This week we have all seen the devastation that has occurred in Haiti. We have watched as young children are pulled from crumbled buildings, family members search for their loved ones and citizens from all over the world come together to offer assistance. As our Haitian neighbors begin to recover from this tragedy, please find information below on citizen inquiries, adoptions and volunteer opportunities. In the days ahead, let us all keep the victims, their families and those working on their behalf in our prayers.
U.S. Citizen Inquiries:
The U.S. Embassy in Port Au Prince has set up a task force at the Embassy which is taking calls as conditions permit. The Embassy is working to identify U.S. citizens in Haiti who need urgent assistance and to identify sources of emergency help. U.S. citizens in Haiti are urged to contact the Embassy via email (ACSPaP@state.gov) to request assistance. U.S. citizens in Haiti can call the Embassy’s Consular Task Force at 509-2229-8942, 509-2229-8089, 509-2229-8322, or 509-2229-8672. The State Department has also created a task force to monitor the emergency. People in the U.S. or Canada with information or inquiries about U.S. citizens in Haiti may reach the Haiti Task Force at 888-407-4747; Haiti-Earthquake@state.gov. Outside of the U.S. and Canada, call 202-501-4444. For further information and updates, please see the State Department’s Consular Affairs website.
Adoption Information:
U.S. citizens with pending adoption cases in Haiti are requested to contact the Department of State at AskCI@state.gov for information about their adoption case. In your inquiry, please include: full name and contact information of parents, full name(s) of child(ren), date(s) of birth of child(ren) [if known], and the name and contact information of orphanage. You can find additional information about adoptions in Haiti at http://adoption.state.gov/news/Haiti.html#.
Contributions/Donations:
Individuals who seek to make a contribution and/or a donation to disaster relief efforts, may wish to visit the following websites for further information:
- The American Red Cross: http://www.redcross.org/
- International Medical Corps: http://www.imcworldwide.org/
- The White House: http://www.whitehouse.gov/
Haitian Citizens in the U.S.:
Haitian citizens in the U.S. should call the Haitian Embassy in Washington, D.C., 202-332-4090, or the Haitian Consulate in New York City, 305-859-2003.
Volunteer Opportunities:
Additionally, individuals who wish to provide assistance or expertise in Haiti are asked to contact the Center for International Disaster Information. The Center, operated under a grant from the United States Agency for International Development’s Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance, has established a dedicated page to coordinate Haiti support at: http://www.cidi.org/incident/haiti-10a/, 703-276-1914.
We have a disaster of similar proportions in the Unibed States which we do not acknowledge. According to a study done at Harvard and recently published in a prominent medical journal, more that 40,000 people die prematurely each year in the United States because they lack health insurance and access to medical care. Most of these people are employed, but their employers do not offer health insurance or the insurance does not provide adequate coverage.
In a Congressman’s two year term, this is 80,000+ people who will die in the U.S. Eighty thousand is many, many more people than have ever been killed in any U.S.natural diaster.
If these unnecessary deaths happened because of a U.S. natural diaster, our government would pour in money and resources with bipartisan support, just as we have done in Haiti. Because they happen out of view and over time, preventing such deaths by expanding health care has met with vituperative political opposition. Why are these lives less worthy of saving?
I do not write this in opposition to helping Haiti. Surely, we cannot just look the other way. Rather, I feel that amid the fighting for political advantage and the vicious name-calling, we have forgotten that the point of health care reform is saving American lives. Furthermore, we continue to ignore the scope of the problem.
What in the hell is going on with our response in Haiti? I am appalled and ashamed that the US is there with relief supplies on the tarmac, and yet there are people who have not yet received water or food after a week. If the roads are impassable, drop the food, water, and medical supplies by lowering them down by helicopter. I know there are helicopters that have winches for that purpose. Why are the doctors on the ground there running out of medical supplies? The Israelis had their medical tents up after only two days! Have we learned nothing since Katrina?