Relief Efforts in Haiti Continue

Catholic Relief Services (CRS) continues to distribute aid to survivors of the 7.0-magnitude earthquake that struck Haiti on Tuesday, January 12. The biggest concerns right now are the basic necessities of life: food, water, and shelter.

The quake's epicenter was just 10 miles south of the country's capital, Port-au-Prince, leaving it in ruins.  The number of deaths is estimated to be more than 222,500 people and the number of injured at 311,000 people. In addition, as many as 1.3 million people have been displaced from their homes and communities. Approximately 600,000 people, including close to 310,000 children, are living in official or spontaneous settlements – makeshift communities with minimal privacy or facilities. Another 600,000 have left Port-au-Prince to take refuge with family and friends in outlying areas.

As the rainy season approaches, the focus of CRS' relief effort is moving from food—CRS has fed some 600,000 people—to transitional shelter. Many Port-au-Prince residents, their homes either destroyed or unstable, are living beneath sheets and curtains that provide no protection against inclement weather.
CRS has distributed emergency shelter kits—two waterproof tarpaulins, 80 nails, 100 feet of rope, and one rubber inner tube—to 12,000 families. The material will be used to construct temporary structures that should give 60,000 people protection from the rain. The inner tube is cut into squares that reinforce tarps at the points where they're fastened to frames by nails. Read more stories and news about Haiti.