Volunteer Florida Disaster

Information on assisting earthquake survivors

Haiti was hit with a powerful 7.0 earthquake. Reports are still coming in of the devastation that has occurred in and around Haiti's capital, Port-au-Prince. Volunteer Florida is providing the following links for more information and how you can help.

Note: Volunteer Florida encourages you to donate wisely to support Haiti earthquake relief operations. For a review of trusted charitable organizations, or to find a financial evaluation of a non-governmental organization, check out Charity Navigator or Guidestar.

US AID – U.S. Agency for International Development
US AID is the federal agency leading the U.S. government’s response to the earthquake in Haiti. It has a database to register your offer of assistance for Haiti earthquake relief, and can provide you a list of medical and other relief supplies requested by response organizations.

Center for International Disaster Information
CIDI has a database to register your offer of assistance for Haiti earthquake relief.

SERVFL for Medical Volunteers
SERVFL is the State of Florida's online system for managing public health and medical disaster responders (volunteers and staff teams). If you are licensed medical professional interested in volunteering, register on this site.

Organizations providing relief to Haiti
A list of organizations from Florida supporting Haiti earthquake relief efforts.

Updated 1/28/2010 9:00 a.m.

American Red Cross

www.redcross.org

Red Cross workers are assisting the Florida Department of Children and Families with repatriation activities at airports throughout the state of Florida with most activity at Homestead, Miami International and Sanford-Orlando. Assistance includes food, water, blankets, hygiene supplies, mental health and health services.
Red Cross workers are also providing assistance to foreign nationals with food, clothing, shelter, mental health and health services.
Service is available 24/7 at sites with high activity. American Red Cross Services are available upon request 24/7 at airports across Florida.
Info as of 1/19/10:

Red Cross workers: 174
Meal Count: 2,400
People provided financial assistance: 0
Snack/Water: 4,500
Nights lodging: 4
Comfort Kits: 48
Cots: 50
Blankets: 350
Health contacts: 7
Mental Health Contacts: 48
The American Red Cross has personnel on the ground in Haiti and is providing direct relief services now.
Support their efforts using your cell phone! Text " HAITI" to "90999" and $10 will be given automatically to the Red Cross, charged to your cell phone bill.
Publix customers can donate at registers at checkout. Money will go to Haiti Relief and Development Fund of American Red Cross.

Catholic Charities of Florida

www.catholiccharitiesadm.org

Donations are accepted through Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Miami.
Catholic Charities agencies are involved in the Florida response to the Haitian earthquake for repatriation and temporary protected status.
The Archbishop of Miami is sending an assessment team to identify ways to support recovery efforts in Haiti.
Catholic Charities is working on an advocacy plan to address the needs of Haitian children (orphans) at high risk and lining up the resources to carry this out.

Christian Contractors Association

www.ccaministry.org

Loaded eight pallets of medicine and medical supplies that were stored in the Brooksville warehouse with one of its partnering agencies called Abacus World Health. It is an organization it has worked with in the past by providing Abacus World Health with free warehouse space and forklift operation. Abacus World Health is comprised of medical students from the University of Florida and its contacts include local doctors and hospitals. It received medicines from Oak Hill Hospital in Brooksville and there were 10 volunteers included in this operation. Abacus has a contact on the ground to receive the product for emergency disbursement.
CCA received an update from its partner ministries. Its onsite CCA volunteer, Richard, and the team have been able to repair the well and generator, have acquired fuel and are actively pumping drinking water to the survivors and relief workers at Double Harvest. They have also been able to connect with some doctors through Samaritan's Purse and now have 40 doctors, where just 2 days ago they had 1 Haitian doctor serving 400 patients. They are still in need of more food and medical supplies.

Christian Disaster Response

www.cdresponse.org

CDR is seeking volunteer experts in the following areas:

Procurement and Logistics
Public Relations / Media
Emergency Management Specialist
Doctors
Nurses (including an expert on the disabled )
Water Emergency Specialists
Child Psychiatrist
Post traumatic Stress Disorders Counselors
Urban Development manager
Mass Care Food/ Shelter Specialist

Contact Christian Disaster Response directly via their website: www.cdresponse.org regarding the above volunteer opportunities.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

www.give.lds.org/emergencyresponse

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is providing the following response to this event:

An initial airlift will be made from the U.S. to deliver immediate relief items including food, water filters, hygiene kits, tents, tarps, and other supplies. Additional support from the U.S. and locally in Haiti will be provided in the coming weeks through Church leaders in Haiti and other partner organizations.
Church produced food commodities from the U.S.
Church purchased relief supplies from the U.S.
In-kind supplies from the U.S.
Local purchase of relief supplies
Support with partner organizations (Food for the Poor, Red Cross, and others)
Transportation costs

Church of Scientology Disaster Relief Team

www.volunteerministers.org

Working with its international organization out of Los Angeles, the central point of coordination on the Haiti effort.
Have contacts in Haiti that and have teams being formed all over the US to be deployed.
Forming a large Medical team of 70-80 Doctors to go and set up a larger (100 X 20 ft) yellow tent as a field hospital. Working with the Haitian Medical Assoc and the Caribbean Med Assoc on this.
Have many large yellow tents available to set up for other needs sizes 61X36 and 32X16.
Coordinating its own transportation to the island.

