(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana)  The Caribbean Community (CARICOM) continues to provide tangible assistance to the people of its Member State, Haiti, in the wake of the devastating earthquake which struck on 12 January.

Led by Jamaica, the sub-regional focal point for the area including Haiti under the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA) arrangements had been providing assistance from 13 January 2010, about 24 hours after the catastrophic earthquake.

With health identified as the major intervention by the Heads of Government, more than 9 200 persons were treated by the CARICOM Mission by the end of February. The Mission, originally based in Port-au-Prince has been relocated to Leogane, a town about 40 miles from the Haitian capital. Of the number of persons treated, 175 were amputations. An assessment mission was carried out in late February by a joint CARICOM/CDEMA team to facilitate the relocation of the medical assistance from Port-au-Prince to this new location. The Health Initiative will involve some 14 health personnel who will be rotated initially every 14 days. They will be sustained and secured by a CARICOM troop contingent.

The CARICOM contingent was also involved in fifteen search and rescue missions in which six persons were rescued. The Mission also facilitated the evacuation of CARICOM nationals from Haiti.

Member States of the Community have also been mobilizing resources with some US$9.4M pledged to date. Of this, $6M were pledged in Mexico for emergency shelter in response to an urgent request made by the President of Haiti, His Excellency Rene Preval.

A CARICOM Regional Logistics Centre has been established at the Norman Manley Airport in Kingston to process the flow of relief supplies from around the region. Approximately 275 tonnes of supplies from CARICOM Member States, including water, canned food items, rice, sugar, temporary roofs and shelter kits have been distributed. Thirty-six relief supply operations have been conducted to the benefit of about 23 000 families.

In addition, 125 escort and convoy protection operations were undertaken. The Regional Security System (RSS) aircraft has pitched in to provide a logistical lifeline – ferrying persons and supplies – for the CARICOM contingent and the medical staff with two scheduled flights per day.

Personnel experienced in emergency and logistics also have been deployed to help the Haitian Civil Protection Department in the coordination of their emergency response.

CONTACT: piu@caricom.org