An IsraAID worker handing out necessities to Haitian children. (Courtesy)

Boots were already on the ground in the form of an Israeli trauma unit at a major hospital and a dedicated team of aid workers from IsraAID.

By: Abigail Klein Leichman/Israel21c

Israelis didn’t have far to go in the rush to get aid to the people of Haiti following Hurricane Matthew’s destructive brush with the island country. That’s because they were already there.

A crew from the nonprofit organization IsraAID has been in Haiti for more than six years, having arrived just after the January 2010 earthquake to help in rescue and recovery operations.

“Our team is doing food and water distribution around Port-au-Prince,” IsraAID Media Director and emergency team leader Mickey Noam-Alon told ISRAEL21c over the weekend, as the number of dead in Haiti nears 900.

Hurricane Matthew’s 145-mile-per-hour winds and torrential rains destroyed houses and entire villages as well as roads, bridges and other infrastructure on October 3 and 4. Government and UN officials estimate that some 350,000 Haitians are in need of assistance.

IsraAID and local partner Prodev were the first to provide food and water for hundreds of children and their families at Cite Soleil, “a densely populated and extremely impoverished community in Port-Au-Prince,” Noam-Alon reported.

 

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