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Hurricane Jeanne Devastates Haiti: How You Can Help

Most found safety on rooftops. Some climbed to safety in treetops. But at least 1,500 other men, women and children, including all five of one family's children, were swept away in a muddy torrent of fast-rising floodwater.

Hurricane Jeanne has left 300,000 already-impoverished people without food, water and electricity. Mudslides and standing floodwaters have impeded rescue efforts, leaving some people without food for a week. Thirst has driven survivors to drink from ditches containing rotting bodies and raw sewage.

Some survivors are living on rooftops of destroyed homes. Some of the homeless have found refuge on small "islands" of mud in the floodwaters. Orphaned children are wandering the area looking for provisions, and their parents. Dead bodies are still floating in some still-flooded areas, along with those of pigs, goats and dogs.

The situation has gone from horrible to dire. Some injured survivors have developed gangrene resulting from infected injuries. Healthcare workers are having to perform amputations of limbs to save lives, often without appropriate medical supplies, medicines, or even anesthesia in some cases.

It's a race against time to restore healthcare systems before potentially fatal diseases strike. All the healthcare facilities were heavily damaged or destroyed, along with all medical equipment and supplies. Waterborne diseases and diarrhea have begun to affect the population. The threat of disease also means the dead are being buried in mass graves. Most of them are unidentified, leaving their loved ones to grieve without closure.

Haiti is the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere. There are few unskilled jobs available so 80 percent of the population lives below the poverty level. Malnutrition is widespread. Haiti's only lucrative export product, mahogany, no longer exists. Extensive forests of mahogany trees were long ago harvested into extinction there by foreign countries, leaving Haiti treeless, impoverished and prone to mudslides when it rains. Continuous political turmoil, as various factions fight for control of the country, leaves most Haitians in a perpetual state of struggle and despair.

MADRE is working in partnership with our sister organization Zamni Lasante (a community-based healthcare center) to provide immediate financial assistance to victims of Hurricane Jeanne. The aid will help provide food, medicine and clean drinking water for women and families in need. If you would like to make a tax-deductible donation to help Haitian women and families, please click here.

If you prefer to make a tax-deductible donation by check or money order, please send to:

MADRE
121 W. 27th Street, #301
New York, NY 10001