Food For The Poor Sends 3,100 Tons of Emergency Relief to Haiti
COCONUT CREEK, Fla. (Feb. 2, 2010) – To date, Food For The Poor has purchased, packaged and shipped more than 3,100 tons of emergency relief to the earthquake victims in Haiti. The agency has been working there for more than 24 years and plans on providing humanitarian aid to the country as long as it is necessary, and is now focused on providing relief, and rebuilding homes and schools.
More than 300 containers filled with emergency relief items will be delivered to Haiti. Containers filled with water, rice, canned foods, agricultural tools, hygiene kits, medical supplies, tents, baby supplies, wheelchairs, crutches, tarps, lumber, zinc roofing materials and other essentials will continue to be sent in through the Dominican Republic, as well as Haiti’s ports.
The largest international relief organization in the United States is distributing these items through various feeding centers, including its own in downtown Port-au-Prince where thousands of hot meals are being served daily. And Food For The Poor is also delivering food directly to earthquake victims living in tent cities in various sections of Haiti.
At a large tent city in Delmas, there are at least 50,000 people struggling to survive. Food For The Poor has installed an 8,000-gallon water tank for the displaced residents there. It is refilled five times a day. Food For The Poor has also donated solar-powered water purification machines that are processing thousands of gallons a day at several compounds including a largeestablishment within the city of Port-au-Prince. Before the earthquake, the charity had completed 676 water projects (wells, cisterns and water towers and latrines) throughout the entire country.
“Threat of disease is everywhere from poor sanitation, unclean water, the very sad fact that in some cases bodies still remain where they fell during the earthquake. Medical supplies are beginning to get to the teams of doctors,” said Food For The Poor’s Executive Director, Angel Aloma. “We must really start to think beyond this immediate relief now, and plan for the rebuilding, the rebirth of Port-au-Prince. It will be a huge undertaking, and it will take a long time.”
Food For The Poor, the largest international relief and development organization in the United States, does much more than feed millions of hungry poor in 17 countries of the Caribbean and Latin America. This interdenominational Christian agency provides emergency relief assistance, clean water, medicines, educational materials, homes, support for orphans and the aged, skills training and micro-enterprise development assistance, with more than 96 percent of all donations going directly to programs that help the poor. For more information, please visit www.foodforthepoor.org.
Aimee Vignola
Public Relations
(954) 427-2222, ext. 6079