Compassion Alliance

www.compassionalliance.org

Coordinating transporting donations to Haiti.
Sending 6 to 8 doctors over to Haiti, more staff will be departing over the next few days.
Making arrangements to send a number of containers to Haiti.
Have 25 containers of bottled water to send which adds up to about 500,000 bottles of water and also 40,000 pounds of canned vegetables.

Convoy of Hope

www.convoyofhope.org

Base of operations is the Mission of Hope just outside of the city of Port au Prince in Titanyen, Haiti.
Over 1.6 million meals distributed through the partnership of Convoy of Hope and Mission of Hope at PODs (points of distribution) through Monday January 25, 2010.
30 Sawyer water filters installed. Training ongoing.
Two main points of distribution are Quisqueya Chapel and Cite Soleil along with utilizing 3 orphanages and other varying locations.

The Eagles Wings Foundation

www.theeagleswingsfoundation.org

Daily WFP taskings indicate EWF as one of the top distributors in the entire country, relying on Haitian resources.
Met with U-3 Commander for tactics and planning.
Had two trucks looted enroute to Kenskoff.
Personnel, security, and food distribution team safe and accounted for.
Total food tonnage distributed - 360+ metric tons.

Florida Association of Food Banks

www.fafb.org

Central Florida Food Bank support repatriation operations in Sanford.
Treasure Coast Food Bank delivered ten thousand pounds of food and personal hygiene supplies to the St. Lucie County Airport as part of a Missionary Flight International shipment of requested items needed in Haiti. Items included sixty cases of Gatorade, three hundred pounds of cereal, over six thousand pounds of pre-packaged meals, and a pallet of personal hygiene products. Members of the public wanting to donate items needed in Haiti, can come to the Treasure Coast Food Bank between the hours of 8:00 AM and 4PM Monday through Friday. List of needed items at this time includes: Granola bars, Cereal, Peanut Butter, and Baby Diapers and other personal hygiene products.

Florida Disaster Recovery Fund

www.FLADisasterRecoveryFund.org

Governor Crist announced on Jan. 13 he was activating “Neighbors to the Rescue” through the Florida Disaster Recovery Fund and asked Floridians to donate responsibly to survivors of disasters, including those in Haiti.
The “Neighbors to the Rescue” through the Florida Disaster Recovery Fund is a Florida based fund that works with non-profit organizations to assist with long term recovery and unmet needs for Florida’s regional neighbors victimized by disaster. “Neighbors to the Rescue” was created in 2005 following Hurricane Wilma.
Floridians and neighbors across the country can contribute to “Neighbors to the Rescue” by going to www.FLADisasterRecoveryFund.org – or by calling 1-800-825-3786.

The Florida Association for Volunteer Action in the Caribbean and the Americas (FAVACA)

www.favaca.org

All donations made on the FAVACA Web site during this period will be used to support Haiti. For more information please call 850-410-3100 or email favaca@favaca.org .

Feed the Children

Donations can be made over the phone with credit cards or mailed to:

Mission Harvest America, Inc.
69 Copeland Street
Jacksonville , FL 32204
Phone: 904-356-9006 or 904-356-4819

Collecting food and medical supplies for relief efforts in Haiti: dry food, bags of rice or beans, powdered milk; first aid items. (No box or package type foods please due to damage in handling.)
Funds are needed to cover the cost of shipping and handling and sending relief personnel to Haiti.

Florida Baptist Disaster Relief

www.flbaptistdisaster.org

Prepared over 1,500 meals for volunteers and people flying out of Ft. Pierce for the last week and will continue this week in partnership with Missionary Flights International.
Moved over 10 tons of rice from Arkansas to FL to be shipped to Port au Prince and will move another 30-40 tons over the month of February.
2 Medical teams are traveling next week.
Estimated 350 volunteer hours.
The Florida Baptist Convention can offer the following in regards to repatriation efforts for Haitian earthquake efforts Mass Food Preparation Temporary Child care Haitian Translators French or French Creole Chaplains Shower/Laundry trailers with staff to man them.

