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Clinton calls for Haiti aid as girl's recovery amazes

US Senators unveil Haiti reconstruction package
Two influential US senators unveiled plans Thursday for legislation aimed at speeding quake-ravaged Haiti's recovery, citing needs for debt forgiveness, reconstruction and trade. "The United States and the international community have already contributed tremendously to short-term relief efforts in Haiti, but it's critical that we commit to Haiti's long-term recovery as well," said Democrat Chris Dodd, chairman of the Senate Banking Committee. The bill aims to relieve Haiti of its debt burden owed to international and multilateral institutions like the International Monetary Fund and calls for future aid to come as grants, not loans, the legislation's supporters said. "Despite strong support from the United States, sustained international participation in Haiti is vital for its recovery," said the top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Dick Lugar. It also seeks to help create an international infrastructure fund for Haiti to invest in electric grids, roads, water, sanitation facilities and other critical infrastructure projects. And it aims to extend the life of investment-fueling trade benefits for Haiti and increase trade with the United States. The impoverished Caribbean nation faces the daunting task of rebuilding and recovering after a massive 7.0-magnitude earthquake on January 12 that left some 170,000 people dead and left more than a million homeless.
by Staff Writers
Port-Au-Prince (AFP) Jan 28, 2010
Former US president Bill Clinton launched an appeal for Haiti quake victims Thursday as doctors marveled at a girl's miracle recovery after 15 days buried in the rubble without food or water.

Clinton urged global corporate bosses at the World Economic Forum in Davos to use the catastrophe which killed around 170,000 people as an opportunity to lift the devastated Caribbean nation out of generations of poverty.

In a symbol of Haiti's resilience, doctors said 16-year-old quake survivor Darelene Etienne was stable but severely dehydrated on board a French hospital ship, one day after rescuers pulled her from a collapsed building.

"I am incapable of explaining it medically, but she told me this morning that she didn't eat anything, didn't drink anything," said Evelyne Lambert, the chief doctor on the Siroco, which is docked off the ruined Haitian coast.

Neighbors alerted rescuers after hearing her cries on Wednesday and she was dug out hours later. Doctors feared her heart might stop because she was so weakened by her ordeal, the longest of any Haitian survivor so far since the January 12 quake.

"To my knowledge, she is one of the most extreme cases of survival," added Colonel Michel Orcel, who runs the French field hospital in Port-au-Prince.

Despite a huge international relief effort, aid was still only trickling through to the hundreds of thousands of people living in dire conditions at makeshift camps dotted around public parks and streets in the ruined city.

Clinton, a UN special envoy for Haiti, made an emotional speech to the world's political and business elite gathered in Davos urging them to help the poorest nation in the Americas "rise from the ashes".

"They need to be helped through this hideous natural disaster," said Clinton as he kicked off an initiative to get private sector help for Haiti, a country he said had been "punished by either being ignored or abused."

International aid pledges and funding for Haiti topped two million dollars on Thursday, the United Nations said, but the task of getting the country back on its feet remains huge.

More than three-quarters of Port-au-Prince has been destroyed and will need rebuilding, UN deputy special envoy Paul Farmer told a US Senate committee, and reconstruction efforts will "need the international A-team."

More immediately, survivors have complained of receiving little of the huge influx of food, water and shelter, with huge lines of increasingly desperate Haitians building up at impromptu distribution points in Port-au-Prince.

With around one million left homeless by the 7.0-magnitude tremor, hundreds of thousands have fled the capital for promised tent camps in the countryside that the government has still not set up.

Scavengers continue to pillage materials to build shelter, clambering over the foul-smelling ruins where countless bodies are buried despite police efforts to chase them off.

The start of hurricane season in May could make the situation in Haiti even worse, with around 200,000 families without a roof, warned Margareta Wahlstrom, the UN representative for disaster risk reduction.

"How are they going to be sheltered, how are they going to have access to clean water and get employed again, so that their disaster, that has already destroyed much of their life, is not exacerbated further?" Wahlstrom said in Geneva.

In a setback to the relief operation, the US military said engineers would need eight to 10 weeks to repair one of the two main piers at the capital's crucial port after aftershocks knocked it out of operation shortly after it was repaired.

The US has spearheaded efforts, sending in 20,000 troops, 23 ships and more than 90 aircraft to help deliver aid and medical care to survivors, said General Douglas Fraser, head of the US Southern Command.

Military teams have handed out nearly two million bottles of water and about 1.5 million rations, he added.

Aid has been coming in through the main airport, which is being run by US forces, the port and overland from the neighboring Dominican republic, but some experts have complained of a lack of coordination in the relief effort.



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Haiti aid effort among biggest in Red Cross history
Panama City (AFP) Jan 27, 2010
The massive relief effort in quake-ravaged Haiti is one of the biggest in the 150-year history of the Red Cross, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said Wednesday. In two weeks, the IFRC has distributed 2.5 million liters (660,000 gallons) of water, 550 tonnes of medical supplies - all transported in 43 chartered flights - and fielded 21 emergency teams in ... read more







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