JDC's Haiti Earthquake
Disaster Response
JDC's Response: Helping Rebuild Haiti
In response to the devastating earthquake that struck Haiti on January 12, JDC has collected and continues to collect funds to aid relief and reconstruction efforts for victims. In coordination with its network of Israeli, American, and other local Haitian partners on the ground, JDC is providing critical food, water, shelter, medical aid, and education to local residents.
Food
Through Zanmi Lasante/Partners in Health, JDC is supporting the treatment of some 2,200 children within the internally displaced population suffering from malnutrition. JDC supported EcoWorks International in operating a feeding program for injured patients and their families at a damaged local hospital that serves the poor in Port-au-Prince. In addition, a JDC-allotted grant to Chabad-Lubavitch of the Dominican Republic funded convoys carrying milk for children in Haiti.
Water
JDC’s partnership with the Prodev Foundation, a local Haitian NGO focusing on education and development, is providing clean drinking water to hundreds of thousands of displaced earthquake victims living in tent villages. More than 400,000 gallons are being accessed daily through 80 water tanks. JDC is also funding several water supply projects through the International Rescue Committee to provide sources of clean, potable water in Port-au-Prince and the surrounding community.
Shelter
JDC’s partnership with World ORT is supporting training courses to teach local Haitian builders anti-seismic construction techniques that will help meet the local demand for reconstruction in Port-au-Prince and elsewhere in Haiti.
With JDC funds, 1,250 displaced families have received shelter kits containing a family tent, tarp, a hammer and nails, and other essential items through Catholic Relief Services.
Medical Aid and Supplies
Continuing its work with Magen David Adom to provide quality longer-term care for amputees and others severely injured in the quake, JDC is renovating and establishing two rehabilitation centers and providing world-class Israeli, American, and Haitian medical expertise as well as prostheses and rehabilitation equipment. Complementing this effort, JDC's ongoing partnership with the Afya Foundation is helping these amputees to perform activities of daily living independently by providing them physical and occupational therapy and rehabilitation equipment.
JDC’s partnership with International Medical Corps is ensuring that medical assistance reaches the periphery outside the capital that have unmet needs, by operating a medical clinic in Miragoane, a town approximately 50 miles from Port-au-Prince on Haiti’s Western coast, and one boat clinic serving three remote coastal communities in Haiti.
Through Zanmi Lasante/Partners in Health, JDC is purchasing five desperately needed ambulances to transport internally displaced persons between medical clinics in Port-au-Prince, the Central Plateau, and the lower Artibonite Valley.
JDC continues to support Heart to Heart International in providing medical care, equipment, and services to victims of the earthquake. JDC has also funded the purchase of two trucks and two SUVs to transport Heart to Heart’s teams of doctors, nurses, and other material assistance to communities in need outside of Port-au-Prince such as Leogane and Jacmel where adequate relief has been slow to reach.
Working with the Afya Foundation, five containers of mattresses, blankets, much-needed medical supplies, and tents were sent to Zanmi Lasante/Partners in Health and EcoWorks on the ground in Haiti.
JDC worked with the Medical Corps of the Israel Defense Forces, whose team of medical professionals operated a field hospital in Port-au-Prince for two weeks following the disaster. JDC helped equip the hospital, furnishing infant incubators for its neonatal unit and much-needed orthopedic devices.
Education
JDC has partnered with the Prodev Foundation to operate 10 temporary schools for 2,000 displaced children in spontaneous settlements in Port-au-Prince. Already underway, each school has a curriculum, with instruction being provided by Haitian teachers and university students.
JDC’s funding of Zanmi Lasante/Partners in Health is enabling some 3,000 children in the Central Plateau and Artibonite, many who have lost family members and homes, to attend school when the costs would otherwise be prohibitive.
Post-trauma Relief
Through JDC’s partnership with the Israel Trauma Coalition, caregivers in Haiti are learning from Israeli experts how to provide culturally appropriate forms of trauma relief and psychosocial support in schools and community centers.
Economic Rehabilitation
JDC is creating jobs for internal refugees in Ganthier developing local infrastructure, including the building of wells and latrines as well as a reforestation effort, through its support of EcoWorks International's cash for work program.
JDC continues to coordinate its activities with the US Department of State, USAID, the Israeli Foreign Ministry, Israeli relief agencies, and the United Nations.
JDC and its partners worldwide have implemented similar relief efforts and continue to operate programs designed to rebuild infrastructure and community life in disaster-stricken regions.
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The Jewish Coalition for Disaster Relief, which is chaired by JDC, is working with American Jewish World Service to help rebuild the organizational capacity of Fonkoze, the largest micro-finance institution offering financial services to the rural-based poor in Haiti. JCDR is also partnering with the Israel Trauma Coalition to bring Israeli experts to train caregivers in the fields of education, mental health, and local leadership. Other recent allocations have been made to American Jewish World Service for a solar lighting and lanterns project, and to the Jewish Chaplaincy to provide counseling for Haitians in the US.
Earthquake Background
On January 12, 2010, at 5 p.m. Haiti was hit by a 7.0 magnitude earthquake—the most powerful to strike the Caribbean nation in 200 years. The quake’s epicenter was 10 miles from Port-au-Prince, the country’s capital. News outlets are reporting death tolls of more than 200,000.
Homes, infrastructure, and livelihoods have been wiped out. Hospitals and health facilities were destroyed, as were the presidential palace, numerous government buildings (including those of the UN and the World Bank), and thousands of shanty homes on the hillside of Port-au-Prince.
JDC in Region
In 2008, JDC raised funds to support the relief efforts of the International Federation of the Red Cross and the Red Crescent Society’s Emergency Appeal to assist victims of Hurricane Gustav in Haiti and the Dominican Republic. In the past, JDC has responded to Hurricanes in Cuba and Central America and has been in coordination with all local Jewish Community leadership and other international NGOs throughout the region.
JDC is the official humanitarian assistance organization for the Jewish community and the Jewish Federations of North America.