One year after the Haitian earthquake, the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee’s (JDC) critical relief efforts have directly impacted 240,000 Haitians and are paving a path toward betters lives for the disabled and children. Through $7.7 million dollars in donations from the Jewish Federations of North America and tens of thousands of individual donors, JDC’s collaboration with Haitian, Israeli, and other NGOs has fed, clothed, provided state-of-the-art medical treatment, job training, and education for the country’s recovering population.
JDC and its partners have delivered medical services to more than 53,000 Haitians and additionally aided more than 800 people and fitted more than 70 prosthetics through its state-of-the-art rehabilitation clinic at l’Hôpital de l’Université d’Etat d’Haïti and nearby prosthetic lab. JDC also ran 10 schools in tent camps in Port Au Prince and ensured that 150,000 displaced Haitians had access to 80 emergency water tanks. You can learn more about these and many other programs in JDC’s Haiti Relief One Year Report.
In 2011, JDC will focus on physical and psychological rehabilitation for the disabled and critical schooling for Haitian children. JDC’s ongoing services for Haitian amputees will include professional training for local medical and paramedical staff and treatment by a team of Haitian/American/Israeli doctors, physiotherapists and occupational therapists. JDC will complete construction on a disabled-accessible middle school in Zoranje that includes a vocational training program; is planning on rebuilding a modern elementary and secondary school in Fondwa; and will improve school accessibility for disabled students, including awareness and sensitivity training for teachers and other staff. JDC will also continue its vocational training courses for masons in anti-seismic construction techniques.
JDC’s partners in Haiti are: The Afya Foundation; Catholic Relief Services; Chabad-Lubavitch of the Dominican Republic; EcoWorks International; Heart to Heart International; International Medical Corps; The International Rescue Committee; The Israel Trauma Coalition; Magen David Adom; Sheba Medical Center; The Medical Corps of the Israel Defense Forces; Partners in Health (Zanmi Lasante); PRODEV; UNICEF Haiti; USAID Haiti; US Fund for UNICEF; and World ORT.
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It is worth pointing out that the American Jewish response to the earthquake in Haiti was not limited to donations to the JDC. American Jewish World Service (AJWS) was well positioned to provide immediate relief in response to the disaster by working with the same grassroots groups with whom it has partnered in its over 10 years of working in Haiti. In fact, AJWS was on the ground providing emergecy relief within 48 hours. And with AJWS’s commitment to long-term recovery and sustainable redevelopment, the $6.5 million it has raised from thousands of American Jewish donors to date will help its Haitian grantees and their communities to rebuild roads, clinics, community centers and schools as well as to replant crops, replenish the local food supply and generate income. In addition, AJWS continues to be a vigorous advocate in Washington and internationally for increased financial support to Haiti and for a Haitian voice in rebuilding.