The Brewster Report

100 Black Men of America -- Help for Haiti

WASHINGTON - Our hearts and prayers go out to our friends, the people of Haiti, after the devastating earthquake that claimed the lives of so many men, women and children. This is truly a human tragedy. Some of our 100 members have been directly affected by this magnitude-7.0 earthquake.

Haiti is a country that has been devastated by economical challenges and crippled by political woes for decades. Haiti lacks the infrastructure and resources needed to recover, rebuild and renew the lives of its people. Now Haiti calls on humanity to assist in one of the country's darkest hours. The 100 Black Men of America, Inc. will answer.

Today, I am calling on the men of the 100 to supplement your prayers by giving a monetary donation to support the rescue, recovery and relief efforts. As leaders, we have an obligation to assist those in need and serve as an example to others. As members of the human race, we have a responsibility to help our brothers and sisters around the world, especially when our members are impacted.

As bodies and debris mount and hopelessness and despair abound, we, the men of the 100, can make a difference by donating to our partner American Red Cross or to Doctors Without Borders. Doctors Without Borders is an international medical humanitarian organization created by doctors and journalists in France in 1971 and a recipient of the 1999 Nobel Peace Prize. The first reports are now emerging from Doctors Without Borders teams who were already working on medical projects in Haiti. They are treating hundreds of people injured in the quake and have been setting up clinics in tents to replace their own damaged medical facilities.

For the American Red Cross, donate online at www.redcross.org, or to call in a donation for international relief, please mention the International Response Fund. If you wish to make a contribution to other American Red Cross initiatives, the 1-800-RED CROSS (1-800-435-7669) agent will assist you further.

For Doctors Without Borders, donate online at www.doctorswithoutborders.org, or toll-free at 10in 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. USA Headquarters 333 7th Avenue, 2nd Floor, New York, NY 10001-5004.

If anyone should inquire of you how they might secure information on the status of U.S. citizens in Haiti, please have them contact the American Citizens Services at 888-407-4747.

Your donation will send a message of hope and faith that transcends race, creed, culture, religion and dialect. Act now. Donate today!

Miami Herald.com & Associated Press: Children are still being flown from Haiti on Private Jets

By FRANK BAJAK and PAISLEY DODDS
Associated Press Writers

 

Doctors skirted a bureaucratic logjam to save the life of three critically ill child victims of Haiti's earthquake on Sunday, flying them to U.S. hospitals on a private jet to avoid a military suspension of medical evacuation flights.

A 5-year-old tetanus victim, a 14-month-old boy critically ill with pneumonia and a baby with third-degree burns were sent to Children's Hospital in Philadelphia by the aid group Partners in Health, based in Boston.

The airlift had been in doubt after the U.S. military stopped medical evacuation flights on Wednesday night because of because of apparent concerns over the long-term costs to U.S. public hospitals of absorbing seriously injured patients.

"This is a good day. These are three children who would have died if they had stayed here," said Dr. Louise Ivers, Partners in Health's clinical director in Haiti. "It's the little successes like that that keep us going here."

Five-year-old Betina Joseph, who developed tetanus from a small cut on her thigh, was in danger of dying if she could not reach a U.S. intensive care unit and get a feeding tube and oxygen through her locked jaw, doctors said.

"We have 100 critically ill patients who will die in the next day or two if we don't Medevac them," Dr. Barth Green, chairman of the University of Miami's Global Institute for Community Health and Development, said Friday.

Meanwhile, the U.N.'s World Food Program began distributing food directly to women on Sunday, largely avoiding the violent jostling that has disrupted aid since the earthquake.

The U.N. and partners handed out 25-kilogam (55-pound) bags of rice at 14 sites and plan to continue the system daily for the next two weeks.

Also getting aid were elderly and disabled people and some men, who were allowed into line if women in their household were unable to come.

Young men often have forced their way to the front of aid delivery lines or steal from it from others, meaning aid doesn't reach the neediest at rough-and-tumble distribution centers, according to aid groups.

U.N. officials say they are still far short of reaching all 2 million quake victims estimated to need food aid.

Both federal and state officials appeared to distance themselves from the decision to suspend the military's medical evacuation flights.

White House officials said they were working to increase hospital capacity in Haiti and aboard the USNS Comfort hospital ship as well as in the United States.

Col. Rick Kaiser said Sunday that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has been asked to build a 250-bed tent hospital to relieve pressures on the Comfort and on Haitian facilities where earthquake victims are being treated under tarpaulins in hospital grounds.

Several Port-au-Prince hospitals were damaged or destroyed in the Jan. 12 earthquake.

U.S. Ambassador to Haiti Kenneth Merten said about 435 earthquake victims had been evacuated before the suspension, and that he was "sure the Department of Defense wants to do the right thing."

Florida Gov. Charlie Crist told ABC News' Good Morning America on Sunday he was puzzled by the reported suspension. He said 700 people had come from Haiti to Florida over the past 24 hours and said the state was still willing to help emergency cases.

"It's all hands on deck here in the Sunshine State. We're welcoming Haitians with open arms and probably done more than any other state and happy to continue to do so," Crist said.

In other developments:

- Ten Americans were detained by Haitian police on Saturday as they tried to bus 33 children across the border into the Dominican Republic, allegedly without proper documents. The Baptist church members from Idaho called it a "Haitian Orphan Rescue Mission" to save abandoned children in the disaster zone. But the Americans - the first known to be detained since the earthquake - put themselves in the middle of a political firestorm over fears that children are falling prey to child trafficking.

A Monday hearing before a judge was scheduled, a relative of two of the arrested told the AP.

---

Associated Press writers Evens Sanon, Michelle Faul and Ben Fox contributed to this report.

BBC.com: Haiti children at risk of disease

Emma Wilkinson
Health reporter, BBC News

Some of the most harrowing stories coming out of the devastation in Haiti are those of children, alone, scared and severely injured.

Under-18s make up almost half of Haiti's 10-million population and aid agencies are warning they are at great risk from ongoing physical and psychological trauma.

Already the country faces the highest rates of infant and child mortality in the Western hemisphere with diarrhoea, respiratory infections, tuberculosis among the leading causes of death.

“ Many will have been orphaned or are badly injured themselves and in urgent need of medical help ”
Gareth Owen, Save the Children

It is also estimated there are 19,000 children with HIV/Aids with few drugs available to treat them.

Unicef, which suffered heavy damage to its own offices in Port-au-Prince, says children are "tremendously vulnerable".

Gareth Owen, Save the Children's director of emergencies, said petrified children were sleeping amongst dead bodies and were in grave danger.

He estimates up to two million children could be affected by the disaster.

"Many will have been orphaned or are badly injured themselves and in urgent need of medical help."

"Thousands more will have lost all contact with their families and friends and are now struggling to survive alone in the rubble.

"They are sleeping on their own, trying to cope with the trauma of seeing dead bodies, and will have no idea where to go for help.

Childhood diseases

Bev Collin, a paediatric nurse with Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), provided care in Indonesia after the tsunami.

She says childhood diseases already prevalent in the country will be greatly exacerbated by the devastation left by the earthquake.

"There will be a lot of dust around so the air quality will be poor which can aggravate things which are already high risk in children, such as pneumonia.

"The other things that are high risk are hepatitis A and E, typhoid fever and diarrhoeal diseases, which are made worse by lack of water.

“ These are kids who are already sick and you want to be able to continue their care ”
Bev Collin, Médecins Sans Frontières

"And food or water borne diseases will be a major problem because there is probably no drainage and sewage system."

The initial days after the earthquake will all be about survival, digging people out of the rubble and dealing with crush injuries but there are also ongoing dangers of injury from collapsing and broken buildings, she says.

"But in three or four weeks the wet season will be starting and that is really going to cause problems because then you are looking at malaria.

"Also Japanese encephalitis is endemic and is a particular problem for children."

She says aid agencies will be trying to co-ordinate who is responsible for what and getting children to a place of safety is paramount.

Those who have lost parents will usually be cared for by older siblings, other family members and the wider community, she says.

But it is absolutely vital that they can access medical facilities in the coming months.

"The thing is these are kids who are already sick and you want to be able to continue their care."

Psychological damage

Physical wounds are of course not the only issue, there will also be psychological scars.

Professor Richard Williams, lead officer for disaster management at the Royal College of Psychiatrists, said most people, children and adults, will experience fear, anxiety, guilt, disorientation, hopelessness and other related feelings within the first few days of a disaster.

But that is usually temporary and 80% will not have lasting mental health problems.

For a small group there is a longer term risk of depression and anxiety as well as post-traumatic stress disorder.

"Children are particularly vulnerable because they depend on adults to care for them.

"If they have lost contact with familiar adults there will be the additional burden of grief and bereavement.

"It is right to focus on children but the good news is they are just as resilient as adults."

He says the psychological "first aid" that is needed is practical help and that includes food, water and shelter.

"After that it is about re-establishing normality and relationships and routine - reconnecting children with their families and getting them back to school.

"All these things are incredibly protective of mental health."

