Major Earthquake Devastates Haiti; UUSC and UUA Launch Joint Relief Fund

• Donate to the UUSC/UUA Joint Haiti Earthquake Relief Fund
  
• Address the crisis in your congregational service
• FAQ about UUSC Disaster Response
• Listen to UUSC's Martha Thompson discuss the crisis in Haiti on the First Parish of Duxbury's weekly radio program

Port-au-Prince, the capital of Haiti, was devastated by a major earthquake around 5 p.m. Eastern Time on January 12. UUSC and the Unitarian Universalist Association have launched a joint earthquake relief fund to help the survivors.

Most people in the capital spent the night outdoors, without shelter, or joined those frantically digging in the rubble to rescue the tens of thousands trapped underneath it. The situation is chaotic, communications systems are down, and debris impedes movement around the city. Nonetheless, the U.N. estimates that 2.2 million people are affected and fears that the loss of life may reach into the tens of thousands. The destruction is widespread, with extensive damage to homes, hospitals, roads, water and sanitation services, and electrical and communication systems. Major news outlets are all reporting severe devastation. An alarming number of buildings, including the National Palace and the United Nation’s Headquarters, have collapsed.

Haiti is the Western Hemisphere’s most impoverished and least-developed nation. Its society is rife with radical inequality, where large numbers of the population are systematically left out. Eighty percent of the population lives in poverty. Many people live day-to-day on what they’re able to earn in the informal sector. For those hundreds of thousands of poor people in Port-au-Prince, the daily struggle for food, water, and medical attention already amounted to an emergency — the earthquake has made these challenges infinitely more difficult to overcome, creating a humanitarian disaster on top of an existing humanitarian crisis. Poor Haitians who have never had equal access to services will be struggling to get basic necessities in the aftermath of this earthquake.

Photo courtesy of Lisandro Suero/Getty Images

What UUSC will do

UUSC’s disaster response in Haiti will focus on those survivors less likely to have access to aid, such as child domestic workers (restaviks), women-headed households that work in the informal sector, and people living with HIV/AIDS. Haiti has a vibrant grassroots movement with a vision of empowering people. UUSC will work closely with partners in this grassroots movement to reach those survivors at greatest risk of being overlooked. As of this afternoon, we’ve already connected with three organizations and will be reaching out to others over the next 24 hours in order to shape our response.

We will be updating our website regularly as our plans develop.

Finally, we are deeply saddened at the calamity that has devastated the lives of people in Haiti — please support our efforts to help them.