Florida Conference United Methodist Church

www.flumc.org

The United Methodist Church and the Florida Conference in particular have a special relationship with the people of Haiti. There is a large Methodist presence in Haiti, including a United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) Office that has been in place since 2005, and regular work teams sent through United Methodist Volunteers in Mission (UMVIM).
Three executives of the Board of Global Ministries were on the island on a mission-related trip when the earthquake hit. They have not been heard from since the earthquake.

Florida Presbyterian Disaster Assistance Network

www.pcusa.org/pda/teams.htm

Response is being handled by our national Presbyterian Disaster Assistance office.
Currently PDA is supporting repatriations at the Sanford location).
PDA is sending funds to help provide immediate emergency relief to the affected people.
Funds are being sent through our ecumenical and local partners working in Haiti.

Lutheran Services Florida

www.lsfnet.org

Providing assistance to the repatriation process in Sanford and Tampa areas
Our response will come from the National Lutheran Church Bodies

Night Runners

www.nightrunners.net

Plans to ship a mobile medical unit equipped with examining tables and supplies to Haiti via the Dominican Republic.
Request financial assistance for shipping, 2 generators and batteries that will go with the mobile medical unit.

Project K.I.D.S (Kids in Disaster)

Is providing child friendly spaces and psychosocial support through its Play Care model for children affected by disaster and will be setting up several Play Care sites throughout affected areas in Haiti. The Children's Forum in Tallahassee, FL is coordinating the work for Project K.I.D. For additional information, please contact the Children's Forum at 1-888-FLCHILD or visit the website at: www.project-kid.org or www.thechildrensforum.com.

Samaritan’s Purse

www.samaritanspurse.org

A DC-6 cargo plane carrying approximately $100,000 worth of medical supplies has arrived. These supplies were donated to Samaritan’s Purse by a hospital in Georgia and include medicines and surgical supplies.
The DART has delivered food to two orphanages with a combined total of 60 children.
The satellite communication systems at the Samaritan’s Purse compound are expected to be operational today.
The DART is being approached by many ministries offering their volunteers and facilities to help our relief effort. We have been offered the use of vehicles and a warehouse in the middle of Port-Au-Prince. The team will be assessing these offers as quickly as possible in the coming days.
The team has assembled 1,400 family kits consisting of two blankets, a hygiene kit, a jerry can, and a 20’ x 20’ piece of shelter plastic. These will be distributed in Carrefour, Goave, and Leogane.
A convoy carrying heavy equipment and supplies left our N. Wilkesboro facility this morning. This will be transported to Haiti on the barge.

2 Excavators
2 Hydraulic Grapples
2 Hydraulic Hammers
1 Bulldozer
2 Dump Trucks
1 Tractor Trailer
1 25-Ton Trailer
1 35-Ton Trailer
3 Flatbed Trucks

The convoy from N.Wilkesboro also includes two 20x30 tents, two generators, two fuel tanks, 50 radios, a 2-ton truck, two vans, two smaller flatbed trucks, one pickup truck, two bobcats, and 5,000 rolls of plastic sheeting.
We have sent six cargo flights with relief supplies into Haiti. This does not include the DC-6 scheduled to arrive today. The cargo flights have carried in the following supplies:

842 Rolls of Plastic
2,200 Solar Flashlights
1,152 Jerry Cans
9,900 Blankets
2,880 Hygiene Kits
12 Community Water Filters
11 Pallets of Supplies for the Community Water Filter
13 Pallets of Medical Supplies
3 Vehicles
113,520 Water Purification Packet
784 Water purification Kits

The Salvation Army

www.us.salvationarmy.org

For the latest updates on The Salvation Army’s response to this disaster, please visit http://blog.salvationarmyusa.org/
http://twitter.com/salvationarmyus
http://www.facebook.com/SalvationArmyUSA

Successful distribution of well over 30 tons of food and 6 tons of water.
With several days’ rations of food in the hands of the displaced families sheltering adjacent to our compound in Port-au-Prince, team members continued to gather information within the makeshift camps to better ‘target’ our relief aid for maximum effect.
Logistics personnel at Incident Command, at the Miami warehouse facility, and team members in Haiti were working to coordinate subsequent deliveries of food, water, and various non-food items (NFI’s) to support families displaced by the earthquake.
Team members continued to participate in UN ‘Cluster Meetings’ to coordinate their efforts with other agencies to avoid duplication of effort and to advocate for the needs of the people we are working to assist.
Work continued toward activating a second distribution site in Petit Goave.
Classes were held for 100 preschoolers.
Over 200 people were treated by medical staff.
Monetary donations can also be made through: www.salvationarmyusa.org and via PayPal or call 1-800-SAL-ARMY.