Story from BBC NEWS:

Miami Herald.com: Who in U.S. pays the bill for Haitians being treated in US?

BY FRED TASKER AND ELINOR J. BRECHER
ftasker@MiamiHerald.com

DADE HEALTH DEPARTMENT: Claudmyr E.J. Nosier gets a vaccination from nurse Yaima Benernelis.

The key issue that led to the halting of the military airlift that was bringing critically injured Haitians to the United States for treatment is cost.

How much is medical care for Haitian earthquake victims going to cost? And who's going to pay for it?

The answer: Nobody knows yet.

At this point, most responders say they're concentrating on saving lives and will worry about the price later.

``When a patient comes into the emergency room, the first thing is to treat that patient -- everything else is secondary,'' said Robert Alonso, spokesman for the Jackson Health System, which is treating dozens of Haiti's injured.

Still, some idea of costs is starting to emerge.

Treatment for 50 Haitian patients brought to Jackson Memorial Hospital's Ryder Trauma Center so far for emergency care could be $50,000 to $100,000 each, said Dr. William O'Neill, executive dean of clinical affairs at the University of Miami's Miller School of Medicine.

At Miami Children's Hospital -- which is treating about 20 pediatric patients from Haiti in Miami and rotating three, 15-member pediatric medical teams in and out of UM's field hospital -- numbers haven't been crunched yet.

`IN THE MILLIONS'

But Lucy Morillo, president of the hospital's foundation, estimates it will be ``in the millions.''

In Broward, 75 patients from Haiti have been cared for in the six-hospital Broward Memorial Healthcare System, according to spokeswoman Kerting Baldwin.

``The cost will depend on length of stay and the number of procedures,'' she said.

Whether the federal government will reimburse some or all of South Florida's medical expenses is a topic of increasing interest among hospitals.

``We're in conference with both of Florida's U.S. senators,'' said Jackson's Alonso. ``Sen. [Bill] Nelson has toured Jackson, and so has Gov. Crist. Our leadership is in communication with the state and federal governments. So far, there's no official word on any reimbursement.''

Hospitals also are still trying to figure out whether patients from Haiti admitted under humanitarian visas might be eligible for Medicaid or other government programs.

On Saturday, Crist said the state has spent about $10 million so far and that Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and Homeland Security chief Janet Napolitano ``are both pushing'' for federal help.

Some hospitals providing care in Haiti and in South Florida also are seeking private donations to help with costs.

Miami Children's Hospital is trying to pay for as much of the cost as possible by private donations to its Miami Children's Hospital Foundation, said Morillo. She asks for donations to the foundation at mchf.org/donate/.

Dr. Barth Green of the University of Miami is seeking donations for the UM field hospital in Port-au-Prince through Project Medishare/Global Institute at umglobalinstitute.com or 305-284-4443.

After the UM field hospital has served its need, Green plans to donate its equipment to Haiti and has secured a plot of land near the port in Port-au-Prince to build a permanent hospital, with aid from the U.S. government and other organizations.

POSSIBLE SAVINGS  

Hospitals cite a few factors that might cut potential costs. At Jackson Memorial, 35 percent of the 124 patients admitted so far have had their own insurance -- either because they are U.S. citizens or have international insurance, Alonso said.

Also, many doctors and nurses are volunteering without pay. Jackson doctors and nurses in Haiti are using vacation time, Alonso said. At Miami Children's Hospital, many private doctors have been providing their services free, said Dr. Steven Stylianos, head of trauma.

Miami Herald.com: Amid airlift scandal, Gov. Charlie Crist and hospitals insist they're ready to welcome Haitian patients

BY MARC CAPUTO
Herald/Times Tallahassee Bureau

With Florida hospitals filling up as Haitian earthquake victims poured into the state, Gov. Charlie Crist had a simple plan: Ask the federal government for a disaster-relief strategy, secure more money for Florida and consider sending patients to other states.

It wasn't so easy -- and now his request is engulfed in a controversy after the U.S. military suspended medical evacuation flights to Florida on Wednesday night.

Military officials said Florida hospitals had stopped accepting patients, an accusation the state's hospitals and governor deny.

``It's untrue,'' Crist said Saturday. ``I was never informed the military would halt the flights. The first time I heard about it was when the media started asking me about it yesterday in Tampa. It's astounding. It's incredible. I was like, `What are you talking about?' The reality is, not only are we willing to help but we need help to continue providing that help.''

Crist estimated that, by Saturday, the state had spent about $10 million assisting 6,630 people of the 18,363 who have arrived from Haiti on nearly 800 flights since the earthquake. About 526 patients have been hospitalized in Florida -- many in Miami-Dade -- with 174 still receiving care.

With the numbers growing, Crist on Wednesday wrote to Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, asking her to activate the National Disaster Medical System to help the state cope with the situation. Sebelius has yet to issue the declaration.

FRUSTRATIONS

In his letter, Crist did not say the state wouldn't accept more patients, but he did request that the federal government ``assist in distributing these critically ill medical patients to other states.''

Crist also noted that communication and coordination with federal authorities ``has been challenging.''

And frustrating. The state's Haiti-aid coordinator, Interim Emergency Management Director Dave Halstead, said that on Wednesday night military officials gave him just 20 minutes' notice before a plane landed in Tampa with 22 critically ill patients aboard. One burn victim had to be driven all the way to Shands Hospital in Gainesville for treatment.

``It's simple: What's the plan? What types of patients? Are these people with brain injuries that go to specific hospitals? Are they people with amputations that might be better served at other hospitals?'' Halstead said.

``We're shooting in the dark. This is Day 18. I understood why there was no plan on Day 3. But this is Day 18 and there's no plan. I just don't understand that.''

Halstead said communication is so bad he has had to rely on a federal aviation official in the state emergency center to tell Florida when a flight leaves Haiti ``because there's no one on the ground in Haiti that can tell us before a flight takes off that it's actually leaving.''

Crist said he's had a more positive experience with the federal government, saying Saturday he'd had a ``very encouraging'' phone conversation with Sebelius the day before he sent his letter. He said he also had positive discussions with Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, with whom he'll meet Monday in South Florida.

Both agencies said the decision to suspend flights was made by the military.

Navy Capt. Kevin Aandahl, a spokesman for U.S. Transportation Command in Illinois, said the military could resume the flights at any time but said the flights were stopped because states -- including Florida -- were resisting attempts to bring Haitian patients in.

``It comes down to this: U.S. Transportation Command cannot do an air evacuation medical mission without an accepting medical hospital on the other end,'' Anndahl said. ``And some states are unwilling to approve patients' entry for . . . medical care, as I understand it, because of some issues regarding reimbursement. Bringing them to the continental United States is half the issue. We've been dealing with individual states saying basically, `Don't bring them here.' ''

Officials with Jackson Memorial Hospital, Miami Children's Hospital and the president of the Florida Hospital Association, Bruce Rueben, said no hospital in Florida has refused to help.

And Crist said Aandahl ``appears to have gotten it wrong. That's unfortunate. . . . We'll have to talk to the good captain. This just isn't true.''

PIECING IT TOGETHER

Kenneth Merten, U.S. ambassador to Haiti, said he was told Saturday morning of the no-fly decision and he didn't know who made it.

``I imagine, from what you're telling me, it was somebody either in the U.S. military here on the ground or somebody in the consulate in the U.S.'' Merten told a reporter on a conference call. He said he would ``report back to Washington'' to find out what happened and try to fix the situation.

``I don't think it really helps to spend a lot of time looking for who's responsible,'' Merten said. ``The important thing is to try and resolve the issue in a way that meets everybody's needs, especially the Haitians.''

Miami Herald reporters Lesley Clark, Carol Rosenberg and Lee Logan contributed to this report.

Florida gov: Flights continue out of Haiti

By JENNIFER KAY

Associated Press Writer

MIAMI -- Hundreds of people have been flown from Haiti to Florida, even after the U.S. military halted evacuation flights for critically injured patients, the state's governor said Sunday.

Gov. Charlie Crist told ABC News' "Good Morning America" on Sunday he was puzzled by the suspension, which has been in effect since Wednesday. Civilian flights and other military flights have continued.

Military planes carrying 700 U.S. citizens, legal residents and other foreign nationals landed in central Florida over the past 24 hours, and three of those people required medical care at hospitals, state officials said.

"We're welcoming Haitians with open arms and probably done more than any other state and happy to continue to do so," Crist said.

Some passengers from those flights needed routine treatment at hospitals, but Florida has not received any critical patients needing urgent care since the halt, said Sterling Ivey, the governor's spokesman.

Exactly what led to the suspension of medevac flights remains unclear. Military officials said some states refused to take patients. Florida officials say none were ever turned away, though Crist had sent a letter Tuesday to Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius saying the state's hospitals were reaching a saturation point.

The letter also asked for federal help paying for patient expenses - a request Crist on Sunday said could have been misinterpreted. He also said federal officials have indicated he would receive help covering the costs, totaling more than $7 million.

