Update from Haiti – Canadian Government Matching Individual Donations to PWS&D

A Haitian woman is pulled to safety from the rubble of a collapsed building after a massive 7.0 earthquake hit the capital city on Tuesday.

Photo Credit: DANIEL MOREL/AFP/Getty Images

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More than a million people are homeless in the wake of the 7.0 magnitude earthquake on January 12 in Port-au-Prince, Haiti’s capital city, which destroyed about three-quarters of the city’s houses. Estimates indicate the quake claimed 50,000 human lives. Hundreds of thousands of people are roaming the streets desperately searching for their missing relatives and loved ones.

PWS&D Responds

Presbyterian World Service & Development is assisting victims of the earthquake through the Action by Churches Together Alliance. Relief workers continue to assess the needs of survivors and transport equipment to build water purification systems and latrines to avoid the outbreak of disease. Local field workers are also being trained in psychosocial activities to help victims overcome the enormous trauma they have experienced.

Canadian Government Matching Donations

The Canadian International Development Agency is matching donations from individual Canadians at a ratio of 1:1 for earthquake recovery and reconstruction activities in Haiti until February 12, 2010, up to $50 million.

Congregations can send PWS&D one cheque for the sum of all the donations they have collected for Haiti relief, along with a letter identifying the names and amounts of the individual donations that make up the total. This will ensure these funds are eligible for matching.

Your Help is Needed

The people of Haiti – the most impoverished country in the western hemisphere – need your prayers and financial support to recover and rebuild from this disaster. You can make a donation to PWS&D by calling 1-800-619-7301 ext. 291, donating online, through your church or mailing a cheque to the office. Please mark all donations “Haiti Earthquake Relief.”

Presbyterian World Service & Development is the development and relief agency of The Presbyterian Church in Canada.