Haiti Earthquake Updates

February 12, 2010

Donations for the United Church's Haiti Appeal surpassed $1.3 million on Wednesday, February 10, as congregations worked to meet the government's February 12 deadline for potential matching. The United Church, its partners in Haiti, and members of the ACT Alliance (Action by Churches Together) are grateful for the love that God has shown the people of Haiti through the remarkable generosity of United Church members across Canada.

Meanwhile, the United Church continued its work with other Canadian churches and the ACT Alliance toward coordinated responses to relief and reconstruction efforts in Haiti. The Canadian Churches in Action (CCA) proposal will focus on housing (building earthquake- and hurricane-resistant houses), water, and sanitation.

In Haiti, ACT members continued to distribute relief supplies and to gather the data needed to enable effective aid both for emergency purposes and for longer-term reconstruction. Since the earthquake, the ACT Alliance has assisted more than 150,000 people. The majority of people are assisted with ongoing support such as water, sanitation, shelter, or regular food supplies. Others have received relief items such as cash, family kits, or hygiene sets. Others have benefitted from medical assistance and supplies to health clinics. For more information about the ACT Alliance response, see "One Month in Haiti, ACT Helps 150 000 Lives."

The United Nations reported that the current estimated number of deaths is 212,000 people and the number of injured is more than 300,000 people. More than 1.2 million people are living in spontaneous settlements and 467,701 have left Port-au-Prince, mostly to the Artibonite and Centre departments.

The Methodist Church of Haiti (a partner of The United Church of Canada) reported that eight of its churches and nine schools were destroyed. The office of another United Church partner, the Karl Lévêque Cultural Institute, collapsed but fortunately no one was in the building at the time.

Many United Church people joined global campaigns for cancellation of Haiti's foreign debt. At the time of the earthquake, Haiti owed just over $1 billion to foreign creditors. The campaigns were largely successful: by February 10, steps were underway to cancel almost all of that debt. The International Monetary Fund was the sole holdout.