Canadians Respond Generously To Haitian Disaster

Canadians horrified by the images in quake-ravaged Haiti that are blanketing their newspapers and TV screens are responding with generosity.

Donations have been pouring into aid organizations at an astounding rate, aid agencies said Sunday.

The Canadian Red Cross reported it has so far received $22.2 million from Canadians for the Haiti relief effort.

“It’s tremendous support by the Canadian population,” said Michel Leveille, general manager of the Quebec division of the Red Cross.

“It’s just individual donations. That’s not counting the corporate donations.”

So far, the Canadian Red Cross has sent 10 French-speaking medical staff – doctors, nurses and midwives – to support a joint project with the Norwegian Red Cross providing a fully equipped emergency hospital that can treat up to 250,000 people.

His organization is also offering aid to Canadian evacuees who arrive in Montreal injured, drained and empty-handed.

“They’re fragile and exhausted,” he said. “People are completely exhausted. But there’s a tremendous sense of relief.”

Some quake survivors arriving in Montreal were put in wheelchairs, others were on stretchers and taken to waiting ambulances. Many were wrapped in Red Cross blankets, their possessions left behind in the Haitian capital.

Leveille said the Red Cross is working with other organizations to provide shelter, clothing and food for those who need it.

The Humanitarian Coalition – an umbrella organization of disaster relief organizations including Care Canada, Oxfam and Save the Children – have totalled $2.5 million in disaster relief aid from Canadians.

Audree Montpetit, a member of Care Canada’s emergency response team Port-au-Prince, said Sunday the aid is beginning to flow to the Haitians.

“We’re getting more supplies and more people by the hour,” she said in an interview from a satellite phone on the roof of her office in the Haitian capital.

“Aid is being delivered.”

Care Canada began distributing 75,000 water purification tablets on Saturday, along with hygiene kits to help stave off disease.

Five-thousand mattresses were also being given to the survivors forced to sleep outside for fear the buildings left standing would collapse in the aftershocks.

World Vision said aid is coming in at an amazing rate – faster than the donations that flowed in following the 2004 tsunami. It has collected $5.1 million in donations so far.

Isabelle Depelteau, a spokeswoman for World Vision, said the organization is currently distributing aid despite the logistical difficulties and the sheer number of those in need.

She said 40 per cent of the Haitian population is under 19-years-old and are the most vulnerable.

“We are an organization that focuses on children,” she said. “The children are the most affected by tragedies like this one. They can’t express what they need.”

World Vision is trying to organize safe zones – along with UNICEF – where children can get help, including psychological support.

“These children are in an absolutely pitiful state,” she said.

With emergency aid flooding into Haiti from all over the world, aid organizations are also beginning to ask for more sustained relief.

The Canadian Red Cross has launched an appeal for $105 million for three years of support for the estimated 300,000 people left homeless.

“We need to keep up the momentum so the Canadian Red Cross is fully mobilized during the emergency phase, and also the reconstruction,” Leveille said.

Montpetit agreed.

“The generosity of the whole world is very, very inspiring,” she said. “But the support is going to be needed for the reconstruction phase that will happen in a few months. There’s a lot of challenges. Haiti before the tragedy was a fragile country.”

The group United Jewish Appeal said it has raised $200,000 for its Haiti disaster relief fund.

That money is supporting a team of medical staff from Israel in Haiti.

The federal government is matching donations made to registered charitable groups for the Haitian disaster up to a maximum of $50 million.