We’ve seen the terrible images from New York and New Jersey of homes and buildings destroyed by Hurricane Sandy, but the damage in Haiti is also devastating, destroying homes, crops, livelhoods and the future of families who had so little to begin with. The New York Times reports:
Already Desperate, Haitian Farmers Are Left Hopeless After Storm
FAUCHÉ, Haiti — A woman who lost just about everything now gives her children coffee for meals because it quiets their stomachs a bit. Another despondent mother relives the awful moment when her 18-month-old baby was swept from her arms by a flash flood. The bodies of a family of five killed in a mudslide still sit in a morgue unclaimed.
Haitians, who know well the death and despair natural disasters can cause, suffered mightily from Hurricane Sandy, which bashed the country’s rural areas and killed at least 54 people.
Three weeks after the hurricane’s deluge, Haiti, still struggling to recover from the earthquake in January 2010, is facing its biggest blow to reconstruction and slipping deeper into crisis, United Nations and government officials say, with hundreds of thousands of others at risk of hunger or malnutrition.All around this hamlet and others nearby, the men and women who farmed bananas, plantains, sugar cane, beans and breadfruit stare at fields swept of trees, still flooded or coated with river muck that will probably kill off whatever plants are left. They had little, have endured much, and now need more. Hardened by past disasters, they still fear the days and weeks ahead.
“I do not know where we will find money for food and school now,” said Olibrun Hilaire, 61, surveying his wrecked plantain and sugar cane farm in Petit-Goâve that supported his family of 10 children and grandchildren.
Read the full article.
Read what CRS is doing to respond in Haiti.
I am surprised with your lack of information on New Jersey and New York after Hurricane Sandy. I was looking on your website where I could donate thinking you might have a link on your homepage. I don’t see anything and when I did the search I came up with little on donating through CRS for people in the United States affected by the storm. I guess I will have to donate through the Red Cross, since they are making it obvious how to donate. Please don’t forget American citizens need help too.
Lisa,
Thanks for your comment to us, which gives us a chance to briefly explain the roles of Catholic Relief Services and Catholic Charities. Both organizations are part of the larger Caritas Internationalis network of the Catholic Church which responds to people in need, but CRS and Catholic Charities have a different geographical focus from each other. CRS’ mission is to respond to needs in countries outside of the U.S. (working in nearly 100 countries), while Catholic Charities focuses on needs within the U.S. So while CRS is responding to Hurricane Sandy in the Caribbean, Catholic Charities is responding to those in need on the east coast of the U.S.
If you’d like, you can donate to Catholic Charities’ Hurricane Sandy response at http://www.catholiccharitiesusa.org.
All the best,
CRS