Supreme Master Ching Hai International Association relief news update from Haiti.
For the first time since the destructive 7.0-magnitude earthquake hit on January 12, the Haitian government is reopening some of the nation’s schools, bringing a sense of stability and comfort to many traumatized children. However, schools in the worst-hit Port-au-Prince are not expected to resume for many months
as Haiti struggles to recover from the disaster that took some 170,000 lives and left one million homeless and in need of food, water and medical attention.

Richard Alleyne representative for UNICEF USA: "We are at the San Michel Hospital in Jacmel. This hospital serves the community of Jacmel and four or five other surrounding communities.
This hospital has been almost entirely destroyed from the January 12th earthquake. Right now some of the buildings are so structurally unsound that they cannot even house patients.

Maritza Sabab; Haitian Hospital Volunteer: This is where they keep elderly. It's completely destroyed. Then I think this morning. not that I think, I know for a fact that this morning they found a 24 day old baby, a dog found him under the maternity ward that fell down, under the rubble. She’s alive. We're trying to contact the mother.

Dr. John Bravia, Trauma Surgeon (English): "We're taking care of a lot of trauma injuries, mainly orthopaedic injuries, fractures, open fractures, closed fractures in all age groups.
We're seeing infants with fractures, a lot of young children. We're also seeing wounds that are infected. We're debriefing a lot of wounds and treating a lot of infections. We just finished draining a big infection on a three-year-olds neck.”

VOICE: With her heartfelt sorrow and concern for the victims, Supreme Master Ching Hai has made several donations, thus far totaling US$60,000, while asking our Association’s relief team to go render aid through pain medications as well as surgical and medical services.

Combined with donations from our international Association members, the total contributions for relief is now over US$247,000, which could purchase US$8.8 million in essential supplies if obtained in the United States, based on the cost of living in Haiti.

Covering most of their own travel expenses, our Association’s relief team members went from the United States, Indonesia and other countries to the afflicted regions.

In their work with the Dominican Civil Defense, Haitian Red Cross, and Mr. David Canther’s Active Community Teams Serving (ACTS), they continue to provide desperately needed supplies and post-operative care as well as preparing more than 2,000 vegan meals daily.

In accordance with Supreme Master Ching Hai’s request for updates, the following report is from our Association's relief team in Haiti. January 28, 2010


VOICE: We are grateful to Supreme Master Ching Hai for permitting us to share these details to our viewers, as well as to our Association’s Foreign Group for providing this report.

Our appreciation all governments, groups, and individuals for your united efforts to assist the Haitian people. We also thank Supreme Master Ching Hai for her attentive care of the distressed, and our Association’s relief team for their diligent endeavors. Our prayers are with the victims in wishing for their protection and smooth recovery as humanity’s consideration for all beings helps ensure our planetary balance.