The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) is continuing to get critical aid to Haitians impacted by the magnitude 7.2 earthquake that struck southwestern Haiti on August 14 by transporting additional relief items and medical supplies to Haiti.
On August 30, USAID delivered emergency medical kits to Port-au-Prince that will support healthcare facilities in the affected region to meet the urgent medical needs of approximately 20,000 people for three months. These kits contain medicines and medical supplies, including malaria medicine, bandages, gauze, examination gloves, thermometers, stethoscopes, and syringes. USAID also is delivering supplies, including wheelchairs, walkers, crutches, splints, and more, from the USAID warehouse in Miami, Florida. The medical kits and supplies will be delivered to health facilities in hard-hit areas by USAID partner the Pan American Health Organization.
Beginning on September 1, USAID began dispatching more than 400 additional metric tons of relief items, including plastic sheets, shelter repair kits, blankets, buckets, water containers, hygiene kits, and kitchen sets from USAID’s Miami warehouse to Port-au-Prince. The supplies will be delivered over seven flights and two ocean means of transport and transferred to USAID partner the International Organization for Migration to distribute in areas affected by the earthquake. These supplies will help approximately 50,000 people, in addition to the tens of thousands of relief supplies that have already been distributed from pre-positioned USAID stocks in Haiti.
USAID has also released additional food from its pre-positioned stocks in Haiti to partner with the UN World Food Program (WFP) to distribute in affected areas. In total, WFP is transporting more than 1,700 metric tons of USAID food supplies—enough to provide food assistance to 65,000 people for two months—from Port-au-Prince and distributing it in affected areas. USAID supports WFP year-round to maintain stocks of pre-positioned food in Haiti to be ready to support people during emergencies.
USAID continues to support partners to deliver aid from Port-au-Prince to affected areas as road access improves. Since August 18, WFP-led convoys have delivered 160 truckloads of medical supplies, more than 41,000 relief items—such as hygiene kits, plastic sheeting, and shelter fixing kits—and more than 490 metric tons of food to affected areas with USAID and other donor support.
These efforts are part of the robust USAID-led U.S. government response to this disaster. USAID’s Disaster Assistance Response Team continues to coordinate response efforts on the ground, and through USAID, the United States is providing $32 million in humanitarian assistance to support partners delivering food, water, shelter, health assistance, protection services, and more to meet urgent needs in hard-hit areas. USAID continues to work closely with the Department of Defense U.S. Southern Command, which stood up Joint Task Force (JTF)-Haiti at the request of USAID. For more than two weeks, JTF-Haiti has been providing logistics and transport support to move response personnel, as well as relief supplies and equipment for humanitarian and medical organizations that are responding to the earthquake to affected areas. As of August 31, JTF-Haiti had conducted 616 missions, assisted or rescued 477 people, and delivered more than 520,850 pounds of vital aid.
