Switzerland musters a million francs in aid for Haiti quake
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The Swiss government and several Swiss humanitarian aid organisations have sent or are planning to send money and help to Haiti following last Saturday’s earthquake.
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Gobierno y ONG suizos se movilizan en favor de Haití
The government will send around CHF1 million ($1.09 million), the foreign ministry told the Keystone-SDA news agency on Tuesday.
Some of this has already been allocated: CHF250,000 each for the United Nations and the International Federation of Red Cross Societies, with a further CHF100,000 destined for the Swiss Red Cross, the foreign ministry said.
After the earthquake – which has led to over 1,400 deaths – struck on Saturday, a crisis cell was organised in Bern, the foreign ministry explained. Specialist teams are also on site in Port-Salut, the most affected part of Haiti. They are distributing tarpaulin for shelter, as well as fresh-water distribution tanks of 5,000 litres each. Architects and risk-reduction professionals, already in Haiti with the Swiss Agency for Cooperation and Development, have also been mobilised.
The foreign ministry is also considering whether it will dispatch a team from the Swiss Humanitarian Aid Unit.
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Haiti ten years on: the lasting benefits of Swiss donations and aid
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On January 12, 2010, an earthquake devastated Haiti. Swiss aid work included providing water and rebuilding homes.
Also on Tuesday, the Swiss Protestant Aid organisation HEKS said it would be sending some CHF500,000 to Haiti to help try to clear the “immense damage” caused by the quake.
Aid group Helvetas, who wrote on Tuesday that “the poorest have been worst affected” by the disaster – as they were by the massive earthquake in Haiti 11 years ago – has also sent CHF150,000.
According to the group, the earthquake has compounded the acute political crisis that’s been ongoing in Haiti since the murder of its President a month ago; criminal gangs make daily life unsafe, while state structures are barely functioning, Helvetas said.
The Swiss Solidarity charity is also currently calling for donations to help the victims of the tremor. Money can pledged through the postal account 10-15000-6 or using the online address www.swiss-solidarity.orgExternal link.
Swiss Solidarity, the fundraising arm of the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation – swissinfo.ch’s parent company – has been active in Haiti in the past. It collected more than CHF71 million ($78 million) for emergency aid and reconstruction projects following the earthquake in 2010 and a hurricane in 2016, the organisation said.
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