The German Government and German aid organizations are providing immediate help and support to the people of Haiti in response to the devastating earthquake there. The Federal Foreign Office made available one million euros for emergency humanitarian aid, and the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development made available 500,000 euros in emergency food aid on January 13, the day after the earthquake struck. The food aid will provided through the local GTZ, the federally owned partner for development with operations in more than 130 countries.
Chancellor Angela Merkel, in expressing her condolences to Haitian President René Préval, said that Germany will provide assistance quickly to help stem the suffering caused by this catastrophe. Federal Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle also assured his Haitian counterpart, Marie-Michèle Rey, that the German Government will provide Haiti with every possible assistance. “Our thought and profound sympathy are with the disaster victims, their loved ones and those who have lost everything they possessed,” Westerwelle said.
Mobilizing Aid
The THW, the Federal Agency for Technical Relief, is sending a team of experts in drinking water and infrastructure to Haiti with mobile water-treatment facilities, mobile laboratory for water analysis and equipment for repairing water infrastructure. The mobile water-treatment facilities can produce about 6,000 liters of potable water per hour, enough to care for 30,000 people. Already on January 13, at the request of the Federal Foreign Office, the agency sent a reconnaissance team into the disaster region to initiate aid measures in close coordination with the German Embassy and the United Nations.
The German Red Cross is preparing to send a mobile medical clinic, which can care for about 250 people per day, along with doctors, nurses, a midwife, a lab assistant and technicians.
German citizens are donating money to aid efforts through several reputable organizations like Aktion Deutschland Hilft, an association of 10 respected relief organizations, and Ein Herz für Kinder, among others, or directly to the German Red Cross and other aid groups.
