Plan International provides relief assistance to Haiti

 
~~Adz:Left~~ PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – PERSONS on Haiti are receiving well-needed help from a United Stated-based children’s charity known as Plan International.

Haiti was recently battered by a number of hurricanes and tropical storms, which left some 500 persons dead, buildings destroyed, trees downed, infrastructure obliterated and areas flooded.

According to a news item carried on Caribbean Net News, the relief operation initiated by Plan International and aid workers for the organisation “have already set up eight shelters and provided food and water for 1,000 people over the last week”.

The media house is also reporting that the charity has also “launched an appeal to raise US$158 000 for vital medical supplies and counselling for traumatised children.”

The Latin America Humanitarian Coordinator for Plan, Raul Rodriguez Choto, was quoted by the media house as saying “all our response is done in a coordinated manner. Plan is an active member of the national and regional disaster response committees of the government and the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). Everybody, especially the government, is thankful for our immediate response.”

As part of its short-term relief work, Plan will be working to fumigate “against diseases” and supplying hospitals and health care centers with medicines and, according to Caribbean New News, “aims to launch another appeal to provide long-term assistance, including replacing farmers’ lost livestock”.

The media house states that government officials in Haiti estimate the cost of damage caused by tropical systems Fay, Gustav, Hanna and Ike, is somewhere in the tens of millions.

Choto states however, “There is still three months to go before the hurricane season ends and it’s very difficult to predict what Mother Nature has in store for us.”