The White House has said hospitals were running out of space and officials were working to increase capacity in Haiti and the U.S., as well as aboard the USNS Comfort hospital ship.

U.S. Transportation Command spokesman Capt. Kevin Aandahl referred questions Sunday about the medevac flights to the White House.

Col. Rick Kaiser said Sunday that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has been asked to build a 250-bed tent hospital in Haiti to relieve pressures on the Comfort and on Haitian facilities where earthquake victims are being treated under tarpaulins.

Several hospitals in the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince were damaged or destroyed in the Jan. 12 earthquake.

U.S. Ambassador to Haiti Kenneth Merten said about 435 earthquake victims had been evacuated before the suspension, and that he was "sure the Department of Defense wants to do the right thing."

Individual hospitals can still arrange private medical flights - such as one Sunday that brought three critically ill children to a hospital in Philadelphia.

Doctors have said the makeshift facilities in Haiti aren't equipped to treat such critical conditions and warn that similar patients could die if they aren't treated in U.S. hospitals.

Crist also has asked Sebelius for better coordination of the evacuations.

The state had been relying on air traffic controllers at Miami International Airport to relay information about the evacuations because the U.S. military flights headed to the state without notice, David Halstead, the Florida Division of Emergency Management's interim director, said Sunday.

"The governor's request is, 'Just tell us a plan,'" Halstead said.

The Miami Herald.com: Donors are still flying kids to U.S. hospital

BY ELINOR BRECHER, LESLEY CLARK, JIM WYSS AND CAROL ROSENBERG
ebrecher@MiamiHerald.com

Three children in critical need of care were airlifted out of Haiti on Sunday morning to a hospital in Philadelphia -- on privately arranged flights -- five days after U.S. military medical evacuations were halted from this earthquake-ravaged nation.

Among the evacuees was 5-year-old Betina Joseph, who has a critical case of tetanus. A child with burns and one with pneumonia were also evacuated.

Both were sent to hospitals in Philadelphia, said Nery Ynclan, the spokeswoman for the University of Miami field hospital, which has a 250-bed facility in Port-au-Prince.

The impasse with the U.S. military still stands, she said, ``but the hospital in Philly pulled some strings'' to get the children out. The three children were taken out on flights paid for by private donors.

Another child who underwent brain surgery is also in need of medical evacuation, Ynclan said.

In the meantime, hundreds of grievously injured Haitian earthquake victims remained in limbo Sunday, waiting for the U.S. military to resume airlifts to American hospitals five days after the flights were halted amid finger-pointing from the state and federal governments.

The Obama administration insisted Saturday that the flights ceased because of logistical challenges -- and not over questions of who will pay the hospital bills in the United States, as the military had said earlier in the day.

Gov. Charlie Crist told ABC's ``Good Morning America'' on Sunday that 700 people have been repatriated through Florida in the last day. It was unclear whether any of those were injured people being taken to hospitals.

Flights stopped on Wednesday amid a bewildering flurry of accusations and confusion over intentions, visas and costs -- and an angry surgeon's prediction that 100 of his patients would die if military flights didn't resume.

Military officials blamed Florida hospitals, saying they wouldn't take more injured Haitians. Hospital representatives strongly denied saying it.

One hospital administrators' group blamed Crist, who insisted he neither asked for a halt to the flights nor suggested it. Crist said that the feds misunderstood his request for their help earlier in the week.

Early Saturday, Navy Capt. Kevin Aandahl, a spokesman for U.S. Transportation Command in Illinois, said the military had stopped the flights because states, including Florida, were unwilling to accept Haitian patients without knowing they would get paid.

``It comes down to this: U.S. Transportation Command cannot do an air evacuation medical mission without an accepting medical hospital on the other end,'' Aandahl said.

A White House spokesman said there was ``no policy decision by anyone to suspend evacuee flights -- this situation arose as we started to run out of room.''

Spokesman Tommy Vietor said the problem was finding hospitals that have capacity for patients and are close to facilities that can land giant military C-130s.

Yet dozens of hospitals in major cities around the country have offered to accept and treat injured patients from Haiti, said Dr. Barth A. Green, chairman of neurological surgery at the University of Miami's Miller School of Medicine, who was in Haiti on Saturday.

``We have offers from almost every major university in the United States to take patients,'' said Green, who called his field-hospital patients in Port-au-Prince ``the sickest of the sickest.

``We can't care for them either on the ground in Haiti or on the USNS Comfort,'' a hospital ship off the Haitian coast, he said. ``We all agree they need to be medevacced out, but all medevacs by the armed forces have been stopped and Homeland Security will not give us paroles for the people.

``We have hospitals waiting to receive them,'' he added. ``But at the highest level of the U.S. government, they can't seem to get them out.''

Green estimated that ``a few hundred'' injured Haitian quake survivors need medical evacuations to U.S. hospitals, and added that many could be treated in four to six weeks and then be reunited with their families in Haiti.

Though tens of thousands are estimated to have been seriously injured by the 7.0-magnitude earthquake that struck Haiti on Jan. 12th, Green said tent hospitals are not well-equipped to care for patients with spinal injuries and complex pelvis fractures.

Private planes still can carry Florida-bound patients, but Green said that is not realistic for most Haitians. ``Each flight would cost thirty, forty, fifty thousand dollars.'' On Wednesday, Crist wrote to Kathleen Sebelius, secretary of Health and Human Services, asking her to activate the National Disaster Medical System, which helps state and local authorities manage the medical impacts of major disasters -- including costs.

Crist warned that Florida hospitals were ``quickly reaching saturation.''

More than 1,000 hospitals around the country have contracted with the federal government to provide immediate and longer-term medical care through the system.

It is unclear, however, whether the earthquake in Haiti qualifies for the system.

Vietor, the White House spokesman, said military medevacs did not stop because of Crist's letter or concerns about cost.

``This is not about funding,'' he said, noting that the administration is working with states on reimbursement, ``but that is not preventing people from getting care.''

The day Crist made his request, with 136 Haitian evacuees hospitalized in Broward, Palm Beach and Miami-Dade counties, a state health task force member formally requested that victims be sent north -- in part to make sure Miami emergency rooms are ready for the Super Bowl.

At that point, more than 450 victims of the Jan. 12th earthquake had been treated in Florida hospitals, most at 32 South Florida facilities.

Green, the UM surgeon in Haiti, said Saturday night that he was waiting for the Obama administration to activate the federal system and resume the military evacuations.

``This is a crisis. This is an earthquake. This is carnage like you've never seen before,'' he said. ``It's just not our finest moment right now.''

Miami Herald staff writers Daniel Chang, Fred Tasker, Jacqueline Charles, Kathleen McGrory, Jose Pagliery, John Dorschner, Lee Logan of the Herald/Times Tallahassee Bureau and the Associated Press contributed to this report.

World AP: Latrines join food, water on Haiti's crisis list

By FRANK BAJAK and PAISLEY DODDS
Associated Press Writers

Louis Saint-Jane rebuilds his home that collapsed in the Jan. 12 earthquake in the Canape Vert neighborhood of Port-au-Prince, Friday, Jan. 29, 2010. Defying pleas to wait for Haiti's reconstruction, families are building new homes on top of old ones devastated in the earthquake.

Relief officials are scrambling to confront a sanitation crisis that could spread malaria, cholera and other deadly diseases throughout the chaotic camps packed with hundreds of thousands of Haitian earthquake survivors.

Shortages of food, clean water, adequate shelter and latrines are creating a potential spawning ground for epidemics in a country with an estimated 1 million people made homeless by the Jan. 12 quake.

On Saturday, a single portable toilet served about 2,000 people in a sprawling camp across a street from the collapsed National Palace, forcing most to use a gutter that runs next to an area where vendors cook food and mothers struggle to bathe their children.

"We wash the vegetables first from water brought in by trucks, but a lot of times the water isn't clean," said Marie Marthe, 45, cooking a large pot of collard greens, carrots and goat as flies gathered on her daughter's diaper. "We don't have any choice."

Survivors have erected flimsy shelters of cloth, cardboard or plastic in nearly every open space left in the capital.

Women wait until night to bathe out of buckets, shielding their bodies behind damaged cars and trucks. Water is recycled - used first for brushing teeth, then for washing food, then for bathing.

"My 1-year-old has had diarrhea for a week now, probably because of the water," said Bernadel Perkington, 40. "When the earthquake happened I had 500 gourdes (about 15 U.S. dollars), which I was using for clean water for her. The money for that ran out yesterday."

The crowding and puddles of filthy water that breed mosquitoes have begun to spread diseases such as dengue and malaria, which were already endemic in Haiti. Some hospitals report that half the children they treat have malaria, though the rainy season - the peak time for mosquitoes - won't start until April.

Tight quarters also expose people to cholera, dysentery, tetanus and other diseases.

Dr. Louise Ivers, Haiti clinical director for Partners in Health, said she fears "a mass outbreak of measles, which would really be potentially devastating for a camp where there are 10,000 people living." Her organization has operated in Haiti for more than two decades and has about 4,000 medical workers in the country.

