Two Months After Hurricane Matthew: Rebuilding in Haiti

COCONUT CREEK, Fla. (Dec. 1, 2016) Thanks to generous donors, hundreds of the poor in Haiti are receiving the gift of a safe, secure home as Food For The Poor continues to help the country recover from Hurricane Matthew.

Just two weeks after the storm ravaged Haiti’s southern peninsula, the charity launched a campaign to build 1,000 new housing units in 100 days in addition to repairing damage to hundreds of homes.

To date, our construction teams have:

• Started building 476 new housing units, with all set to be completed in two weeks.
• Prepared to build 600 more housing units.
• Repaired roofs on 183 homes in addition to repainting the homes, and begun repairs on 193 more homes.
• Repaired six fishing villages with work on three more under way.
• Repaired three schools and one community center.

“The urgency to provide homes cannot be overstated. Those who have had to live in the open since the hurricane are in danger of any number of diseases,” said Robin Mahfood, President/CEO of Food For The Poor.

“Our donors have given a tremendous amount in the past two months to ensure that their brothers and sisters in Haiti have a chance to eat, drink clean water and lie down under some kind of shelter at night. We are grateful for their commitment and we will continue to count on their generosity in the long recovery we have ahead of us,” Mahfood said.

Haiti’s dire housing needs were compounded by Hurricane Matthew, which barreled across the country’s southern peninsula on Oct. 4 with Category 4-strength winds of 145 mph. The storm flattened homes and crops along the southwest coast, damaged schools, swept away livestock and cut off transportation.

Those who survived the storm have faced great challenges, including going days without food.

Food For The Poor has shipped a total of 151 containers of lifesaving aid to Haiti, including 15 from the charity’s headquarters in Coconut Creek, and more than 100 drop-shipped directly from donors or suppliers to Haiti.

The containers have included food, medical supplies, pharmaceuticals, building materials and other goods.

The threat of disease has loomed over the recovery of the country. By installing water filtration units, Food For The Poor is helping stop the spread of cholera. The charity has partnered with Water Mission International to install eight water filtration units in Grand’Anse and Les Cayes and is working to install four more units for storm-affected areas in northwest Haiti.

Other partners are contributing in meaningful ways, saving lives and giving hope:

• Sixteen skids of medicines and nearly 3 million water purification tables were delivered recently to Haiti, thanks to a partnership between Air Transat and Food For the Poor-Canada. The airline flew 25 tons of basic necessities along with aid workers from Montreal to Port-au-Prince.
• Here is a video of aid being delivered in Haiti by our Canadian partners: www.FoodForThePoor.org/canadianconnections.
• Weston, Fla.-based VPX Performance Nutrition donated 20 pallets of a protein drink – equal to 28,000 individual servings – to Food For The Poor to help families in desperate need of nutrition. The energy drinks were loaded at the company’s Weston office on Nov. 18 and shipped directly to Haiti.
• Seaboard Marine donated 13 containers, continuing a longtime commitment to the charity. They are being used to store relief and building supplies in Haiti.

To help storm victims in Haiti, cash donations are best. To help right now, please call 1-800-427-9104 or visit www.FoodForThePoor.org/hurricane.

For those who would rather donate goods, Food For The Poor is accepting canned meats, canned fish and canned milk at its Coconut Creek warehouse at 6401 Lyons Road, Coconut Creek, Fla. 33073. At this time, the charity is not accepting clothing donations as it has other sources for those items.

Food For The Poor, one of the largest international relief and development organizations in the nation, does much more than feed millions of the hungry poor in 17 countries of the Caribbean and Latin America. This interdenominational Christian ministry 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 95 percent of all donations going directly to programs that help the poor. For more information, please visit www.FoodForThePoor.org.

Michael Turnbell

Public Relations
954-427-2222 x 6054
michaelt@foodforthepoor.com