[Gcap-mujeres] Call to Urgent Action for Haiti!

[Global Call to Action against Poverty]

*CALL TO URGENT ACTION FOR HAITI! *

*WHAT YOU AND GCAP CAN DO*

*
*

Haiti, the country with the highest levels of poverty and inequality in 
Latin American and the Caribbean, is struggling to cope with the 
devastating effects of a 7.0 earthquake which struck last 12 January.  
An estimated 200,000 people have been killed and many parts of the 
country, in particular in the capital city Port-au-Prince, have been 
almost complete destroyed. 

GCAP National Coalitions in the region have been responding to the 
disaster, in particular in neighbouring Dominican Republic.

/“It's amazing that this is happening to a people// so poor and who have 
suffered so much,  where scarcities are so huge and where there isn’t 
even any kind of  //leadership,” writes Magaly Pineda of GCAP Dominican 
Republic. “In addition to the disaster, chaos is// huge and people are 
dying because there is no basic help to lift rubble, in a country where 
machines are rare. //Although help starts to flow, it is increasingly 
clear that it does not seem to be enough given the dimension of this 
tragedy.”/ she reports.

 

To join the global response effort to support Haiti there are a number 
of actions GCAP National Coalitions and Constituency Groups can take.

1.   *  *_*Lobby your Government to support the emergency relief effort *_

As highlighted by Magaly, Haiti does not have the equipment or the 
personnel to deal with the extent of the destruction.  It continues to 
urgently need staff with experience in rescue and relief work.  The GCAP 
Latin America and Carribean Secretariat has created a model letter 
(ATTACHED BELOW) that you can use to call on your government to urgently 
send experienced relief workers to Haiti.

2.    * *_*Join the call to encourage specialised medical personnel to 
travel to Haiti *_

Thousands of injured people are being transferred to the border areas of 
Haiti where civil society in the Dominican Republic is supporting the 
construction of temporary hospitals.  However, they urgently need 
medical personnel *Surgeons, traumatologists, radiologists, 
anaesthesiologists and orthopaedist *given the kinds of injuries 
produced, in most cases, by the collapse of buildings and premises.

Magaly writes: *We would like to ask you to organize calls and 
campaigns, from your NGOs and Organizations, to encourage specialists in 
these fields to consider travelling here, even for a short period, via 
Santo Domingo, to help in the border with Haiti.* The Health Commission 
will help with the visas, if necessary, and will pick them at the 
airport and drive them to the border.We can only offer tents as 
accommodation, but we are looking for some houses where they could 
possibly stay.

*THIS IS AN URGENT REQUE*ST!  Official help is arriving to 
Port-au-Prince, even a hospital-ship, but we have a great demand at the 
border, and it is here where we want to concentrate by now as civil 
society in order not to duplicate efforts. The specialized personnel of 
the country, that is not very large, is totally overwhelmed by the 
enormous amount of injured people that continue to arrive, many of them 
already having infections or having to be amputated.

 

Besides my email address, you will find below another one we have 
created to guarantee the permanent assistance of interested people. The 
email address is *personalmedicoparahaiti en gmail.com 
<mailto:personalmedicoparahaiti en gmail.com>** *and please, add my email 
address as CC whenever possible  - magalypt en gmail.com 
<mailto:magalypt en gmail.com>

Friends, fellows, this is a concrete and urgent solidarity action. *We 
count on you to promote this call, to encourage and support this medical 
personnel trip! *Thank you for all your supportive responses.

 

All best wishes,

 

Magaly

_ _

3.    * *_* Support the Civil Society Relief Efforts *_

NGOs and Community Groups in the Dominican Republic, including GCAP RD, 
have set up a Citizens Forum for Haiti focusing on the collection and 
distribution of food, water and medical supplies.  Two accounts for cash 
donations have been set up for both – information on how to transfer 
funds to these efforts is attached below.

Please contact Magaly Pineada directly for any queries around these 
funds magalypt en gmail.com <mailto:magalypt en gmail.com>

_ _

4.    * *_*Justice for Haiti !  Lobby for debt cancellation and 
sustainable and just recovery *_

While the main focus of support is understandably the urgent response to 
the devastation caused by this earthquake. However, we must also begin 
to look towards the future and at ways in which the country can be 
rebuilt in a sustainable and effective way.

The high levels of poverty in Haiti – including the food shortages, the 
lack of infrastructure in everything from access to clean drinking water 
to education and health services – are due in a large part to the high 
levels of debt Haiti is forced to pay to international financial 
institutions such as the IMF and the World Bank.

In 2008 the Centre for International Policy found that in 2003, Haiti 
spent $57.4 million to service its debt, while total foreign assistance 
for education, health care and other services was just $39.21 million. 
In other word Haiti was actually paying back more than it was receiving!

Days after the earthquake struck the IMF announced a new $100 million 
_loan _to Haiti.  The loan was made through the IMF’s extended credit 
facility to which Haiti already has $165 million in debt and which comes 
with conditions attached such as raising prices for electricity and 
keeping inflation low.

And so despite the huge tragedy being faced by Haiti, the IMF’s response 
is to continue to impose devastating neo-liberal reforms on the country. 
 As a result of this new loan, Haiti will now owe $265 million to the 
IMF ($165 million outstanding and the $100 million issued this week) in 
debt.

Surely this money should be used to save lives and rebuild the country 
in the months to come?  

Please sign on to one or all of the petitions below to demand that 
Haiti’s debt be cancelled for once and for all:

ONE: http://www.one.org/us/actnow/drophaitiandebt/

Avaaz:  www.avaaz.org/en/haiti_drop_the_debt/ 
<http://www.avaaz.org/en/haiti_drop_the_debt/>

 Jubilee Debt Campaign: 
http://www.jubileedebtcampaign.org.uk/Help%20Haiti%20%20Drop%20the%20debt+4420.twl

 Jubilee USA  
http://www.jubileedebtcampaign.org.uk/Help%20Haiti%20%20Drop%20the%20debt+4420.twl

Further campaign ideas for longer term mobilisation around the future of 
Haiti will be developed over the next few weeks and already our 
colleagues in GCAP LAC have put forward proposals.  These include a call 
from GCAP Mexico to hold an Emergency World Summit for Haiti with civil 
society organizations, in particular Haitian ones and various 
multilateral organizations which would push for effective, transparent 
and sustainable re-building of the country,  and another from GCAP 
Argentina which would involve a campaign calling for the creation of a 
UN Fund for the re-building of Haiti which would be financed by a new 
tax on international transactions for transnational corporations.* *

More updates soon!

In solidarity,

GCAP Global Secretariat



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