-ordinate all relief efforts. The Office for the Co-ordination Affairs (OCHA) had co-ordinated some 27 search-and-rescue teams to help free those who remain trapped under the rubble.
The OCHA has a further ten teams that were set to arrive shortly. OCHA said yesterday that although the number of mobile hospitals set to arrive in Haiti was sufficient, there was still a great need for doctors, nurses and medicine. It said arrangements were being made with Haitian authorities on the possibility of converting the national football stadium into a field hospital.
The UN World Health Organisation (WHO) reported that many survivors had sustained serious injuries, including crushed limbs and traumatic wounds, identifying medical support as an immediate need. WHO was in the process of co-ordinating medical assistance and sending a 12 member team specialising in victim care to Haiti. It said yesterday that eight hospitals were damaged or destroyed and two damaged in neighbouring Dominican Republic. WHO’s Paul Garwood said: “We (WHO) fear that the impact of this earthquake will be particularly devastating to the already existing vulnerability of Haiti’s people, society and economy.”
World Food Programme (WFP) spokesman Emilia Casella said the agency had received US$20 million in donations so far and was aiming to reach the two million people affected by the quake. The WFP was acquiring two helicopter to be sent to the country immediately to move nearly 90 metric tons of high-energy biscuits from El Salvador to Haiti.
The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) had highlighted identifying and reuniting children who had been separated from their families, as a key concern. UNICEF stressed that nearly half of the Haitian population was under the age of 18 and added that many children were on the streets of Port-au-Prince in need of immediate aid. UNICEF said it was working around the clock to register children who are alone and to provide them with food, medical and housing aid. The UN’s flash appeal had come after increasing reports of death, sickness and hunger in a crumbled Haiti.
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