The U.N., Oxfam and other aid organizations have started to dig latrines for 20,000 people, said Silvia Gaya, UNICEF's coordinator for water and sanitation, even if that's a small fraction of the 700,000 people that officials said were living in the camps last week.

"In some parks, there is no physical space" even to dig latrines, Gaya said.

Dr. Jon Andrus, deputy director of Pan American Health Organization, said nearly three dozen organizations were joining the U.N.-led effort to build latrines and handle solid waste disposal.

Authorities also plan to build more permanent resettlement camps with plumbing and sewage, while PAHO is working with Haiti's government to chlorinate water in collapsible tanks.

Efforts to treat the injured suffered a setback, however, as the U.S. military said it had halted flights on Wednesday that had been carrying earthquake victims to the United States for emergency medical care, apparently due to a dispute between the states and federal government over who will pay.

"We can't fly anyone without an accepting hospital on the other end," said Capt. Kevin Aandahl, spokesman for U.S. Transportation Command.

But a Miami doctor involved in the relief effort said he had hospitals ready and waiting - and accused the U.S. government of endangering the Haitians' lives.

"We have 100 critically ill patients who will die in the next day or two if we don't Medevac them," said Dr. Barth Green, chairman of the University of Miami's Global Institute for Community Health and Development.

On a cot at a temporary field hospital at Haiti's international airport, 5-year-old Betina Joseph lay in a slate blue party dress, trying with waning energy to shoo a fly buzzing around her face.

Doctors said Saturday tetanus had developed in a small leg wound suffered in the quake.

"If we can't save her by getting her out right away, we won't save her," said Dr. David Pitcher, one of 34 surgeons staffing the University of Miami-run field hospital. Pitcher said two men had just died of tetanus at the hospital, which performs as many as 40 surgeries a day.

Joseph's mother, Denise Exima, 28, caressed her daughter's corn rows, apparently unaware that getting her out could mean life or death.

Green told The Associated Press that not even the U.S. Navy hospital ship Comfort, anchored off Port-au-Prince, can provide the respirator care - three to four weeks of it - that would enable Joseph to survive. The hospital ship Comfort is so crammed with patients that U.S. military officials are trying to organize a location on land where they can recover.

U.S. Ambassador to Haiti Kenneth Merten said about 435 earthquake victims had been evacuated until the flights stopped. He said the problem should be fixed.

"I'm sure the Department of Defense wants to do the right thing as do we," he said Saturday. "Look, everybody is here working on the ground trying to do the right thing for as many people as possible."

Food distribution was becoming more organized. The World Food Program on Saturday began handing out coupons that women - and women only - can turn in for food at 16 sites in the capital starting Sunday.

The coupons entitle each family to 25 kilograms (55 pounds) of rice. The idea is to ensure a dependable supply for families and prevent young men from forcing their way to the front or stealing food from weaker people in line, a common occurrence after the quake.

U.N. officials say they are still far short of reaching all 2 million quake victims estimated to need food aid.

TheMiamiHerald.com: A glance at Haiti developments 18 days after quake

The Associated Press

A look at the latest from Haiti on Saturday, 18 days after a 7.0-magnitude earthquake devastated the capital, Port-au-Prince, and left an estimated 200,000 dead throughout the country:

SANITATION

Relief officials are scrambling to confront a sanitation crisis that could spread malaria, cholera and other diseases throughout chaotic camps packed with hundreds of thousands of survivors. Shortages of food, clean water, adequate shelter and latrines are creating a potential spawning ground for epidemics in a country with an estimated 1 million homeless.

EVACUATION

The U.S. military has halted flights carrying victims to the United States because of an apparent dispute over where seriously injured patients should be taken for treatment.

It was unclear exactly what prompted the decision to suspend the flights, or when it would end. Military officials said some U.S. states were refusing to take patients, though they wouldn't say which states.

AIRPORTS

The U.S. military is assessing Haitian airports to which it can divert military traffic to allow Port-au-Prince's congested international airport to return to its civilian functions, said U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Col. Rick Kaiser.

Port-au-Prince's Toussaint Louverture International Airport is being strained by international relief efforts, with more than 160 flights a day landing at one point.

RUBBLE

The rubble from destroyed buildings in Port-au-Prince could easily fill to the limit five football stadiums the size of New Orleans' Superdome.

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Col. Rick Kaiser said Haiti's government could put the rubble to good use - perhaps building an artificial reef to augment fishing or using it as landfill to reinforce Haiti's many eroded mountains and ravines, thus preventing mudslides.

PORT

After temporary repairs by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Port-au-Prince's earthquake-damaged port now can handle some 2 1/2 times the number of containers it was dealing with before the disaster.

The port's northern pier collapsed entirely under water in the earthquake, and the partially collapsed southern pier received further damage from aftershocks.

MSNBC.COM: Trafficking of Haitian Children

10 Americans held in Haiti; tried to move kids

Members of U.S. group claim it’s case of missing documents, not trafficking

NBC News and news services

updated 8:53 p.m. ET, Sat., Jan. 30, 2010

PORT-AU-PRINCE - Haitian police arrested 10 U.S. citizens after they tried to take 33 Haitian children out of the earthquake-stricken nation, authorities said Saturday.

The five men and five women were in custody in Port-au-Prince after their arrests on Friday evening, Reuters reported. Their arrests followed fears that traffickers were trying to exploit the chaos and turmoil following Haiti's January 12 earthquake quake to engage in illegal adoptions.

The Americans told NBC News they were being charged with child trafficking, although they believe it was a misunderstanding regarding proper documentation.

One of the arrested women, who said she is leader of an Idaho-based charity called New Life Children's Refuge, denied any wrongdoing.

Sean Lankford of the Central Valley Baptist Church in Meridian, Idaho, said that his wife and 18-year-old daughter are among those held.

New Life members told NBC News that they had a signed letter from a Haitian pastor releasing the children to them, and they also had documentation from the Domician Republican government that was awaiting them at the border.

The suspects were detained at Malpasse, Haiti's main border crossing with the Dominican Republic, after Haitian police conducted a routine search of their vehicle.

Authorities maintained the Americans had no documents to prove they had cleared the adoption of the 33 children — aged 2 months to 12 years — through any embassy and no papers showing they were made orphans by the quake in the impoverished Caribbean country.

"This is totally illegal," said Yves Cristalin, Haiti's social affairs minister told Reuters. "No children can leave Haiti without proper authorization and these people did not have that authorization."

The children were moved to another orphanage in Haiti, while the New Life delegation remained in jail awaiting word from the U.S. embassy.

U.S. authorities could not be reached for immediate comment on the arrests.

Information available online for New Life Children's Refuge confirmed the names of the detained Americans and their mission to rescue orphans from Port-au-Prince and return them to an orphanage across the border.

Haiti has imposed new controls on adoptions since the Jan. 12 earthquake. The government now requires Prime Minister Max Bellerive to personally authorize the departure of any child as a way to prevent child trafficking.

Officials estimate that thousands of kids have been separated from their parents or orphaned by the earthquake.

NBC News' Don Wood and Michelle Kosinski contributed to this report, as did Reuters and The Associated Press.

URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35162046/ns/world_news-haiti_earthquake/

MSNBC.COM: U.S. military had stopped flying victims after cost dispute with Florida

The Associated Press

updated 8:59 p.m. ET, Sat., Jan. 30, 2010

MIAMI - The U.S. military has halted flights carrying Haitian earthquake victims to the United States because of an apparent dispute over where seriously injured patients should be taken for treatment.

An American doctor treating victims in Port-au-Prince warned that at least 100 critically ill patients needed to get to better hospitals or they could die, while the U.S. government said it was working to expand hospital capacity in both Haiti and in the U.S.

It was unclear exactly what prompted the decision Wednesday by the U.S. military to suspend the flights or when the suspension would end. Military officials said some states were refusing to take patients, though they wouldn't say which states. The halt was first reported by The New York Times.

"There has been no policy decision by anyone to suspend evacuee flights," White House spokesman Tommy Vietor said. "This situation arose as we started to run out of room."

The halt came one day after Florida Gov. Charlie Crist wrote a letter to U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, warning that "Florida's health care system is quickly reaching saturation, especially in the area of high level trauma care."

But officials in Crist's office said they didn't know of any Florida hospitals turning away patients. He asked Sebelius to activate the National Disaster Medical System, which is typically used in domestic disasters and pays for victims' care.

Poor coordination and limited resources, not costs, drove the governor's request, said John Cherry, spokesman for the Florida Division of Emergency Management.

"We've made it clear that (the cost) is an issue we'll deal with down the road," he said.

State health officials say some medical flights landed in Florida without any advance notice, and the poor coordination may be keeping some survivors from getting the help they need, Cherry said. He cited the case of a burn victim flown earlier this week into Tampa, which is not equipped to treat those injuries.

Dying of tetanus
Meanwhile on the ground in Haiti, Dr. Barth Green, a doctor involved in the relief effort in Port-au-Prince, warned that his patients needed to get to better hospitals.

