Haitian Earthquake Relief
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January 15, 2010 NACCHO has received the following guidance from the Department of Health and Human Services, which is participating in the federal relief effort coordinated by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)/Department of State. All persons and organizations wishing to volunteer time or material for Haitian earthquake relief should register the resources available at www.cidi.org. USAID will be processing requests from the Haitian government and using this database to help fill them as requests are received. At this time, HHS is relying on 12,000 federal personnel from the National Disaster Medical System and Public Health Service, which have been activated, to provide medical and public health assistance and is not seeking volunteers. The federal government advises that the most valuable assistance individuals and organizations can render at this time is cash contributions. Relief organizations seeking monetary donations are listed at www.cidi.org. The State Department is recommending a text messaging mechanism for making individual $10 donations. Text "HAITI" to "90999" and $10 will be sent to the Red Cross, charged to your cell phone bill. HHS has advised that the Haitian infrastructure is damaged and fragile and the numbers of relief volunteers and amounts of material that can be handled safely and appropriately at this moment are limited, particularly because airport access is in high demand and tightly controlled. The request to register resources for future use is to facilitate matching what is available with personnel and material needs as the Haitian government identifies and communicates them. Related Documents Guidance for Relief Workers and Others Traveling to Haiti for Earthquake Response |