Haiti: Josh Shahryar's Humanitarian LiveBlog (20/21 January)

0641 GMT

Another urgent request for help from three orphanages in Port-au-Prince within a mile of Port-au-Prince. Joanne Stocker of Help Haiti Heal has updates on both:

The orphanages are Foyer Notre Dame Nativite in Fonta Mara Orphanage, Foyer Notre Dame Nativite in Fonta Mara Orphanage and Foyer des Filles de Dieu Orphanage (Home for the Girls of God). If you have any means of getting these children out of harms way and providing them with more supplies, please do so.

Haiti: Josh Shahryar’s News LiveBlog (20/21 January)

(This request is especially intended for the US troops who’ve been helping out greatly with the search and rescue efforts, as well as other relief efforts inside the Haitian Capital.)

If you would like to help – and it would be greatly appreciated – please check the full information on these orphanages by CLICK HERE or contacting Joanne of Help Haiti Heal.

Please help if you can – at least 55 little girls have already died in these orphanages in the past few days.



0600 GMT

Six planes carrying vital medical supplies belonging to Doctors Without Borders (MSF) have been re-routed to the Dominican Republic from Port-au-Prince Airport. These planes were carrying 85 tonnes of supplies badly needed in Haiti to help with the efforts of MSF’s medical staff to treat injured and sick Haitians. MSF has a video report.

0523 GMT

As the scope of the calamity in Haiti became clearer every day, the American people stepped up to the challenge by getting involved both financially and physically to help the people of Haiti. One of these was by making donations through text-messages. One of these was texting “Haiti” to 90999. The US Department of State’s official blog DipNote has an update on this story that gives us all hope:

n January 20, 2010, the text “Haiti” to “90999” campaign passed the $25 million mark. This is the largest mobile donation campaign to date and a true testament of the generosity of the American people. On behalf of everyone at the State Department, we thank you for your contributions.

Within hours of the earthquake, the Department helped launch this mobile fund-raising initiative in partnership with the American Red Cross, Mobile Accord and the mGive Foundation. Donations will appear on customers’ monthly bills or be debited from a prepaid account balance, and 100 percent of the proceeds from this campaign support Red Cross relief efforts in Haiti. As a friend, a partner, and a supporter, the United States will continue to assist the people and government of Haiti in every way we can. This is a long-term commitment that will extend beyond the current emergency.

More ways you can help: Clinton Bush Haiti Fund

More about the crisis and how you can help: state.gov/haitiquake

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Haiti: Josh Shahryar's Humanitarian LiveBlog (19/20 January)

EA's Josh Shahryar updates on overnight developments on the humanitarian front in Haiti, complementing his News LiveBlog:

0450 GMT

Doctors Without Broders (MSF) has released a video showing there activities on the ground in Haiti. (Warning, the images are disturbing.)

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzEar6aCTxQ[/youtube]

0409 GMT

Doctors Without Borders (MSF) report on their day’s work in Haiti:

Loris De Filippi, the coordinator for MSF’s work in Choscal hospital in Cite Soleil, says the situation is dire: “Every time we go out of the operating theatre, we see faces imploring us for treatment. And they are begging us there in front of the hospital. It’s a very unacceptable situation. What we are trying to do is to expand our capacity to answer these calls. But we need supplies to get to the airport—and we don’t know why the planes are being re-directed.”

In Carrefour hospital, Paul McMaster, a surgeon, says that the needs are all too obvious: “We’ve not been able to get the equipment we need in the hospital because of these delivery problems. We’re running out. On Saturday we didn’t have one of our anesthetists. We’ve run out of plaster of Paris for fractures and we’ve no crepe bandages at the moment. So it’s just a nightmare to get these basic materials.”

MSF is currently operating in a host of locations in and around the capital. More than 1,500 patients have received treatment at an MSF hospital in Martissant, to name just one, and 120 of them are receiving inpatient care. MSF recently began working in Port-au-Prince’s General Hospital, where staff found a working dialysis machine and immediately began putting it to use. MSF’s nephrology team carried out its first treatment on Monday and will expand their work when new dialysis machines arrive by road from the Dominican Republic. After numerous delays, the construction of an inflatable hospital has finally begun as well; when complete, it will have room for 100 beds and will house two operating theatres.

In Leogane, one of the hardest hit towns outside the capitol, a team is working in a nursing school where, prior to MSF’s arrival, the staff had been struggling to provide basic care. Another team in Leogane is preparing four surgical wards in what was a missionary hospital to accept the large number of referral cases in the area. In Jacmel, another battered town, an MSF team is performing surgery in the hospital’s operating theater.

0334 GMT

Nate Loucks has an urgent appeal for transportation to Jacmel, southwest of Port-au-Prince from Santo-Domingo.

Kristine Brite writes:

We’ve got a team of doctors/nurses in the DR. Plane broke. Can’t get to Jacmel, Haiti now. Do you know anyone that can help?

Confirmed on his blog:


http://www.nateloucks.com/?p=395

If you know of anyone going from DR to Jacmel, write me and I will coordinate with Nate Loucks.

Contact Kristin or Nate on Twitter by clicking HERE and HERE if you can help provide transporation for these doctors. As you know, lives depend on them in Haiti.

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