"We have 100 critically ill patients who will die in the next day or two if we don't Medevac them," said Green, chairman of the University of Miami's Global Institute for Community Health and Development.

Civilian flights have not been stopped, but Green said he was relying on U.S. military flights to fly out patients because they are larger and better equipped to handle injured patients.

At a temporary field hospital at Haiti's international airport, set up with donations to Green's institute, two men had already died of tetanus. Doctors said 5-year-old Betina Joseph faced a similar fate within 24 hours unless she is evacuated to a U.S. hospital where she can be put on a respirator.

The girl — infected with tetanus through a two-inch cut on her thigh — weakly shooed a fly buzzing around her face as her mother caressed, apparently unaware that getting the girl out could mean life or death.

"If we can't save her by getting her out right away, we won't save her," said Dr. David Pitcher, one of 34 surgeons staffing the field hospital.

Trying to expand capacity
The White House said federal officials were working with other states and nongovernment aid groups in Haiti to expand hospital capacity so they can make more room for critically injured patients aboard the USNS Comfort hospital ship anchored off the coast of Port-au-Prince.

There have already been 435 patients evacuated to the U.S., 18,500 patients treated by HHS personnel on the ground in Haiti, and 19,000 patients treated by the Comfort either on ship or on shore, with 635 patients currently on board the Comfort.

Captain Kevin Aandahl, spokesman for U.S. Transportation Command, said no evacuation requests have been made by U.S. military medical facilities in Haiti, including the Comfort, since the flights were suspended Wednesday.

U.S. Ambassador to Haiti, Kenneth Merten, said he did not know who ordered a stop to the evacuations but said it is a problem that should be fixed.

"I'm sure the Department of Defense wants to do the right thing, as do we," he said Saturday in a conference call. "Look, everybody is here working on the ground trying to do the right thing for as many people as possible."

Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35161612/ns/world_news-haiti_earthquake/

TheMiamiHerald.com: 10 Americans detained in Haiti after trying to bring 33 children into the Dominican Republic

Posted on Sat, Jan. 30, 2010

By KEITH RIDLER
Associated Press Writer

An Idaho man says 10 Americans on a mission to rescue orphans in Haiti have been detained in Haiti after trying to bring 33 children into the Dominican Republic.

Sean Lankford of the Central Valley Baptist Church in Meridian said Saturday that his wife and 18-year-old daughter are among those held. He says the 10 were taken into custody at the border Friday and were told they didn't have the proper papers to take the children out of the country.

Lankford says the group had hoped to take the children to an orphanage they had set up at a Dominican hotel. He says the group thought they had the proper paperwork.

Lankford says U.S. officials on Saturday were working to locate the 10 church members. He says Idaho friends and relatives have been in touch with those detained via text message and phone calls.

CNN: Child Trafficking and Haiti

  SAVE HAITI'S CHILDREN

Washington (CNN) -- The United States will work with the Haitian government and with international and private aid groups to protect Haitian children who might be at risk because they were orphaned or separated from their parents by the earthquake, the State Department said Thursday.

"We have concerns about traffickers, we have concerns about pedophiles," State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said at his midday briefing. "We've seen a couple of cases of those in recent days. So this is just something we are working collectively with those organizations that are actively trying to help children, people on the ground, be alert for this kind of danger."

Asked whether any children had been brought illegally to the United States, he said, "Not to my knowledge."

"A number of people, including many, many children, have been displaced, separated from their families. This poses great risk, and particularly for children, [of] a higher vulnerability to human trafficking," Crowley said.

"Haitian police have had child protection brigades in place for some time. Obviously, we are working with them but also trying to supplement the capability on the ground."

U.S. officials from the departments of State, Homeland Security, and Health and Human Services have been working together in recent weeks to make sure that the Haitian government grants its approval before any adoptions proceed.

FULL STORY ON CNN

THELEDGER.COM: Idea of FEMA Trailers To Haiti Is Criticized

By CARLY EVERSON, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: Friday, January 29, 2010 at 7:06 p.m.
Last Modified: Friday, January 29, 2010 at 7:06 p.m.

( page of 2 )

INDIANAPOLIS | The trailer industry and lawmakers are pressing the government to send Haiti thousands of potentially formaldehyde-laced trailers left over from Hurricane Katrina - an idea denounced by some as a crass and self-serving attempt to dump inferior American products on the poor.

"Just go ahead and sign their death certificate," said Paul Nelson of Coden, Ala., who contends his mother died because of formaldehyde fumes in a FEMA trailer.

The 100,000 trailers became a symbol of the Federal Emergency Management Agency's bungled response to Katrina. The government had bought the trailers to house victims of the 2005 storm, but after people began falling ill, high levels of formaldehyde, a chemical that is used in building materials and can cause breathing problems and perhaps cancer, were found inside. Many of the trailers have sat idle for years, and many are damaged.

The U.S. Agency for International Development, which is coordinating American assistance in Haiti, has expressed no interest in sending the trailers to the earthquake-stricken country. FEMA spokesman Clark Stevens declined to comment on the idea and said it was not FEMA's decision to make.

Haitian Culture and Communications Minister Marie Laurence Jocelyn Lassegue said Thursday she had not heard of the proposal but added: "I don't think we would use them. I don't think we would accept them."

In a Jan. 15 letter to FEMA, Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security, said the trailers could be used as temporary shelter or emergency clinics.

"While I continue to believe that these units should not be used for human habitation, I do believe that they could be of some benefit on a short-term, limited basis if the appropriate safeguards are provided," he wrote.

For the recreational-vehicle and trailer industry, which lost thousands of jobs during the recession, the push to send the units to Haiti is motivated by more than charity.

Bidding is under way in an online government-run auction to sell the trailers in large lots at bargain-basement prices - something the RV industry fears will reduce demand for new products. Some of the bids received so far work out to less than $500 for a trailer that would sell for about $20,000 new.

Lobbyists for the Recreational Vehicle Industry Association - which includes some major manufacturers in Elkhart, Ind., among them Gulf Stream - have been talking with members of Congress, the government and disaster relief agencies to see whether it would be possible to send the trailers to Haiti instead.

TheLedger.com

For the recreational-vehicle and trailer industry, which lost thousands of jobs during the recession, the push to send the units to Haiti is motivated by more than charity.

Bidding is under way in an online government-run auction to sell the trailers in large lots at bargain-basement prices - something the RV industry fears will reduce demand for new products. Some of the bids received so far work out to less than $500 for a trailer that would sell for about $20,000 new.

Lobbyists for the Recreational Vehicle Industry Association - which includes some major manufacturers in Elkhart, Ind., among them Gulf Stream - have been talking with members of Congress, the government and disaster relief agencies to see whether it would be possible to send the trailers to Haiti instead.

CBSNEWS.COM: Abraham Shakespeare, Florida Lottery Winner, Feared Dead; Remains Found

January 29, 2010 10:26 AM

Posted by Edecio Martinez

   

(The Ledger/Pierre DuCharme)  Photo: Abraham Shakespeare, center, displays an oversized check after winning the lottery in 2006 / Photo: Dorice "Dee Dee" Moore / Photo: Abraham Shakespeare. 
 

PLANT CITY, Fla. (CBS/AP) When Abraham Shakespeare won the Florida lottery, he thought he was the luckiest man in the world. Now he is feared dead and the woman who police have called a "person of interest" in his disappearance is living in his former home.


Human remains were found at a home owned by the boyfriend of Dorice Moore. Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd has previously called Moore a "person of interest," though she has not been charged.

Medical examiners have not yet conclusively determined if the remains are Shakespeare's, according to Hillsborough County Sheriff David Gee.


Shakespeare, a 43-year-old truck driver's assistant, has been missing since April - though he wasn't reported missing until November. He had won a $31 million lottery jackpot in 2006, and opted for a lump sum payment of nearly $17 million.

An anonymous tip led investigators to the property about 30 miles from Tampa, according to CBS affiliate WTSP. According to county records, the house is owned by Shar Krasniqi, who police say is Moore's boyfriend.


On Dec. 5, Moore told The Ledger newspaper that she helped Shakespeare disappear, but wanted him to return because detectives were searching her home and car and looking for blood on her belongings.

Moore has said she doesn't know where Abraham Shakespeare is, but authorities say she transferred more than $1 million from his bank account into hers. She claims the money was a gift.

According to the Associated Press, Shakespeare used his winnings to buy a Nissan Altima, a Rolex from a pawn shop and a $1 million home in a gated community - but the money quickly caused him problems.

A former co-worker sued him in 2007, accusing Shakespeare of stealing the winning ticket from him. Six months later, a jury ruled the ticket was Shakespeare's. His mother, Elizabeth Walker, said others were constantly asking Shakespeare for a piece of his fortune.

Not long after he bought the million-dollar home in early 2007, he was approached by Moore, family and sheriff's officials said.

She became something of a financial adviser, and property records showed that her company bought Shakespeare's house in January 2009. According to The Ledger of Lakeland, she has been living in there ever since.

