Food For The Poor Aids Haitians Driven from Homes by Violence
COCONUT CREEK, Fla. (June 18, 2021) Food For The Poor is rushing to provide food and critical aid to as many as 3,000 refugees from Martissant taking shelter in a sports center and other public places in Carrefour, Haiti, after their homes were pillaged, burned and destroyed by gangs.
In the last two weeks alone, nearly 8,500 women and children have been pushed from their homes in Port-au-Prince, according to UNICEF.
At the request of the mayor in Carrefour, the charity has provided rice, beans, cornmeal, MannaPack rice meals, sweet peas, evaporated milk, cooking oil, clothing, sanitizer and paper products to families staying in the sports center. In addition, FFTP has 130 containers of aid either en route to Haiti or at the port in Port-au-Prince. Those include 110 containers of food such as rice donated by the Republic of China (Taiwan), MannaPack from partner Feed My Starving Children and food purchased by the charity.
“The crisis in Haiti has advanced like a perfect storm,” said Food For The Poor President/CEO Ed Raine. “We have skyrocketing food prices, a complete lack of jobs, out-of-control hunger and now out-of-control COVID. All of that combined with the civil unrest and increased violence really has got a stranglehold on the country.”
The escalating violence and roadblocks have cut off the major road from Port-au-Prince to the country’s southwestern peninsula, where the charity’s four distribution centers regularly serve 131 schools, 142 parishes, 53 hospitals and 22 churches.
A spike in COVID-19 cases coupled with gang violence and civil unrest has created a humanitarian crisis in Haiti, a nation with an already fragile economy.
“When businesses can open, people have no purchasing power,” said Mario Nicoleau, FFTP-Haiti’s Chief Operating Officer. “There is no food. People are hungry.”
About 4.4 million people out of a population of 11 million are estimated to be food insecure in Haiti, including 1.9 million children, with UNICEF warning that access to nutritious food will worsen if a storm strikes Haiti. Those numbers, which were part of a September 2020 report, are expected to be even higher now because they didn’t account for gang violence or impasse in roads.
“An incredible number of people are in absolute dire straits,” Raine said. “This is why we’re compelled to act. This is a complete catastrophe.”
In Baie d’Orange, FFTP rushed help to the community after leaders there reported the deaths of two children due to malnutrition. The charity’s Haiti staff created a makeshift clinic, where nearly half of the 73 people screened were found to be malnourished.
“Every day brings different challenges,” Raine said. “We’re grateful for the extraordinary resilience of our team on the ground in Haiti, which is doing everything they can possibly do within the bounds of safety to be able to get help to where it needs to go. Please keep the people of Haiti in your prayers.”
There are three ways donors can help FFTP deliver aid to Haiti:
- Make a cash donation. Go to www.foodforthepoor.org/haitirelief.
- Purchase and donate items through FFTP’s AmazonSmile Charity List: www.FoodForThePoor.org/emergencysupplies.
- Bring canned goods to the charity’s Coconut Creek warehouse, 6401 Lyons Road, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. weekdays. For more information on the specific items accepted, please go to www.FoodForThePoor.org/help-now/haiti-crisis/
Food For The Poor, one of the largest international relief and development organizations in the nation, does much more than feed millions of hungry children and families living in poverty primarily in 17 countries of the Caribbean and Latin America. This interdenominational Christian ministry provides emergency relief assistance, clean water, medicine, educational materials, homes, support for vulnerable children, care for the aged, skills training and micro-enterprise development assistance. For more information, please visit www.FoodForThePoor.org.
Michael Turnbell
Public Relations
954-427-2222 x 6054
[email protected]
