HELP HAITI

RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: april 2022 :: RMTnews 24 On August 14, 2021 a 7.2 magnitude earthquake struck Haiti and more than 2,200 people were reported to have died with many more injured. Almost 53,000 homes have been destroyed along with 25 health facilities and 127 schools. The Haitian Red Cross has been responding since the earthquake hit. Six Red Cross ambulances have been transferring patients that were evacuated and 25,000 people and 5,000 families have been reached with essentials including blankets, kitchen kits and hygiene kits. The British Red Cross has launched the Haiti Earthquake Appeal in support of the work the Haiti Red Cross is doing. The International Federation of the Red Cross (IFRC) has set up a field hospital. A woman who lives locally has spoken about the impact the earthquake has had on her: “I am a mother of five. Since the earthquake struck I have been trying to rebuild our life but it is very difficult. "The hospital the Red Cross is setting up is so important for me and for the whole community in this area. We need it," she said. The country was still recovering from 2010’s earthquake that killed 220,000 and left 1.5 million people homeless. Haiti’s history of earthquakes stems from the fact the country sits on a fault line between huge tectonic plates - the movement of which causes earthquakes. This latest earthquake has caused severe damage in the south of the country. Four hospitals are reported to have been damaged in Les Cayes and Jérémie, where a cathedral and other buildings have collapsed. Hotels, ports, bridges and roads have also been damaged, with an unknown number of bodies still trapped in rubble. Early assessments by the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent (IFRC) indicate that more than 800,000 people have been directly affected by the earthquake’s impact. What is happening in Haiti now? The scale of destruction in Haiti is enormous - 2.2 million people are believed to have felt the earthquake and its aftershocks. Life-saving efforts are the priority at a time when hospitals are severely over- stretched due to Covid-19. The Haitian Red Cross, which has 200 staff and 10,000 volunteers, remains on the HELP HAITI Following the massive earthquake that struck Haiti last year the British Red Cross has launched the Haiti Earthquake Appeal HOSPITAL: Patients of OFATMA Hospital in Les Cayes, Haiti are cared for in tents August 16, 2021. Though it did not collapse, the hospital's walls and floor cracked during the earthquake and no one wants to go back inside.