Reporting Contributed by CBS Affiliate WTSP

THE MIAMI-HERALD.COM: U.S. prosecutors charged a Colorado man with sexually abusing 18 boys at a school he founded for street children in Haiti

Many survivors still lacking food, shelter

BY JACQUELINE CHARLES AND DANIEL CHANG
jcharles@MiamiHerald.com

Hundreds of thousands of people still need food and shelter, all schools remain closed and efforts have intensified to protect children from human trafficking in post-earthquake Haiti.

Meantime, a U.N. official addressing the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee in Washington, D.C., on Thursday said more than 75 percent of Haiti's capital will have to be rebuilt.

``We need the international A-team on this,'' Paul Farmer, the U.N.'s deputy special envoy to Haiti, told the Senate committee.

In the short-term, Farmer said, Haitians need more relief than their quake-hobbled country can process.

``We must hasten our efforts to get tents, tarpaulins and latrines or composting toilets to Haiti,'' Farmer said.

LOGISTICAL PROBLEMS

The massive relief effort has been hampered from the start, though, by logistical problems and poor coordination between the Haitian government and the 109 nations and more than 500 international humanitarian agencies working in the country.

Haitian leaders frustrated with the slow pace of aid began buying and distributing food themselves this week.

The U.N.'s World Food Program estimates that two million people need nourishment, but the agency has been able to feed only about 460,000 people to date.

U.S. military leaders said on Thursday that Haiti's ability to absorb massive relief shipments will increase in the coming weeks.

``We're still not up to meeting the needs of the Haitian people as far as the amount of supplies that are there, '' Gen. Douglas Fraser, head of the U.S. Southern Command, said at a press conference.

Fraser said the capital's south pier -- the fastest route for moving large amounts food, shelter and medical supplies -- will not be repaired for another two months.

But a U.S. military force of more than 20,000 troops and 23 ships with helicopters, beach-landing craft and bridge connectors have been moving about 200 containers a day through the port.

By next week, Fraser said, the port should be able to move 500 containers a day.

Meantime, the Haitian government reports that 112,392 have died and 196,501 people have been injured by the 7.0-magnitude quake that struck on Jan. 12. The U.S. State Department said 76 Americans are confirmed dead and more than 13,000 have been evacuated.

Haitian government officials said more than 260,000 people have migrated from the capital and other quake-damaged areas to cities in the north and west. The number of people made homeless by the quake is estimated to number between 800,000 and one million, with most living in hundreds of squalid camps in the capital.

International health officials say they are concerned about the spread of disease at the camps, many of which lack sanitation systems.

Cases of tetanus have been reported as well as suspected cases of measles in Léogne,according to the World Health Organization. A vaccination campaign for diphtheria, tetanus, and measles will begin next week.

DIFFERENT CASES

The Pan American Health Organization reported Thursday that medical teams are seeing a shift in the types of cases they are receiving. There is a decrease in trauma cases and a growing caseload of diarrhea. Mental health cases also are increasing, the PAHO reported.

All schools in Haiti remain closed, but schools in non-affected areas will reopen on Monday, according to the U.N. Children's Fund.

Concerned about human trafficking, the U.N., Red Cross and Haitian officials stepped up registration of children separated from their families, U.S. officials said Thursday.

``We have concerns about traffickers,'' said P.J. Crowley, a State Department spokesman. ``We have concerns about pedophiles. We've seen a couple of cases of those in recent days.''

The stepped up efforts were announced on the same day that U.S. prosecutors charged a Colorado man with sexually abusing 18 boys at a school he founded for street children in Haiti.

In other developments Thursday, U.S. Sens. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., and Richard Lugar, R-Ind., introduced legislation to speed recovery efforts in Haiti, focusing on three areas: debt relief, infrastructure development, and trade.

Miami Herald wire services contributed to this report, as did Sananda Sahoo from Washington, D.C. Chang reported from Miami and Charles from Port-au-Prince.

GO TO THE MIAMI HERALD.COM

 

MIAMI HERALD.COM: Haitian Americans dissatisfied with Haitian Government response to disaster

BY MICHAEL VASQUEZ, JACQUELINE CHARLES AND JIM WYSS
mrvasquez@MiamiHerald.com

In a poll that provides a unique -- and unprecedented -- glimpse of how Haitians living in the U.S. have been affected by their home country's devastating earthquake, a clear majority of Haitian Americans have lost faith in the Haitian government's ability to rebuild the shattered nation.

The New America Media/Bendixen & Amandi poll, which surveyed Haitians living in South Florida and across the country, found 63 percent disapprove of how Haitian President René Préval's government has responded to the natural disaster. The unhappiness runs so deep that a majority of Haitian Americans support the United Nations and the international community taking over Haiti's day-to-day operations -- at least until Haiti recovers from the catastrophe.

``It is very sad to say, it's very painful to say, because this country is an independent country,'' said Joseph Jeanty of Pompano Beach, who took part in the poll. ``Nobody would like to see foreign forces.''

Still, he added, ``that would be much better than the Haitian government.''

Préval said Thursday he knows people have criticized him, especially for keeping a low profile after the quake. But he said that as he toured Port-au-Prince the night of the earthquake and the next day, ``A lot of people would have chosen to go and be filmed touring hospitals, to talk to the injured. . . . I chose to get to work and try to find help to deal with the catastrophe.''

The poll, released Thursday and conducted Jan. 22-24 in both English and Creole, sampled the opinions of 400 Haitian Americans deemed representative of the U.S. adult Haitian population. The survey carries a margin of error of five percentage points.

Among the findings:

• The Haitian community in the United States has been ``deeply affected'' by the Jan. 12 earthquake, with three-fifths of all respondents saying at least some of their loved ones died as a result. Two-thirds of Haitian Americans polled are so concerned that they would be willing to move back to Haiti temporarily in order to assist in the reconstruction.

• In contrast with their frustration directed toward the Haitian government, an overwhelming majority of respondents are happy with the U.S. government and United Nations response to the crisis. Approval of the U.S. government's response -- 96 percent-- was slightly higher than approval of the U.N. response, 88 percent.

• Haitian Americans are closely watching the news emerging from their homeland, and are eager to assist the recovery. More than 90 percent say they are monitoring events regularly, often through English-language cable news. Seventy-eight percent have sent a financial contribution to help earthquake victims, and nearly two-thirds are even willing to adopt or provide foster care for a child left orphaned by the natural disaster.

FULL STORY - Miami - Herald

MSNBC.COM: It was too late to save Schneily's leg in Haiti

THERE ARE TOO MANY STORIES LIKE THE ONE BELOW....

By the time 4-year-old Schneily Similien’s parents got him to a doctor, it was too late to save his left leg.

The Haitian boy was hurt in the Jan. 12 magnitude-7 earthquake that killed at least 200,000 people and injured at least that many more. As the ground shook his family’s Port-au-Prince home, pieces of concrete ceiling came down on Schneily and his mother, Darline Similien, a 37-year-old kindergarten teacher. One large chunk crushed the child’s leg.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35103003/ns/world_news-haiti_earthquake/

  Picture by Jon Warren

Doctors at Good Samaritan Hospital in Jimani, Dominican Republic, had to amputate 4-year-old Schneily Similien’s lower leg because of injuries suffered in the Haiti earthquake. His father, Ducarmel Similien, says he will do whatever it takes to get a prosthetic leg for his boy.

 View related photos

Save the Children Helps More Than 105,000 Children and Families

Two Weeks After Haiti Quake, Save the Children Helps More Than 105,000 Children and Families with Food, Medicines, Basic Supplies  PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (Jan. 27, 2010) —

o   Save the Children has reached more than 105,000 children and adults, providing lifesaving food, medicines and supplies.

o In addition, the organization is working to protect vulnerable children, providing spaces to play and helping trace unaccompanied children and reunite them with their families. 

o   "It took less than 40 seconds for lives of tens of thousands of Haitian children to change completely. They lost friends, family and teachers, saw their homes and neighborhoods destroyed, and watched their family's livelihood disappear in this devastating quake," said Lee Nelson, Save the Children's country director in Haiti.  

o   "Save the Children is rushing to meet the immediate lifesaving needs of these children and their families by distributing food, water, hygiene and household supplies, and by erecting latrines and bathing facilities. And, given the enormity of this disaster, we will be assisting Haitian families with their recovery for months and years to come." 

 

o Save the Children staff in Port-au-Prince, Léogâne and Jacmel are ramping up efforts to meet the health, protection and educational needs of thousands of children displaced from their homes and living in makeshift camps.

o   It is distributing hygiene kits, household kits, plastic sheeting, blankets, food and water. Save the Children's water and sanitation programs are providing clean water, latrines and bathing facilities for 2,200 people in the encampments at Lakou Issa and Theatre National camps in Port-au-Prince.

o   The agency has distributed 2-week rations of food to 600 families in Léogâne, where it also provided blankets, plastic sheeting and cans of water. And two mobile clinics are treating the sick and injured in Jacmel and Léogâne.

o   More than 8,000 children have participated in activities at 16 Child Friendly Spaces, which are special protected areas established by Save the Children in Jacmel and  Port-au-Prince.  25 additional staff members have been trained to help run three more spaces.

o   Save the Children plans to open 150 safe spaces over the next coming weeks 

 

o   "Save the Children has worked in Haiti since 1978 and currently has about 250 staff in the country. All staff has been accounted for, with one staff member reported to have died in the earthquake.

