Aid is getting through to Haiti earthquake victims

posted on: Jan 19 2010 17:21 by The Reporter. Viewed 694 times.


Despite the news reports suggesting that bottlenecks at the congested Port-au-Prince airport are restricting help getting to the earthquake victims, many organizations say they are getting through.

Several reports of planes unable to land at the city�s airport and having to land at airports in the Dominican Republic  have surfaced. One charity, Doctors Without Borders said Sunday that, despite guarantees from the United Nations and the U.S. Defense Department, its cargo plane carrying an inflatable surgical hospital was blocked from landing in Port-au-Prince the day before and was rerouted to Samana, Dominican Republic.

The aid supplies were then sent by truck from Samana, said the group, also known in French as M�decins Sans Fronti�res. However, the re-routing added a 24-hour delay to the hospital's arrival.

The surgical hospital includes two operating theaters, an intensive-care unit, 100-bed hospitalization capacity, an emergency room and all the necessary equipment needed for sterilizing material.

"MSF (Doctors Without Borders) teams are currently working around the clock in five different hospitals in Port-au-Prince, but only two operating theaters are fully functional, while a third operating theater has been improvised for minor surgery due to the massive influx of wounded and lack of functional referral structures," the organization said.
The group said two of its medical teams have performed more than 100 operations since arriving in the country, but frustrations are high over the delays.

An emergency communications officer with the group in Haiti said conditions are growing worse for patients and "we need the inflatable hospital -- if it ever arrives."

"Patients who were not critical only three days ago are now in critical phases," she wrote in a news release. "This means that people will die from preventable infections. It's horrible."

The World Food Programme said it reached 40,000 people in and around Port-au-Prince with high-energy biscuits. The organization said its goal is to reach another 60,000 people on Sunday. Convoys and shipments carrying ready-to-eat foods continue to arrive, the group said.

The WFP's convoy was the first food to arrive in Leogane, about 18 kilometers (11 miles) west of Port-au-Prince and close to where the earthquake was centered, it said in a statement. Nearly every building collapsed, and tens of thousands of people are believed to have been killed. Survivors are living in makeshift camps.

In addition, the organization was distributing hot meals in some places, such as hospitals and schools, and has begun setting up kitchens at distribution sites, it said.

The Red Cross said in a statement Sunday it had built latrines for 1,000 people and supplied medical kits for 2,000 patients to two hospitals. Seven truckloads of medical supplies should arrive in Port-au-Prince Sunday night, it said.

The Dominican Republic�s main airport in Santo Domingo (Las Americas International Airport) has acting as the the second largest port of entry into Haiti,  receiving a massive flow of aid workers, reporters and rescue workers from other countries, say reporters from AFP.

"The hotels are full, it is impossible to get a rental car", said some freelance reporters who were negotiating a trip to Haiti for the following day at US$100 a seat. Some 60 Red Cross workers arrived on Saturday night along with members of Doctors without Borders and aid workers from South Africa's Gift of the Givers (who were proud to be the first NGO from Africa to arrive on the American continent).

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