South Florida Charities Worry Donations May Soon Decline For Haiti
MIAMI (CBSMiami) – Haiti is still digging out from rubble left from a massive earthquake nearly two weeks ago, and the country is in still dire need of help.
"What would you need if you suffered from a Cat 5 hurricane," said Michael Kahane, southern region bureau chief for the AIDS Healthcare Foundation.
The 7.2 magnitude earthquake crumbled buildings and crippled infrastructure.
"Non-perishable food items, water, tents so people have structures to sleep in," Kahane explained.
Over 12,000 people have been injured, while 53,000 people had their homes damaged or destroyed.
"One interesting thing that is on this flight, the survivors from the surfside condominium collapse received a lot of donations and they didn't use as many as they received," Kahane said.
Those products will now help the people of Haiti, along with other goods that Floridians have helped to collect and drop off. An estimated 40,000 pounds of supplies was sent by private charter Wednesday morning. Much more is still needed.
"Dr. Etienne is here, she represents the nurses' association, and what not, they need about $150,000 in order to operate in Haiti," a speaker said at the Haiti Disaster Relief Assistance Drive held at Friendship Missionary Baptist Church in Miami.
The drive was organized in part by the National Haitian American Elected Officials Network (NHAEON), local clergy, as well as community members. Leaders called on residents to drop off goods and to send money to designated organizations.
"This is a humanitarian crisis; we're asking everyone to get involved with relief for Haiti."
For more information on NHAEON, click here.
And click here for a list of organizations gathering funds and supplies to help those in need in Haiti.
