Nirvana Beads is affiliated with AMURT and AMURTEL, non-profit organizations that conducts extensive and ongoing relief, education, and community building in Haiti. 100 % of online sale proceeds in January, 2010 went to benefit disaster relief in Haiti. We raised $10,000 dollars! to donate to AMURT and AMURTEL. Thank you for your support!
JANUARY 2010
When the earthquake struck Haiti, AMURT-Haiti’s staff members were already on the ground, both in Port-Au-Prince and in the Northwest Arbonite. During the first seven days following the disaster, AMURT & AMURTEL assisted more than 15,000 residents, providing daily mobile medical clinics, hot soup kitchens and the distribution of dry food rations. The first steps involved facilitating the transfer of food, medical services, water, and non-food items from the large aid agencies into the hands of smaller community-based groups who are best positioned to effectively facilitate distribution. Supplies arrived last Saturday on a truck overland from the Dominican Republic. The initial intervention targeted those most heavily impacted by the earthquake, providing transport of the wounded as well as supplies to hospitals, and assisting residents in the slum areas of Boudon, Cite O’Kay and Cite Jereme. |
FEBRUARY - JUNE, 2010
Mobile Clinics in Isolated Slums:
The initial intervention targeted those most heavily impacted by the earthquake, assisting residents in the isolated slum areas of Boudon, Cite O’Kay and Cite Jereme by providing transport of wounded and supplies to hospitals. In the community of Delmas AMURT Haiti has working with our community-based partners providing logistical support, transport of medicine and patients, and coordination of medical volunteers, while in Boudan, our sister organization AMURTEL has been providing daily mobile clinics.
Community Based Food Distribution:
When the earthquake struck Haiti, AMURT & AMURTEL Haiti’s seasoned team were on the ground in Port-Au-Prince ready to deliver an immediate response, by applying its community-based Emergency Management Response Plan. The first steps involved the facilitation of transferring food, medical services, water, and non-food items from the large aid agencies into the hands of smaller community-based groups who are best positioned to effectively coordinate distribution. AMURT is facilitating inclusive and participatory community forums to structure the distribution themselves while enhancing their capacity. This reduces the inevitable gaps in communication and coordination inherent in large-scale disaster response, and prepares the ground for future sustainable community development.
Haiti Earthquake Response – focus on children:
AMURT in partnership with Kinder Not Hilfe and Catholic Relief Services run ten Child-Friendly Spaces in Port-au-Prince for 4,000 children. The purpose of the centers is to help children affected by the earthquake restore normalcy and improve overall well-being in their lives with psychosocial and educational support. Besides psychosocial, educational, and creative activities children in the Child-Friendly Spaces program receive nutritional biscuits in addition to a hot meal of rice, beans and vegetables.
Long-Term Commitment to Community Empowerment:
AMURT will continue to align both its immediate and long-term response with the human rights-based framework of community empowerment, self-determination, and leadership capacity building. AMURT & AMURTEL have more than two decades of experience with relief work in Haiti, and have facilitated many ongoing development projects there. For a better understanding of our programs, please view our past and current community-based projects on our Haiti website, www.amurthaiti.org |
