Haiti: A new way to show solidarity

MONTREAL , Jan. 22 /CNW Telbec/ - Despite the aftershocks that occurred on Wednesday and Thursday, the CECI teams are still providing aid to the survivors of Port-au-Prince without respite. Fortunately, the latest word is that all our staff members in the field are unharmed, and the damage is minimal.

In the field, the volunteer doctors and nurses who arrived in Haiti on Wednesday morning are at work, both at the Diquini Hospital in Port-au-Prince and at St-Marc where we are engaged in a joint endeavour with the Centre for International Cooperation in Health and Development (CCISD). Meanwhile, the emergency supplies (blankets, sheets of canvas and hygiene kits) that were shipped from Canada are already being distributed to the survivors.

Apart from medical care, the immediate priorities are to provide cooking kits and hygiene products to the families and to ensure access to potable water and latrines. But very soon, it will be necessary to relocate the numerous survivors who are making do in improvised camps. It will be essential to provide them with decent shelter before the rainy season, which is just around the corner and will transform the camps into a morass of contagion and epidemics.

Support must continue

Even though the CECI serves thousands of disaster victims every day, the Canadian public needs to keep on showing its solidarity! And now, the CECI is offering you a new way of giving. In a matter of seconds, using the keypad of your cell phone, dial 30333 to reach the CECI and make a $5 donation. It will show up as a charge on your telephone bill. We wish to thank the thousands of donors who have already shown their support for the CECI's operations.

Online donations are accepted at this Web site: www.ceci.ca

Donations may be made by telephone at this toll-free number: 1-877-875-2324, or 514 875-9911, and by mail to: CECI ( Haiti Earthquake), 3000 rue Omer-Lavallée, Montréal (QC) H1Y 3R8.

For further information: Interviews with CECI Experts: Myriam Fehmiu, Communications Advisor, [phone]