Haiti Earthquake
The earthquake that struck Haiti on Tuesday 12 January is one of the modern world's worst disasters, killing over 220,000 people and leaving tens of thousands injured. Buildings across the city collapsed or were extensively damaged, including the main hospital, Presidential Palace, UN Headquarters, schools and homes.
Three million people were affected and as many as 1.5 million men, women and children were displaced from their homes and communities.
CARE had 150 staff on the ground who were able to respond immediately. Our inital response focused on providing water and sanitation services, distributing non-food items, shelter materials and the tools needed to begin clearing debris and solid waste.
Paul Shanahan, CARE’s Senior Water and Sanitation Advisor was deployed for one month to Haiti to assist with improving access to water and improving hygiene. Sanitation remains an urgent priority. He recently described the challenges of such an enormous disaster:
'This killed as many people as the whole Asian tsunami across four countries and it all happened in one city. We are six months down the road - there is terrific prorgess being made but because of the scale of it, it's incredibly difficult to catch up, just maintaining the basic survival needs of the people.'
Gender-based violence is an ongoing concern with increased rates of rape and sexual violence. CARE is working to re-establish reporting procedures, and ensuring confidential, quality services, including clinical management of rape, emergency contraception and psychosocial support, are available to treat survivors of rape and sexual violence.
How CARE is helping
CARE's five-year recovery strategy will help to rebuild Haiti as a stronger country, working closely with urban and rural communities through wide consultation, careful assessment and analysis. CARE will continue to support those affected by meeting their water, sanitation and hygieene needs, with shelter, improving local food spplies, supprting women with quality health and protection services and helping children get back into school.
Having worked in Haiti since 1954, CARE has built on existing experience to respond to this emergency and help survivors, nearly doubling the number of staff with 70 additional national staff and an experienced emergency team. Read more about CARE's work in Haiti.
To date, CARE has assisted more than 290,000 people by distributing:
- water, water purification tablets and collapsible water containers
- tents, tarps and shelter kits
- kitchen sets
- mattresses and blankets
- hygiene kits, targeting women left particularly vulnerable
- delivery kits for pregnant women
- newborn kits
Other activities include:
- constructing earthquake resistant buildings
- constructing 800 latrines assisting over 100,000 people
- hygiene promotion activities
- counselling for women and girls about sexual and reproductive health and gender-based violence
- health care for abused and pregnant women and girls
- reproductive health services for pregnant and lactating women
- psychosocial support and treatment for children and adolescents
- providing cash-for-work activities to rehabilitate important feeder roads, irrigation systems and agricultural activities
CARE supports some of Haiti's most vulnerable
Of the three million people affected by the earthquake, there were an estimated 37,000 pregnant women. Haiti already has the highest maternal death rate in the region, and CARE moved quickly to provide urgent accees to safe drinking water, food and medical care.
CARE has distributed clean delivery kits to help pregnant women give birth safely, infant kits for mothers with newborns and hygiene kits including soap, toothpaste and sanitary napkins for women.
How your donation will help
Haiti is already one of the poorest countries in the world, and this earthquake has left up to three million impoverished women, families and communities homeless and deperate for basics, food and water.
Please help us rush life-saving aid to Haiti by making a donation to CARE’s Haiti Earthquake Appeal
- $50 can provide two families with a safe water kit
- $100 can provide six families with essential food items like high-energy biscuits
- $500 can provide life-saving hygiene packs for 300 people
Your gift to CARE today will help us deliver essential relief to survivors