NEWS

20100218

Everyday, Haitian and French Red Cross propose psychosocial support to children (age 5 to 11), living with their families on two squares in Petion-ville : Saint-Pierre square and Boyer Square. Through recreation activities like drawings, singing, sports, games, and supervised by psychologists (1French and 2Haitians), 20 RC volunteers, continuously trained to basic psychosocial support, around 500 kids/day are progressively returning to normal life, in a very secure place (within the confines of a school, on the St Pierre square).

The goal of these activities is to give them the opportunity to forget few hours their daily condition in the temporary camps and to be surrounded by attentive adults. So that they can find a certain routine, with schedules (open from 9 to 11 am and 2 to 4 pm).

On Wednesday and Friday afternoons, Haitians artists are coming to have activities with children such as painting or music.

These activities help the children to alleviate their post traumatic reactions such as sleep loss or, consequences of the trauma they lived during the earthquake. Most of them lost family members, and at least their house and live in very hard conditions...

But here, they can laugh, express themselves and find back their energic child’s .

20100218

In response to massive earthquake that struck Haiti and caused more than 100.000 people lost their life and left more than 2.5 million people homeless in Port-au-Prince and adjoining areas, the Turkish Red Crescent (TRC), in the wake of disaster, established its crisis management desk herein Disaster Operation Center (AFOM) to TRC to conduct and coordinate response activities in close coordination and cooperation within the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement as well as with relevant UN agencies and clusters deployed in Haiti. By taking the catastrophic situation emerged as a result of the quake into consideration, TRC expedited a response team composed of a relief delegates and psychologist to Haiti on 13th January 2010 from Ankara where the AFOM is located. The TRC's response team achieved to reach at Port-au-Prince on 15th January 2010 through Paris and Santo Domingo.

Concurrently, TRC dispatched first relief consignment from Turkey, composing 200 family tents, 2.000 blankets, 145 kitchen utensils and 1.000 body bags to Haiti by two C-130 Military Aircrafts those allocated by Turkish Air Force with a view to supporting ongoing relief activities within the concept of civil-military cooperation in emergency situation. In addition to TRC's relief consignment, the Ministry of Health sent two ambulance vehicles with drivers to be used for carrying wounded and rescued people from debris to the hospital or health centers by another military aircraft on the same day.

By considering logistics constrain prevailing in Haiti, a logistics team composed of two delegates and a PR (public relation) delegate sent by TRC to Haiti on 17th January 2010 by another two military aircraft those carrying a field hospital provided by the Ministry of Health with a capacity of 30 beds and 19 medical staffs composing 12 doctors and 4 nurses. The logistics team is going to be deployed on Santo Domingo or Santiago in Dominic Republic so as to establish logistic pipeline between two neighbouring countries and supply required relief items to earthquake zone in efficient and rapid manner.

TRC has already launched donation campaign in Turkey and called for people of Turkey to extend their helping hand to people of Haiti by contributing to the campaign.

The TRC's response team started distribution of 200 food rations including; 2 liters of milk, 1 liter of fruit juice, 2 pounds of sugar, 1 can of corn, 2 cans of red beans, 2 liter of potable water, 2 can of sauces, 2 can of sardines, 1 box of 10 bars of chocolate, 1 pack of sweet crackers, 1 pack of salty crackers in the capital Port-au-Prince in close coordination and cooperation with IFRC Delegation in Haiti and Food Cluster established by UN.

20100218

Emergency vaccination campaign starts in Port-au-Prince.

20100217

Nicolas Sarkozy has moved to defuse a potentially embarrassing row with the US over claims that France is being sidelined in the aid effort in Haiti.

The French president's office praised the US's "exceptional mobilisation" and its "essential role... on the ground".

He was responding to signs of tension that appeared over the weekend.

France's International Co-operation Minister Alain Joyandet complained that a French plane carrying a field hospital was turned back by US troops.

American forces have been running Port-au-Prince airport, and have not been able to accommodate all relief flights.

Mr Joyandet - who was in Haiti - said he had issued a formal protest to the US authorities via the French embassy, and that his actions were backed by Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner.

He was quoted as saying: "This is about helping Haiti, not about occupying Haiti."

Hurt pride

But now the Elysee Palace has issued a statement explicitly praising the US for its lead role in the emergency, and denying any breakdown in relations.

France has issued a stamp in solidarity with victims in Haiti

The statement says that Mr Sarkozy has had a telephone conversation with US President Barack Obama, in which they pledged to "unite their efforts to confront the urgent humanitarian situation, and, later, to respond to the vast task of reconstruction".

Underlying the episode is a tangible sense of hurt pride that France is being relegated to a secondary role in a country long regarded as part of its own sphere of influence.

France was colonial master in Haiti up until the famous slave revolt 200 years ago, and French is still an official language there.

The crisis has unleashed a vast outpouring of support and sympathy in France, which is home to some 80,000 Haitian nationals.

Charities have received more than 15m euros (£13m) from private donors - in addition to the 20m euros provided by the government.

France has also sent 240 emergency workers and police to help with the rescue effort, while two navy ships and five aircraft shuttle in supplies.

However, the fact that the United States is so clearly in charge of the operation does rankle with some in France - particularly those with a predisposition to mistrust anything American.

As one blogger put it on the website of Le Figaro newspaper: "The US aid to Haiti constitutes a new case of 'shock doctrine' - ie taking advantage of a natural calamity to subjugate a disorientated populace to the desires and orders of a financial and industrial oligarchy."

However most French people are far less hostile - recognising that Haiti is in America's backyard, and that America alone has the resources to react on the scale required.

Sarkozy lovar Haiti fransk hjälp

PORT-AU-PRINCE. Frankrike kommer att bidra med 366 miljoner euro (motsvarande 3,2 miljarder kronor) till skalvdrabbade Haiti. Det meddelade president Nicolas Sarkozy när han besökte landet på onsdagen. I det franska hjälppaketet ingår 58 miljoner euro i skuldavskrivning.

Sarkozy är den förste franske president som besöker den forna karibiska kolonin, som vann sin självständighet 1804. Haiti blev då den första självständiga republiken med svart befolkning.

Från helikopter iakttog Sarkozy den förstörda huvudstaden Port-au-Prince och andra drabbade områden. Han besökte också ett fältsjukhus som franska biståndsarbetare upprättat.

20100112

An earthquake measuring 7.3 on the Richter scale struck Haiti on 12 January. It has primarily affected the capital Port-au-Prince and other areas in the West Province which has an estimated population of 2.2 million.

Thousands of Haitian Red Cross volunteers and hundreds of Red Cross and Red Crescent staff from other countries continue their work to help the country heal.

More than 790 tonnes of Red Cross Red Crescent aid and 21 emergency response units (ERUs) have been mobilized.

Red Cross Red Crescent emergency appeal seeks 105 million Swiss francs (103 million USD/73 million euro) to assist 300,000 people for three years.