Aid for earthquake victims in Haiti

The field hospital provided by the Finnish Red Cross supports the international aid operation in Haiti, where humanitarian aid is needed urgently in this very challenging situation.

At the weekend, a team of experts in several fields will leave for Haiti to review the scope and tasks of the field hospital. The Finnish Red Cross will deploy a health expert, technician and team leader to support the team.

– Healthcare services in Haiti are strained and access to healthcare is poor. Hospitals and health centres have been destroyed and damaged, and staff are forced to care for patients outdoors. In addition to those injured in the earthquake, people with chronic illnesses, anyone falling ill during the crisis and pregnant women and mothers in labour need healthcare services, says the Director of International Operations at the Finnish Red Cross, Tiina Saarikoski.

The field hospital provided by the Finnish Red Cross offers both outpatient services and specialised medical treatment. The hospital may include wards for surgery and traumatology, internal diseases, infectious diseases, gynaecology and children’s diseases, and if needed, tropical diseases.

Other services include laboratory and X-ray services, physical therapy and psychosocial support services, when needed. The Canadian Red Cross supports the field hospital financially and with aid workers and supplies. The German Red Cross supports the hospital financially.

The hospital is part of the international aid operation aimed at helping 25,000 vulnerable Haitians. In addition to healthcare services, the Haitian Red Cross offers shelter, household supplies, social assistance, water management and hygiene supplies with support from the International Red Cross. The operation also aims to mitigate future disaster risks.

Last week, the Finnish Red Cross sent two telecommunications experts to Haiti together with the Austrian Red Cross. Their task is to secure the telecommunications connections of the aid operation, facilitating the arrival of help.

COVID-19, challenging access routes and unrest make aid work in Haiti especially demanding. Preventing the spread of COVID-19 is one of the key objectives of the aid operation.

The provision of the field hospital is made possible with support from the disaster relief fund and the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland.

You can support the aid work by donating to the Disaster Relief Fund of the Finnish Red Cross, which makes it possible to send rapid aid to locations around the world. Funds for the disaster relief fund are collected via the annual Hunger Day collection held in September, among other means.