UNICEF Humanitarian Operation in Haiti Zeroes in on Unaccompanied Children

 

• NEW YORK, 27 January 2010 - Assistance to unaccompanied children, who have lost or became separated from their families, is a focus of UNICEF's Haitian humanitarian operations, in the wake of the deadly earthquake which struck on 12 January.

 

· While it continues daily delivery of critical life-saving supplies such as water, nutrition, shelter and medicine (so far, UNICEF supplies for 250,000 children have arrived and are being distributed), UNICEF and partners like Save the Children have also begun registering unaccompanied children found in the streets of  Port au Prince. A programme will then begin to trace the families of these children, if they exist.

 

· "Safe Spaces" for unaccompanied children including infants are now set up in the capital. These locations allow UNICEF and its partners to assist and protect children who have nowhere else to go, until their families are found or alternative arrangements are made.

 

· Unaccompanied children are especially vulnerable to disease, malnutrition and exploitation, including trafficking and need urgent assistance as well as, in many cases, long term support.

 

· The safe spaces are places where unaccompanied children can find shelter, food, water and medicines and they can also serve as make-shift schools and recreation areas. With nearly 40 per cent of the population under 14 years of age in Haiti, this is clearly a children's emergency, and the need for support and protection, registration and family tracing is widespread.

 

· Safe spaces have been used by UNICEF to protect children in the aftermath of emergencies, most recently in cyclone-hit Myanmar and in Banda Aceh, Indonesia, post-Tsunami and also to reunite them with their families. The earthquake which struck on 12 January caused huge numbers of deaths, injuries and widespread damage to Haiti's already fragile infrastructures. The United Nations and its humanitarian agencies, NGOs, the US Government and many others, have mounted a massive relief and rebuilding operation.

Girl rescued 15-days after quake

· Girl rescued 15-days after quake; Haiti pleads for better aid – the government of Haiti appealed to foreign governments and charities on Wednesday to do more to help earthquake victims as rescuers pull a girl named Darline, approximately 16 years old and severely dehydrated with a leg injury our of the  rubble of her home in Port-au-Prince.  More than 130 people have been rescued alive, and more than 200,000 killed.– January 28, 2010

(New York Times / Reuters, 2010)

Haitian orphans find new homes in county

· Officials are speeding up the adoption process for Haitian children. 

· An Arlington couple brought home an adopted son this week, and a Findlay couple is adopting four Haitian children. 

o   Seth and Amber Newlove, of Arlington, welcomed 3-year-old Snyder late Tuesday night. The boy had been living in a Haitian orphanage.  The orphanage flew Snyder and dozens of other children to Florida, and Amber Newlove flew to Miami to meet up with the boy.  The couple started the adoption process in April 2007 but had been waiting for legal matters to slowly progress. Then, after the earthquake hit, they suddenly learned they would become parents right away. Snyder is their first child.  Soon afterward, Amber Newlove flew to Florida to meet up with Snyder.  

o   Seth Newlove said he and his wife became interested in Haiti after his sister went there on a mission trip and visited the orphanage. The couple then learned about children in need of homes.  Snyder's birth mother had brought him to the orphanage when he was less than a week old because she was unable to care for him, Seth Newlove said. 

o   MArk and Kim Kintner of Findlay are adopting four Haitian children. Kim Kintner flew to Haiti last week to meet up with them.  The Kintners' new children are Rose, 3, Wally, 6, Steve, 7, and Lily, 8.   

o   Wally, Steve and Lily are siblings.  The children speak mainly Creole, but understand some English, Mark Kintner said.

o   The couple had belonged to a campus ministry in Bowling Green that made mission trips to Haiti, so adopting from Haiti seemed a natural fit.  During a visit to Haiti, "A little boy grabbed onto my leg and called me daddy," Mark Kintner said. 

o   That little boy was Wally, and the Kintners learned he was available for adoption. Steve and Lily, his brother and sister, were too. The children's parents had died and their older sister was no longer able to care for them. 

o   Kim Kintner is in the town of Port de Paix, which was not at the center of the earthquake, but she is seeing a lot of refugees coming from Port-au-Prince, Mark Kintner said.

Sarah Arthurs: 419-427-8494, 

http://www.thecourier.com/Issues/2010/Jan/28/ar_news_012810_story1.asp?d=012810_story1,2010,Jan,28&c=n

Haitian couple closer to learning if injured baby is theirs

(Hannah Sampson -- hsampson@miamiherald.com, 2010)

 

• A Haitian couple who believe their baby is recovering from earthquake-related injuries in Miami could be a step closer to finding out whether the infant belongs to them.

o   Workers with the International Committee of the Red Cross in Haiti made contact Tuesday afternoon with Junior Alexis, whose 2-month-old daughter Jenny was buried under the rubble after the quake.

 

o   Alexis searched for her for days and feared the infant was dead until he heard that a baby he believes is Jenny had been pulled from the wreckage on Jan. 16 and flown to Miami for life-saving treatment. His wife, Nadine Devilme, survived but was injured. They moved to a camp outside a hospital in Canapé Vert.

 

o   The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), which works to reunite families after disasters, was contacted by officials from Jackson Memorial Hospital who did not know the child's identity and journalists working for ABC News who took the baby to a triage center in Haiti.

 

o   The child, whose injuries included a skull fracture and broken ribs, was quickly flown to Miami for more treatment.

 

o   Bernard Barrett, a spokesman for the ICRC, said Alexis recognized pictures of the baby in Miami as his daughter. Staffers are working out the details of performing tests to establish kinship.

 

o   On Tuesday, the baby became the first earthquake survivor to enter foster care in Florida. A Miami judge ordered her into the custody of state child welfare administrators and urged the agency to find the baby's family.

 

 

United States and Other Nations’ Effort

·   The United States and other nations recently stated that the Haiti government must lead the efforts to rebuild aft the earthquake.- January 26, 2010  (Associated Press)

Haitian Government gets about a penny for each US dollar

Less than a penny of each dollar the U. S. is spending on earthquake relief in Haiti is going in the form of cash to the Haitian government. - January 28, 2010 (Associated Press, 2010)

U.S. military is evacuating Haitian earthquake victims to northern portions of Florida

Medical (Evacuated to US)

• January 28, 2010 -- FROM THE MIAMI HERALD -- The U.S. military is evacuating Haitian earthquake victims to northern portions of Florida to make sure Miami emergency rooms are ready for the Super Bowl.
• Gov. Charlie Crist formally asked the federal government Wednesday to have other states' hospitals receive future patients who come to the United States from the quake-stricken nation.  
• More than 450 victims of the Jan. 12 earthquake have been treated in Florida hospitals -- 368 of them in 32 hospitals in South Florida.  
• 75 were treated in Sanford, near Orlando.
• The U.S. military evacuated 17 victims from Port-au-Prince to Tampa on Tuesday with plans for a six- to 25-patient airlift to Tampa on Wednesday night.  Haitian patients are now being ``diverted elsewhere,'' said U.S. Army Maj. Mike Humphreys, a spokesman for the Southern Command, ``because of the rising numbers of evacuees and the need for the region to be prepared for upcoming events such as might result from the large crowds at the Pro Bowl and Super Bowl.''

IN HOSPITAL

o   On Wednesday, 136 Haiti evacuees were still hospitalized in Broward, Palm Beach and Miami-Dade counties, said Jeanne Eckes, director of emergency preparedness at Broward General Medical Center in Fort Lauderdale.

o   Some of the patients were being treated for fractures or head injuries. Others had spinal injuries. Many will require long-term hospitalization and rehabilitation, Eckes said.

o   Eckes said she formally asked Monday that Haiti earthquake victims be sent north in her role as health and medical chair of the Domestic Security Task Force.

IN MIAMI

o   One key question was lingering in Miami: What will happen to Haitian patients at Jackson Memorial and other hospitals after they are released from critical care, still needing follow-up and rehabilitation?

o   ``We hope they will have some place to go back home,'' said Dr. William O'Neill, executive dean for clinical affairs at the University of Miami Medical School.

o   VISAS -- O'Neill said patients were sent from the UM field hospital in Port-au-Prince to Miami hospitals based on critical medical needs without regard to whether they had visas. Officials are now tackling the visa question, he said.

o   Gov. Crist has formally asked U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to implement a National Disaster Medical System, said Mike Stone, spokesman for the Florida Division of Emergency Management.

o   Sebelius was reviewing Crist's request late Wednesday, said Gretchen Michael, spokeswoman for HHS' assistant secretary for preparedness and response.

o   If implemented, the system could fly earthquake victims from Haiti or South Florida to any of more than 1,000 hospitals around the country that have contracted with the federal government to provide immediate and longer-term medical care.

o   The National Disaster Medical System was created in 1984 to help local areas cope with wartime disasters, and has been reformed to deal with hurricanes, earthquakes and other natural disasters.

o   In Tallahassee, Susan Smith, spokeswoman for the Florida Department of Health, said there is no set number of additional patients that represents a maximum ``surge capacity'' for all Florida hospitals.

o   ``This is derived on a case-by-case basis from hospital to hospital,'' she said.

