Direct Relief International Responding to 7.0-Magnitude Earthquake in Haiti
SANTA BARBARA, Calif. – Direct Relief International is responding to a 7.0-magnitude earthquake and its aftershocks that struck Haiti today. The earthquake, centered off Port-au-Prince, destroyed a hospital in Petionville and damaged other buildings; the number of injured is expected to be high.
Emergency aid is being offered to all our partners in Haiti to support their response to the quake. Two shipping containers, a 40-foot and a 20-foot of ongoing medical material aid, arrived in Port-au-Prince today, destined for St. Damien Children’s Hospital.
Direct Relief’s partners in Haiti include Partners in Health, St. Damien Children’s Hospital, the Visitation Hospital, Christian Aid Ministries, and Feed the Children. St. Damien and Partners in Health are particularly active in emergency response and have received pre-positioned materials for hurricane season, which ended November 30, and are designed to support ongoing patient care if needed. Since 2000, Direct Relief has provided more than $60 million in medical material aid to Haiti.
Partners in Health began in 1985 as a small community clinic; today that clinic has grown to a 104-bed, full-service hospital and eight other clinic sites across Haiti's Central Plateau. Food for the Poor, a Catholic relief agency founded in 1982, offers assistance to the poor throughout Latin America and the Caribbean. Visitation Hospital serves between 80 and 90 patients a day at its facility outside Port-au-Prince, which houses a lab and pharmacy, seven exam rooms, two medical/dental procedure rooms, and a food bank.
As partners' needs become clear, additional emergency aid will be delivered as soon as possible.
About Direct Relief International
Founded in 1948, Direct Relief is a Santa Barbara, California-based nonprofit organization focused on improving quality of life by bringing critically needed medicines and supplies to local healthcare providers worldwide. Direct Relief has provided more than $1 billion in privately funded humanitarian aid since 2000, including more than $150 million in assistance in the United States. It has earned a fundraising efficiency score of 99 percent or better from Forbes for the past eight years, and is ranked by the Chronicle of Philanthropy as California’s largest international nonprofit organization based on private support. For more information, please visit www.DirectRelief.org.
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