"where poverty and earthquake collided"

The devastation in Haiti is appalling. Day by day the stories coming out are more horrific. The earthquake struck on 12 January, and more than 10 days later they are still trying to pull people out of the rubble.

The situation is worse because of the extreme poverty and lack of real infrastructure from long before the earthquake. One visitor to Haiti described it as the place where "... poverty and the earthquake have now collided. Part of this is simply the poverty they live in every day and the other part is the devastation of the earthquake." There are reports comparing the number of deaths to the 2004 Asian tsunami - which was spread across the whole Indian Ocean, affecting people in many countries.

Jean Claude Cerin, Tearfund Coordinator in Haiti says "The current situation is very critical. There is no organized relief assistance from the Government who seems to be paralyzed. Even the UN forces are very slow to react as they have had a lot of losses among themselves, .... Movement is quite difficult because there is no fuel being sold, no city power, no internal communication. Hospitals that were not destroyed have closed their doors because they are overwhelmed and the wounded population is remaining without care. There is a general feeling of fear across the population as people are scared of a rebound. Also there are many damaged buildings that could collapse any time soon. The bodies of dead people are accumulating and people don’t know how to dispose of them."

International agencies are doing their best, and aid is beginning to get through. Emergency aid will only be the beginning of what is needed. Alfonso Wieland says "the biggest part comes later when the cameras stop flashing and Haiti is no longer front-page news." The process of rebuilding will take years. The aim will need to be to deal both with the earthquake damage and also with the underlying poverty issues that have contributed so much to making the situation worse.

Prayer requests - Please pray for:

• Wisdom for the authorities who seem to be overwhelmed and taken totally unprepared for this.
• The suffering population of Haiti, for comfort for so many who are burying their dead, and adequate care for those who are suffering from injury.
• The church of Haiti to be able to give a response of love, care and hope to this population that is going on the streets as sheep without shepherds
• The Christian agencies as they assess the needs, and look for the best ways to respond through their partners

How you can help

Baptist World Aid, the relief and development arm of the Baptist World Alliance, has committed emergency grants of $10,000 each to the Baptist Convention of Haiti and the Haiti Baptist Mission. Two representatives of BWAid's Rescue 24 team of first responders from Hungary are en-route to Haiti to coordinate the efforts of Baptist agencies. “We must make a generous response to this massive catastrophe,” said BWAid Director, Paul Montacute.

For up to date news of the BWAid earthquake relief programmes in Haiti click here.

Funds donated through BANZAid and labelled for Haiti will be passed on to the BWAid appeal.

• Donations may be made through the PayPal links on this website,
• Online donations may be made directly through the BWAid website (note donations made through this site will be in US dollars, and are not eligible for NZ tax rebates)
• Send donations directly to: BANZAid, P O Box 12149, Penrose, Auckland 1642, clearly labelled for Haiti.
• Churches can contact us for banking details for direct transfer of funds.

More information about the disaster in Haiti

• Reuters AlertNet - news website specifically with information on disaster situations
• Stuff.co.nz - news items on Haiti published in the New Zealand media
• Voodoo Haiti Voodoo West - Alfonso Wieland of the US Sojourners Community gives some background to the poverty of Haiti. A number of the Sojourners writers have comments on the situation in Haiti that can be found from this page.