A WAY TO REBUILD

o   In Washington, Haitian Ambassador Raymond Joseph called the post-earthquake relief efforts an opportunity to rebuild the country in an organized way.

o   ``Haiti is giving the world and the United States a chance at looking at development in a regulated manner,'' Joseph said at a panel discussion at American Enterprise Institute.

January 28, 2010 -- (John Dorschner, Carol Rosenberg and Fred Tasker, 2010)

Two women pulled alive from rubble in Haiti

• Two women pulled alive from rubble in Haiti seven days after devastating earthquake in Port-au-Prince.  HOTTELINE LOZAMA, 25-years old was pulled from a shopping center in the capital, and ANNA ZIZI, 69/70 years old was found in a Port-au-Prince Roman Catholic Cathedral.  (Telegraph.co.uk, 2010) 

phttp://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/centralamericaandthecaribbean/haiti/7032252/Haiti-earthquake-two-women-pulled-alive-from-rubble.html

Bibliography

(2010, January 20). Telegrah.co.uk . UK.

Associated Press. (2010, January 28). Government gets 1 cent of U. S. quake aid dollar.

Associated Press. (n.d.). Haiti must lead effort to rebuild, U. S. says. 2010.

Hannah Sampson -- hsampson@miamiherald.com. (2010, January 28). Haiatian couple closer to learn if injured baby is theirs. Miami, Florida: Miami Herald.

John Dorschner, Carol Rosenberg and Fred Tasker. (2010, January 28). South Florida hospitals send Haitian earthquake victims north. The Miami Herald http://www.miamiherald.com/news/miami-dade/v-print/story/1450066.html . Miami, FL.

New York Times / Reuters. (2010, January 28). Girl Rescued 15 Dayys after Quake; haiti Pleads for Better Aid. New York.

Padgett, T., & Ghosh, B. (2010, January 27). Human Predators Stalk Haiti's Vulnerable Kids. Times Magazine . Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

 

Haiti Ministerial Preparatory Conference

Hillary Rodham Clinton
Secretary of State

Montreal, Canada

January 25, 2010

SECRETARY CLINTON: Thank you very much, Minister Cannon, and thanks to you and Prime Minister Harper and your government for hosting this conference. The United States looks forward, working with everyone here and all of the other participants, to move toward a conference in New York in March.

Today, we agreed on key principles that will guide our effort, including the leadership of the Government of Haiti and close cooperation among the international community. I’m very grateful to Prime Minister Bellerive and President Preval for their leadership and guidance as we commence this important effort. It is clear that the Government of Haiti has, under the most difficult circumstances, provided leadership. And we intend to support the government so that this is truly a Haitian-led effort, one that responds to the aspirations and the needs of the Haitian people.

I especially want to thank the United Nations and particularly Brazil, who has contributed so generously to the work at the UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti, MINUSTAH, and also to the other countries, some of whom are present today – Uruguay, Chile, Argentina, and others – who are making additional contributions to this UN mission.

We know that the extent of this devastation is almost more than any of us can grasp, but day by day, we have to make progress. Relief workers continue to operate around the clock to distribute more aid to more people. The generosity of countless millions of citizens around the globe continues to be manifest and making a contribution to those relief efforts. Banks, shops, and markets are starting to reopen. So, today was better than yesterday, and I am hopeful that tomorrow will be better than today for the Haitian people.

But as we plan for the transition from emergency assistance to long-term investment and reconstruction, it’s imperative that we maintain this spirit of not only cooperation, but coordination. And to that end, the statement that has been presented following this conference sets out the principles for our cooperation and coordination, strategic long-term objectives, and the beginning of a roadmap that can lead us where we intend to go.

It’s important that we see ourselves as partners with Haiti – not patrons – that we work intensely together to produce results that can be seen and felt by the Haitians themselves. Our goal is a peaceful and prosperous future for the people of Haiti. Many of us have a great commitment to Haiti that precedes the tragedy of the earthquake, and the Obama Administration was committed to working with Haiti, and we stand ready to continue to do all that we can to help realize this better future for the Haitians. And I thank all of our partners in this effort.

* * *
QUESTION: Thank you. I’d like to direct my question, if I may, to the two largest donors, the United States and Canada, and the question really is: Who’s driving the bus? I ask that because granted that this is all supposed to be under the leadership of the Government of Haiti, the prime minister has been candid in his remarks today about the severe limits on the capabilities of the Government of Haiti, especially where it counts, in Port-au-Prince. And therefore I’m interested in knowing why today’s declaration is so vague about the coordination, which would seem to be key. It’s certainly been a problem in the emergency phase, and no doubt it will be in the reconstruction phase. So who is driving the bus and why is it so vague? How are you going to decide, who’s going to decide, who is leading the way in what area? Because there’s nothing on that so far in this.

* * *

SECRETARY CLINTON: Well, thank you. I think that the statement which was produced at the end of the conference is a good guidepost for how we intend to proceed. The Government of Haiti, as Foreign Minister Cannon just said, must be and will be in the lead. We all recognize that the Government of Haiti has suffered a very serious blow to its capacity and therefore we are coming together on behalf of the international community to work with the Haitian Government to establish the kind of coordinating mechanism that I think you’re referring to. There are some other examples that we will look to. Just one to mention is what happened after the tsunami, another very large natural disaster. And particularly how the Government of Indonesia worked with the World Bank, the United Nations, an executive committee of donor nations.  We are going to, in the next weeks, determine the right approach to follow, but it will always put the sovereignty and the leadership of Haiti in the lead. That’s not only the right thing to do, but given what we have learned over many years about development, it is the smart approach. Now, we cannot any longer in the 21^st century be making decisions for people and their futures without listening and without giving them the opportunity to be as involved and make as many decisions as possible.  So we will be coming forth with an approach that we think takes into account the principles that are in the statement reflecting the longer-term strategic objectives and moving toward a roadmap toward Haiti’s reconstruction and development.

* * *

MODERATOR: The last question comes from Edward Luce, from Financial Times. Sorry.

 

QUESTION: Being the last questioner, all my questions have already been asked, so – (laughter). If I could, could I ask, Secretary Clinton, as the host of the meeting in New York in March, whether between now and then, you are to set targets that you want to achieve – financial numerical targets?

 

And also, at the risk of irritating everybody, could I return to the last question – but one? And one of the things you mentioned under targets for that meeting is to agree on an effective coordination mechanism. You’ve all stressed the importance of that. Clearly, one of the ways of doing that is having a single point of accountability, is having a point-person. Is that completely out of consideration? 

 

SECRETARY CLINTON: Well, let me say we are in the process of determining the most effective way forward. And I think there are a number of models that we will be examining. As Foreign Minister Cannon said, there will be some technical meetings between now and the meeting in New York. Those technical meetings will look at needs assessment and sectoral investment and coordination. So there’s a lot of work to be done.

Remember we are, as Bernard Kouchner just said, we are still in an emergency. There is a terrible humanitarian crisis that we are dealing with. As Prime Minister Bellerive said, we don’t yet feed all of the people, we don’t yet have water for them, we have so many who have been grievously injured. Those who have received medical care, many of them have amputated limbs and there are no prosthetics. There are no places to sleep.

So we are moving very rapidly. In fact, I think that the extraordinary outpouring of not just the support on the ground but the willingness for many nations to come today, to have gone to Santo Domingo, to be working toward the conference in New York, it’s a wonderful tribute to the generosity and humanitarian caring of the people of the world. It cuts across all boundaries, and that’s the way it should be.

So we’re trying to do this in the correct order. Sometimes people have pledging conferences and pledge money they don’t have any idea what they’re going to do with it. We actually think it’s a novel idea to do the needs assessment first, and then the planning, and then the pledging. So it may seem different from what you’re used to, where people come together and make all kinds of promises, many of which never get realized because the follow-up work is never done in the way that creates confidence in the donors.

So we are committed to, as best as it can be, doing this in a way that builds confidence in the international community and among donor states and donor organizations and individuals, coming forward with a needs assessment that looks at the entire country because, as Prime Minister Bellerive said today, you can’t look at just Port-au-Prince and the immediate area. You have to look at all of Haiti and figure out how we’re going to decentralize power and aid and the other kinds of necessities.

So I think we’re off to a cautiously positive start, given the extraordinary challenges we’re up against. But we’re going to work really hard to do this in a way that, at the end of it, people can look back and say they took their time, they did it right, but they were as forcefully committed as it was possible. And that’s what we’re trying to achieve here.

MODERATOR: Thank you. This concludes the press conference today. Thank you all for coming.