From the Worldwide Faith News archives www.wfn.org


Substantial Financial Assistance Needed for Haiti's Flood


From "Frank Imhoff" <frank_imhoff@elca.org>
Date Wed, 16 Jun 2004 12:52:49 -0500

Substantial Financial Assistance Needed for Haiti's Flood Victims
Environmental Disaster Leaves Population, Authorities Powerless 

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti/GENEVA, 16 June 2004 (LWI) - Substantial financial
assistance is needed to enable populations affected by recent flooding
in Haiti to "lead a halfway normal life again," says Michael Kuehn,
representative of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) in Haiti. 

The number of victims following the severe storms in the southern border
area of Haiti and the Dominican Republic is still rising, says Kuehn,
director of the LWF Department for World Service (DWS) programs in both
countries. The impact of heavy rainstorms has left a scene of
desolation. Most of the affected come from around Mapou, some 40 km
southeast of the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince, which resembles a
desert of mud and debris, Kuehn says. The official death toll has
already reached 2,000 and another 1,600 people are reported missing,
according to the health ministry's Civil Protection Department.

Kuehn points out that the country has been experiencing an increasingly
worsening political situation since the beginning of the year. The heavy
rainfall and mudslides for over three weeks since mid-May, he says, have
created an environmental disaster over which the Haitian population and
authorities have no power.

The LWF/DWS Haiti is focusing on providing humanitarian help to
survivors, who are cut off from the outside world in regions such as
Mapou. "The immediate priority is to provide emergency food supplies to
the victims," Kuehn says. The flooding has destroyed roads and other
access routes, so chartered aircraft and helicopters provided by the
multinational task force stationed in Haiti since the ouster of
President Jean-Bertrand Aristide in February, are currently the only
means by which to deliver these supplies. 

By early this month the LWF, under considerable transportation
constraint, had distributed over 5,000 gallons of water, 600 kilograms
of rice and beans, 750 kilograms of corn, and provided clothing and
medicine to 275 families. But Kuehn sees these efforts as "merely a drop
in the ocean" in view of the scale of the disaster, even though the
helicopters are still in operation.

The LWF Haiti program has received financial assistance from various
sources, including the Geneva-based network of churches and aid agencies
Action by Churches Together (ACT) International (USD 50,000), the German
embassy in Haiti (USD 58,000) and German Agro Action (USD 23,200). In
addition, Concern Worldwide is providing considerable logistical help,
according to Kuehn. (396 words)

(By Julia Fauth, youth trainee in the LWF Office for Communication
Services.)

(The LWF is a global communion of Christian churches in the Lutheran
tradition. Founded in 1947 in Lund (Sweden), the LWF now has 136 member
churches in 76 countries representing 62.3 million of the almost 66
million Lutherans worldwide. The LWF acts on behalf of its member
churches in areas of common interest such as ecumenical and inter-faith
relations, theology, humanitarian assistance, human rights,
communication, and the various aspects of mission and development work.
Its secretariat is located in Geneva, Switzerland.)

[Lutheran World Information (LWI) is the LWF's information service.
Unless specifically noted, material presented does not represent
positions or opinions of the LWF or of its various units. Where the
dateline of an article contains the notation (LWI), the material may be
freely reproduced with acknowledgment.]

*    *	   *

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Tel: (41.22) 791.63.54
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Editor's e-mail: pmu@lutheranworld.org 


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