New York, 31 March 2010
At the outset, the Holy See once again expresses prayerful sympathy for the families of the victims of the tragic earthquake in Haiti, to the entire People and Government of Haiti and also to the United Nations, which lost many of its members committed to international peace.
The Catholic Church and the Holy See, which is her central government, immediately joined the extraordinary emergency response to the Haiti earthquake, helping in the reconstruction and rehabilitation of survivors. Through its various agencies, associations and individuals it went into action providing food, clothes and shelter, while promoting networks capable of sharing the concerns of life, loss and hope with the affected population.
- In the first month after the earthquake, Caritas Internationalis, which is the main charitable agency of the Catholic Church, collected $200 million from Catholics in 40 countries and in the first month alone fed over 50,000 people, provided shelter kits to 43,000 people and gave medical treatment to more than 15,000 people;
- Several independent international Catholic agencies, such as Kirche in Not, as well as many religious congregations, sent donations ranging from $100,000 to $2 million;
- One hundred and ten American Dioceses sent nearly $30 million to a special Haiti Relief Collection Fund and the United States Catholic Relief Services has raised over $90 million dollars for relief efforts including distributing over 9 million daily rations;
- Following the appeals of Pope Benedict XVI, Catholics from the developed world as well as those from the developing world made voluntary corporate and private donations to the National and International Red Cross and to Governments, thus contributing a substantial portion of the $3 billion fund already collected by or pledged to OCHA;
- Many institutions and thousands of personnel and volunteers on the ground have also been active in helping distribute UN aid and donations from Governments and international organizations which have no structures or permanent presence in Haiti;
- The Catholic aid network is committed to reconstruction projects for the next five years in Haiti that will provide homes, healthcare, livelihoods and education;
- The Holy See will keep appealing for contributions for Haiti’s official and private reconstruction programmes as well as for the full and fair insertion of Haiti into the world economic system. In this sense, the Holy See is profoundly satisfied to learn of the cancellation of Haiti’s debt to the Inter-American Development Bank and of the moratoria or postponement of its debt payments to the World Bank and to the IMF, and the Holy See reiterates its call for full cancellation as soon as possible.
The contribution of faith-based organizations in Haiti and local NGOs has been significant and will continue long after many international organizations and NGOs leave the country. Thus these organizations have a fundamental role to play in reaching out to the population in a way that takes into account its conditions and respects its customs and traditions. It is therefore important that these faith-based organizations and local NGOs not be ignored in creating a long-term plan for rebuilding lives and the country.
