Less than a week after Hurricane Matthew devastated Haiti, the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) is now helping provide hygiene kits, water purification tablets, and other basic aid to hundreds of people and has dispatched its veteran disaster relief expert/emergency field medic to help coordinate JDC’s on-the-ground response and directly assist in emergency medical care with JDC partner Heart to Heart International’s medical team in Jeremie, a town decimated by the Hurricane. JDC’s partnership with UNICEF ensures relief for hygiene and water needs.
‘As the death toll in Haiti continues to rise, our efforts to aid the hardest-hit communities are vital as needs like shelter, food, water, medicine and medical services have dramatically increased,’ said Mandie Winston, Director of JDC’s International Development Program ‘Our response is especially crucial as concerns about the public health situation and fear of diseases like cholera continue to further underline the need for rapid care of the most vulnerable victims. ‘
Following the Hurricane, JDC’s relief work in Haiti — in the form of emergency medical aid and care –has been directed towards the most impacted areas located in the south of the island where hundreds have been reported dead and widespread destruction has taken a toll on tens of thousands of homes, livelihood, critical infrastructure like cell communications, key bridges, and roads, as well as food supplies and long-term food security.
A fourth JDC-supported medical team from Heart to Heart International was dispatched yesterday to Fondwa, a small community village in the Western Department of Haiti. JDC has a history of working in this area, having built a school and created livelihood projects there in the aftermath of the 2010 earthquake.
JDC’s Haiti relief partners include Heart to Heart International and UNICEF.
JDC’s disaster relief programs are funded by special appeals of the Jewish Federations of North America and tens of thousands of individual donors to JDC. JDC coordinates its relief activities with the U.S. Department of State, USAID, Interaction, and the United Nations.