Helping Haiti after its back-to-back disasters

Aid workers in Haiti are welcoming Canadian donations as they struggle to meet demand for medical services and shelter following last weekend's earthquake that left over 2,100 dead and thousands injured and homeless.

Efforts are now focused on urgent life-saving assistance in the Caribbean country following last week's back-to-back disasters the 7.2-magnitude earthquake followed by a tropical storm, says Chiran Livera,a rapid response managerfor the Canadian Red Cross's international operations.

WATCH | Hospitals can't keep up:

'Needs are huge,' says doctor attending injured in Haiti

3 years ago

Duration 5:11

More medical supplies are badly needed to help some of the thousands of people who were injured in Saturday's earthquake in Haiti, says Dr. Inobert Pierre, the director of St. Boniface Hospital in Fond-des-Blancs. (Paul Smith/CBC)

"It's just a magnitude ofone emergency after another," Livera said.

He was referringto the earthquake and storm hitting the countryas it grapples with the COVID-19 pandemic, political instability following last month'sexecution of President Jovenel Mose, high rates of violent crime and rampant unemployment.

"The people, their resilienceis incredible to withstand one, two, three, four emergencies like this," said Livera."So we want to focus on helping them regain their dignity and come back to self-sufficiency and help them through the recovery process."

Haiti hasstrong ties to Canada. Members of the largest Haitian community in Canada live in the census metropolitan area of Montral, according to StatisticsCanada.

Donations roll in

The Red Cross has so far raised $700,000 via theHaiti Earthquake Appealfrom individual Canadians and other private donations, Livera said. The funds are being used to purchaserelief items locally in Haiti such as water, food and medicine. Additional supplies such as blankets, tarpaulins andjerrycanswere brought in from a Panama warehouse.

Charities across Canada are accepting monetary donations because it is the fastest way to get supplies on the ground.

UNICEF Canadahas set up an emergency fund. The Humanitarian Coalition, an umbrella group for12 Canada-based internationalaid agencies, has set up a Haiti-specific relief program that is accepting donationsat this website.

Haiti's unique geographiclocationmakes it vulnerable to natural disasters like hurricanes and earthquakes. In 2010, a 7.0 magnitude earthquakekilled more than 250,000 and left more than 1.5 million homeless in the poverty-stricken country.

Roads washed away

On Thursday, lack of basic infrastructure was complicating the transport offood and medical supplies to villages after landslides caused by a tropical storm.

Amajor hospital in the capital of Port-au-Prince was shut down afterthe kidnapping of two doctors, including one of the country's few orthopaedic surgeons.

WATCH | Aid efforts in Haiti hindered by landslides caused by heavy rains:

Landslides hurt aid efforts in Haiti

3 years ago

Duration 1:29

The CBC's Ellen Mauro reports from a road partially blocked by a boulder after a landslide between the towns of Camp-Perrin and Jeremie in earthquake-ravaged Haiti.

The goalon the ground in Haiti is two-pronged, says Livera, who speaks French and Haitian Creole and has visited the islandfor training and disaster relief.

The most immediate need forthe country is medical aid, water, food, shelter and transportation to hospitals, he said.

But the Red Cross considers it equally importanttoinvest in programs to train individual communitiesin Haiti to become self-sufficient with initiatives like community gardens, given how prone the countryis to natural disasters.

"That's why it's so important to invest in preparedness and resilience of the people who make up the community there,"Livera said."It's community members helpingcommunity members."