Aid Getting through

19/01/2010
By Juliet O'Neill, Canwest News ServiceJanuary 19, 2010 6:03 PM

OTTAWA — Leaders of four Canadian relief organizations said they are managing to help thousands of people in Haiti despite an aid supply bottleneck at the Port-au-Prince airport and delays in co-ordinating international efforts.

They are getting around the "choke point" by using supplies purchased in Haiti, brought in overland from Dominican Republic or shipped from Miami.

They also spoke in a conference call with reporters Tuesday about how their aid workers are finding the vast majority of Haitians organized and calm.

 

Photograph by: AFP PHOTO/Juan BARRETO

 

David Morley, president of Save the Children Canada, said Haitians "have shown remarkable restraint and orderliness in the face of this horrific destruction."

CARE Canada President Kevin McCort told of buying 5,000 mattresses and supplies for 5,000 hygiene kits in Haiti, so it was not necessary to rely on supplies being flown to the overwhelmed Port-au-Prince airport.

"It's not all about getting material (outside) there are supplies within the country as well," McCort said.

Oxfam Canada's executive director Robert Fox told of how 20,000 tonnes of Oxfam Canada supplies on a plane that circled round Port-au-Prince's overwhelmed airport was diverted to neighbouring Dominican Republic and trucked in to the earthquake zone.

Those supplies included sanitation equipment, chlorine for treating drinking water, buckets, plastic sheeting and body bags. Oxfam is distributing water at soccer fields and golf courses in the capital where tens of thousands of homeless people are camped.

"Yesterday our capacity to deliver water in some places was hampered by the fact that we didn't have the fuel for our trucks but today the fuel has arrived so we're back to full delivery and ramping up," said Fox. "So there are certainly barriers but we are overcoming some of those barriers."

CARE, Oxfam Canada, Oxfam Quebec and Save the Children Canada have pooled their 600 personnel in Haiti, resources and fundraising efforts into a charity for Haiti relief called the 'Humanitarian Coalition.' So far they have raised $3.5 million of their $5 million goal.

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