IMM REL--CRWRC's Steady Assistance in Haiti Earthquake Response

[Beth Degraff <bdegraff@crwrc.org>]

>*IMMEDIATE RELEASE*

Wayne deJong, CRWRC Director of Relief and Rehabilitation, cell 905-515-1720

Beth DeGraff, CRWRC Media Contact, cell 616-648-7821 or 1-800-55-CRWRC
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*CRWRC Provides Steady Assistance in Haiti Earthquake Recovery*

*JANUARY 12, 2012*—Two years after the catastrophic earthquake of 2010
shook the heart of Haiti, the Christian Reformed World Relief Committee (
www.crwrc.org) is working consistently to help those who were hardest hit
recover. Last month, CRWRC completed construction on the 2,500th home built
in Leogane, near the epicenter of the quake, providing shelter and security
to another, still homeless family.

“CRWRC’s response to the earthquake of January 12, 2010, has been broad  and
complex,” says Ken Little, CRWRC Senior Project Manager for International
Disaster Response, “but our approach has always been to help rebuild the
poorest families and communities whose lives were torn apart.”

CRWRC has been present in Haiti through its long-term community development
partners and programs since 1975, and nimbly turned to disaster response
efforts in the first days after the quake through “Sous Espwa” (Source  of
Hope), providing immediate emergency aid through food assistance, water,
and temporary shelter to thousands of survivors.

CRWRC staff and volunteers from North America traveled to Haiti to assist
in the first phase of the response, completing needs assessments and
identifying Leogane as a hard-hit area that was underserved by
international agencies.  CRWRC’s multi-faceted recovery efforts in Leogane
include distributing tarps, emergency food, and hygiene supplies;
constructing latrines, wells, and homes; and psycho-social counseling and
restoring livelihoods.

CRWRC will wind up much of its disaster response activities in Haiti by
July 2012, although a livelihood restoration program called LEAP
(Livelihoods for Earthquake Affected People in Haiti) will remain active
into early 2014. LEAP is a 3-year program to help Leogane residents become
self-sufficient by restoring income earning activities and assets. This
includes mirco-loans to merchants, small business support and training, and
agriculture rehabilitation including small animal distribution.

In a recent national radio broadcast in Haiti, a representative of local
government official Gerard-Trouin said he regarded CRWRC a model program
for disaster rehabilitation work in Haiti, and noted that a goat
distribution program in his district allowed many residents to remain in
their communities rather than migrate to the capital to look for work.

“At the two-year mark, it’s amazing and gratifying to see CRWRC-constru cted
latrines, water pumps, and houses in Leogane that are sheltering over
12,000 people who had lost their homes in the earthquake,” says Wayne de
Jong, CRWRC Director of Disaster Response and Rehabilitation.

*Members of the media* can call for interview with Wayne deJong, CRWRC
Director of Relief and Rehabilitation, cell 905-515-1720, or call media
contact Beth DeGraff at cell 616-648-7821 for more information.

*CRWRC is a non-profit agency of the Christian Reformed Church in North
America ministering in development, relief, and justice education with
people in need in more than 30 countries around the world since 1962.*

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>--
>Beth DeGraff
>CRWRC Media and Justice Contact
>2850 Kalamazoo Avenue SE
>Grand Rapids, MI 49560-0600
>1-800-55-CRWRC
>www.crwrc.org

"Poverty represents a double violation of justice -- the poor are unjustly
downtrodden, and our failure to alleviate their condition is, in turn,
unjust." NW