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Haiti Relief Puts Few Dents in 'Massive' Need

Food, shelter, medicine in short supply with government invisible

By Harry Kimball,  Newser Staff

Posted Feb 9, 2010 2:00 PM CST
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(Newser) – Relief efforts in Haiti are falling far short of the need despite the best intentions of the international response to the devastating earthquake almost a month past. The nation’s government is almost absent as US soldiers struggle to deliver nothing more than rice, and no temporary shelter besides the makeshift variety is available to the thousands left homeless. And the demand for medical treatment is still “massive.”

"We're seeing as many as 500 people a day in our dinky little health-care center,” a disaster expert and physician from the US tells the Washington Post. “We send paralyzed patients out with their families and say, ‘Good luck.’” The UN hopes to soon make a large food shipment, and it and the US have employed 42,000 Haitians to clean up Port-au-Prince, but the Haitian government is largely inactive. “It's making occasional surreal decisions,” says the director of a cultural institution.

People walk in downtown Port-au-Prince, Sunday, Feb. 7.
People walk in downtown Port-au-Prince, Sunday, Feb. 7.   (AP Photo)
A woman smiles while carrying a sack of rice during a food distribution operation by an aid organization in Port-au-Prince.
A woman smiles while carrying a sack of rice during a food distribution operation by an aid organization in Port-au-Prince.   (AP Photo)
Habitat for Humanity volunteers assemble emergency shelter kits in a warehouse near Atlanta, for shipment to Haiti. They're not there yet.
Habitat for Humanity volunteers assemble emergency shelter kits in a warehouse near Atlanta, for shipment to Haiti. They're not there yet.   (AP Photo)
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COMMENTS
Showing 3 of 7 comments
finkster
Feb 10, 2010 1:02 AM CST
Desperation always fuels corruption.
rationalbirther
Feb 9, 2010 10:07 AM CST
Okay, it's time now for the UN to be held responsible. It has taken the UN, one month to figure out how to deliver rice and flour to Haiti, and they still couldn't do it without the US military. Whoever is in charge of the UN relief efforts needs to resign. The heads of UNICEF and WHO also need to resign. Their jobs were to innoculate the children from common diseases like tetanus, and they failed so children are sick and dying from diseases they should have been protected from. That would be a good beginning.
toughstuff
Feb 9, 2010 9:35 AM CST
Just read on local news that the UN is pissed off because the hospitals in Haiti are trying to charge the people for services. Are all of those people crooks over there?

 
United Nations • medical treatment • natural disaster • US military aid • disaster relief • Haiti earthquake • food distribution • Haitian government

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