Haiti Update

1. The emergency in Haiti: More medication is urgently required Allies of Aktion Deutschland Hilft provide emergency aid Bonn, Germany, 14 January 2010. Extensive aid measures of the member organisations of relief organisation Aktion Deutschland Hilft have begun for the victims of the earthquake in Haiti. World Vision is distributing first-aid kits, clothing, blankets and water bottles. Handicap International is also preparing to distribute food and has strengthened its team with logisticians and physiotherapists. "The poorest of the poor have been affected and the children in particular are suffering from the catastrophe. " It was still school time as the earthquake struck; therefore many children are now searching for their parents. We are caring for these children," reports Harry Donsbach from World Vision, management board of Aktion Deutschland Hilft. The only functional hospital in Port au Prince is the Adventist Hospital of Haiti of the member organisation ADRA. Colleagues from Haiti are reporting that the hospital is completely full and that there is not enough medication. Together with action medeor, HELP is on the way to Haiti with a health kit containing medication. Additionally, a two-person team of the organisation and assessment teams from ASB and the Johanniter are also on the way to determine which assistance is the most urgent in Haiti. A medical team of the Malteser organisation is also on its way and will tend to the supply of emergency medical care for the victims of the earthquake. Today, World Vision is sending out two pilots from the United States with medical aid which contains plastic sheets, tents, blankets, water containers and cooking sets. The medical aid has been able to be sent out quickly as it was actually meant for the forthcoming floods in this geographical area.

2. A Haitian Red Cross official estimated today that 45,000 to 50,000 people perished in the shattering earthquake Tuesday, as President Obama pledged US support of $100 million for what he said is likely to be one of the biggest relief efforts in history. Desperately needed aid began arriving from around the world this morning, the Washington Post reports. An Air China plane carrying a Chinese search-and-rescue team, medics, and tons of food and medicine landed at Port-au-Prince airport before dawn, along with three French planes with aid and a mobile hospital, officials said. A British relief team arrived in neighboring Dominican Republic, the AP reports. Bodies lay everywhere in Port-au-Prince, as survivors, many severely injured, set up camps, salvaging mattresses, plastic chairs, bits of cardboard and food from the rubble. Others streamed on foot into the Haitian countryside, where wooden and cinderblock shacks showed little sign of damage, passing ambulances and UN trucks racing in the opposite direction. "This is much worse than a hurricane," said a doctor's assistant working at a makeshift triage center set up in a hotel parking lot. "There's no water. There's nothing. Thirsty people are going to die."