Haiti Disaster

Heifer International issues appeal to aid Haiti earthquake victims

Heifer International is issuing an emergency appeal for funds to help families in Haiti recover and restore their lives in the wake of the catastrophic 7.0 magnitude earthquake that struck the tiny Caribbean nation on Tuesday, Jan. 12, 2010.

“Heifer is by no means a traditional first responder,” said Steve Denne, chief operating officer of the global hunger and poverty organization, “but we have projects and partner families in Haiti who likely have lost everything, and now, with this devastation, the need is even greater than before. This appeal will help us help our current families begin to rebuild their lives, and provide the chance to help even more families recover from this devastating blow.”

The massive 7.0 magnitude earthquake in Haiti was the strongest to hit the country in 200 years and was felt as far away as Cuba. The quake brought down buildings including the presidential palace, hotels, a hospital, and the UN headquarters in the capital of Haiti, Port-au-Prince

“It's really a catastrophe of major proportions,” Haiti's ambassador to the United States, Raymond Alcide Joseph, told CNN.

Heifer International has worked in Haiti for 10 years, and currently has 16 projects under way with more than 16,000 families and several farmer associations.

Heifer's work in Haiti over the last decade in Haiti includes its partnership with World Neighbors, an international development organization, to expand the scope and impact of food-security efforts, soil conservation and reforestation in Moulin and two other mountainside communities recovering from Tropical Storm Jeanne in 2004. In September 2004, Jeanne, which  later became a Category 3 hurricane, claimed the lives of at least 3,000 Haitians and left an estimated 300,000 people homeless.  Download "Planting Hope in Haiti," the May/June 2007 World Ark article, that describes how Heifer planted hope in Haiti and prepared project particpants in Haiti for long-term success after Jeanne.

Today, the projects in Haiti, which are scattered around the country, with none close to Port-au-Prince, range from training in sustainable farming and crop diversity to gifts of livestock, seeds, trees and grains to training in nutrition, aquaculture and fish production.

Heifer International has six employees in Haiti, with offices in Cap-Haitien in the north and Les Cayes in the south. The epicenter of the earthquake was near the capital of Port-au-Prince, where Heifer’s offices had been located until June 2009.

As of January 20, 2010, communicating with Heifer staff and project families remains difficult in Haiti. Numerous attempts to establish a connection to better understand conditions and situations have failed.

The majority of families in Haiti have lost at least one family member. This is true for Heifer staff in country as well. Some have lost one family member, while others have lost several. Staff members are grieving their losses, even as they do all they can to help prepare for Heifer’s rehabilitation and recovery and aid other organizations provide help and support.

Heifer is still working to secure information from its partners in Haiti, but we have heard from the Farmer Organization from Saut Mathurine (OPS) that at least 10 houses were damaged or destroyed. A member of the Italian Association Amici di Raoul Follereau (AIFO) in Peti Goave lost his home, while the majority of houses in Christianville/Fish Ministries in Gressier are badly damaged. Just like other Haitian families, Heifer partner organizations are grieving the loss of family members.

On Wednesday morning, Jan. 20, 2010, even as rescuers continued to search for survivors and aid efforts were ramping up from the magnitude 7 earthquake that struck Haiti’s capital Jan. 12, killing an estimated 200,000 people and leaving 1.5 million homeless, a magnitude 6 aftershock rocked Port-au-Prince, sending screaming people running into the streets. Reports of new damage or casualty are not available at this time.

Learn more about Heifer's response to the 7.0 magnitude earthquake, and the two-pronged response that Heifer’s Americas’ headquarters team anticipates as the situation in Haiti stabilizes. 

Funds raised in this appeal will be used in the recovery and rebuilding effort in Haiti in the wake of the earthquake. Any funds that exceed the level needed to provide relief in this rebuilding effort will go toward the disaster relief fund and for the entire mission of Heifer International.