Early in the morning of 14 August 2021, a 7.2 magnitude earthquake struck southwest Haiti, killing 1200 people, injuring 12,000, and causing hospitals, schools and homes to collapse. Hundreds of thousands of people were in immediate need of humanitarian assistance, and many still are.
The Quixote Center has been working in Haiti since 1999 and we maintain strong and trusted partnerships. As a result, we were able to mobilize funds for short and medium-term assistance to those most in need. Thanks to the donations we received from supporters, Quixote Center sent the following earthquake relief funds to Haiti:
- $2,000 to Kolektif pou Lakay. This funded food and sanitation kits to smaller communities in the Les Cayes area.
- $2,000 to Fondasyon Mapou. This went to support delivery of emergency supplies to the community of Baraderes.
- $12,000 to the Haiti Response Coalition. The Quixote Center serves on the executive committee of the HRC and was involved in planning HRC responses. Funds went to a direct cash assistance program and to general funds to support temporary staff/mobilizers to coordinate programs with community leaders in all three departments impacted by the earthquake.
- $2,400 through the Religious of Jesus and Mary, long time partners in programming in Gros Morne. These funds supported emergency seed delivery from Gros Morne to communities in the southern peninsula communities of Toirac and surrounding areas like Mailloux, Sous De Vie and Barat. Seeds enabled small-scale farmers to replant after losing their crops to the earthquake.
Our earthquake response work continues through our membership in the Haiti Response Coalition (HRC). In June the HRC convened a conference in Haiti to improve coordination, support Haitian-led responses, and discuss long-term emergency preparedness. This will diminish the need for outside assistance and coordination during emergencies and improve Haiti's capacity to lead its own emergency response when the time comes.
We send our gratitude to you, our donors, which make this work possible. In recent weeks many of you have asked us for our take on what can be done to respond to the current crisis of violence and governance in Haiti. Stay tuned for our post on that topic next week.
