Haiti - Americans Must Act and Care About What Happens to Haitians

See one comment below:

The Jerusalem Post is headlining the tragedy of floods caused by Hurricane Hanna in Haiti. Where is the American mainstream media on this story? They're no doubt watching election polls.

http://tinyurl.com/55ykuy

Dateline Jerusalem Post and Associated Press September 6, 2008

"Floods caused by tropical storm Hanna claim 529 lives in Haiti
By Jerusalem POST STAFF AND Associated Press

Death tolls reached 529 in Haiti, as more bodies were discovered on Saturday when Hurricane Hanna flood waters continued to recede.

Hanna weakened to become a tropical storm after hitting Haiti.

UN peacekeeping troops began handing out food and water to famished Haitians on Friday after the first shipload of aid sailed into a crumbling port on the outskirts of this flooded city, where tens of thousands were stranded in the wake of Tropical Storm Hanna.

But the respite was expected to be brief. Hurricane Ike, a dangerous Category 3 storm, was forecast to pass just north of Haiti on Sunday. Even if Haiti avoided a direct hit, Ike was almost certain to bring rain to the fertile Artibonite Valley, whose rivers funnel into Gonaives, Haiti's fourth-largest city, and the surrounding flood plain.

On Friday, the European Union promised US$2.85 million to provide storm victims with food, water, shelter, basic medical care and household equipment."

Americans are so consumed with news about us, the "US", and are therefore media-oblivious to the enormous tragedy happening to people living poverty in our hemisphere.

Now Hurricane Ike is likewise going to affect these same desperate Haitian people.

Can Americans do as least as much as the European Union, by reaching out to these afflicted Haitian people with money, health care and emergency food?

Hopefully, America will quickly rise above our political angst right now, to care for the poor vulnerable people in a suffering Haitian population.

And, we must pray for them to have the strength to endure.

Response from John in Salem New Hampshire:
Dear Julie,
You might want to check the Catholic Relief Services web-site for what CRS and its partners are doing in Haiti and elsewhere.
Peace in the Lord Jesus,
John, SJ

Thanks to John, I found this helpful information from: http://crs.org/haiti/

"With more than 50 years of experience in Haiti, Catholic Relief Services is now one of the largest U.S. humanitarian organizations working in the country. Our annual budget of about $20 million makes the Haiti program CRS' largest country program in the region of Latin America and the Caribbean. Serving some 200,000 of the poorest and most marginalized Haitians, our projects provide assistance with health and nutrition, education, water and sanitation, HIV and AIDS, agriculture, peacebuilding and migration."
http://crs.org/haiti/


Labels: Haiti, hurricane