American Red Cross

As part of its largest international response since the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, the global Red Cross network has helped nearly 1.9 million Haitians since the country’s 7.0 magnitude earthquake that struck Haiti on January 12th near the capital of Port au Prince caused catastrophic damage and significant loss of life.

It has so far spent or allocated $106.4 million to meet the most urgent needs of earthquake survivors and will continue to support hundreds of thousands of additional survivors in the years ahead until the last donated dollar is spent.

More than 50 disaster specialists representing the American Red Cross are in Haiti working alongside thousands of Haitian Red Cross volunteers as part of a broader and coordinated network of Red Cross and Red Crescent responders from nearly 40 nations.

In the two months since the earthquake, the global Red Cross network has:

• Provided relief items for 400,000 people.
• Handed out nearly 99,000 tarps, tents and toolkits.
• Supplied meals for more than 1 million people.
• Distributed 40 million liters of clean drinking water.
• Built more than 1,100 latrines.
• Helped vaccinate more than 125,000 people.
• Coordinated the shipment of more than 1,800 units of blood to medical facilities.
• Treated more than 55,000 people at Red Cross hospitals or mobile clinics.
• Sent more than 23 million text messages with critical health advice to survivors.
• Received more than 28,400 registrations on its family linking Web site.
• Assisted more than 25,000 people who arrived in the U.S. following the earthquake.
• Deployed more than 600 responders to Haiti.

In less than three months, the American Red Cross has allocated more than $108 million on food and water, shelter, and health and family services. More than half (approximately 52 percent) of that money has been for food, water and relief supplies; approximately 36 percent has been used for shelter, and approximately 12 percent has been used for health services, family services, and livelihoods.

There is still much work to be done. The American Red Cross will continue to support earthquake survivors in the months and years ahead – until the last donated dollar is spent. The Red Cross’ Haiti Assistance Program, which will run for three-to-five years, will be multi-faceted, holistic and comprehensive. The program will bring multiple programs to each community in order to address the complex problems of those in need.

The American Red Cross is committed to getting more aid to Haiti and its people as quickly as possible, and to do so in the most transparent and practical way to meet longer-term needs such as restoring water and sanitation systems, providing adequate shelter and creating sustainable livelihoods.