7.0 Earthquake Devastates Heavily Populated Parts of Haiti – January 12, 2010

Tuesday evening, a 7.0 earthquake hit 10 miles southwest of Haiti’s capital city of Port au Prince – the largest quake to strike the country in over 200 years. Tens of aftershocks have occurred since. With 80% of Haiti’s population already living in poverty, many homes and buildings easily collapsed, including hospitals and government buildings. Communications have been completely disrupted, making it nearly impossible to get an accurate picture of the devastation.

But the media message is consistent: this is a major catastrophe. The Red Cross estimates that about 3 million people – one-third of Haiti’s population – are affected by the quake. With much of Port au Prince destroyed, the U.S. State Department has been told to expect serious loss of life.

Immediate Response

While we have been unable to secure direct communication with our field staff, we know that wherever possible, they are working hard to gather information at this time, assessing overall impact to Compassion’s work and, as information allows, tracking our church partners, the children we serve and their families.

Of nearly 65,000 registered children in Haiti, over 6,000 live in Port-au-Prince alone. To date no information is available about our church partners, the children and their families, but we will update you as we know more.

When a disaster on this scale occurs, Compassion mobilizes relief efforts such as:

• Food and clean water

•Temporary shelter

• Basic sanitation and personal items

• Medical attention and preventive health care

• Family reunification and/or trauma counseling

Give today and help mobilize the resources needed.

Please visit www.compassion.com/haiticrisis to give online and for current updates.