15 January 2010

Haiti Appeal

With tens of thousands feared dead and over 3 million left injured, homeless and traumatised, aid agencies are mobilising to meet the most immediate needs of those affected. Top priorities for agencies delivering aid are water and sanitation, food, shelter, and medical supplies. RedR needs your help. At this moment, RedR has Members on standby for potential deployment into the affected areas and we have so far received a request for WATSAN engineers. In addition we have responded to requests for specialist advice from our Technical Support Service. Several RedR Members are also already on their way to Haiti as part of Agency responses.

RedR is liaising with the major agencies on the ground and we plan to send a team to Haiti in the next few days to undertake a full needs assessment to understand the training requirements of aid agencies who are responding to the crisis. Haiti is the poorest country in the western hemisphere and it simply does not have the infrastructure to manage a rescue operation. The country will need urgent medical and food aid, however we anticipate that this will be a protracted emergency with long-term needs such as the rebuilding of infrastructure. So far our information sources suggest that water and sanitation, shelter and security will be major issues. RedR has expertise in all these key areas.

RedR Member Joseph Ashmore, who worked in Haiti last year after the flooding in Gonaives, fears recovery may be difficult; "There will be serious issues in the longer term requiring longer term support from organisations like RedR - long after the earthquake has faded from the news. It will be a complex urban reconstruction with multi-storey houses and a history of chronic poverty and unrest".

We urgently need £20,000 to enable our team to fly out as soon as possible. There are likely to be further needs beyond this.

Read more about the engineering needs on the ground: http://www.redr.org.uk/en/Newsroom/Latest_News.cfm/haiti-earthquake-redr-supports-emergency-relief-efforts

You can help in a number of ways:

Donate NOW to our Emergency Response Fund via our website. Donations will be used to help RedR respond to the needs of the relief workers on the ground right now and in the future.

Get Involved - You can help by running the London Marathon, Wearing Red for RedR on 12 February or taking part in the Disaster Relief Challenge. Funds raised from these events will help RedR develop and deliver cutting edge training to give relief agencies and their staff the skills they need to respond to disaster situations in the most effective way.

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Notes for editors

Each year millions of people around the world feel the affects of natural disaster and conflict. RedR seeks to improve the effectiveness of disaster relief, to help save and rebuild the lives of people affected by disaster. We do this by delivering essential training and support to relief organisations and their staff, and by supplying skilled professionals to humanitarian programmes worldwide.  Our work helps to ensure that the right people with the right skills are responding to global emergencies, and enables both local and international relief workers to react to the needs of those affected by disaster, efficiently and safely.

For more information please contact:

Media contacts:

Sarah Bradford, RedR Communications Manager
Tel: +44 (0)20 7840 6015
Email: sarah.bradford@redr.org.uk

Eva Modvig, RedR Communications Officer
Tel: +44 (0)20 7840 6012
Email: eva.modvig@redr.org.uk

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