| The Caribbean Community (CARICOM) yesterday said that it was moving to finalise the concept, logistics and security needs of its health response to the people of Haiti in the wake of the January 12 earthquake which brought untold death and devastation.Haiti is the regional integration bloc’s newest,Jerseys NFL Cheap, poorest and most populated member. Secretary General, Edwin Carrington, said that the area of health is what the region is best able to assist the people of Haiti with.The Guyana Government has fully endorsed the thematic health proposal as part of a targeted response by CARICOM to assist Haiti.The thematic health proposal involves the pooling of technical and humanitarian resources as a niche area of intervention in the recovery effort. This assistance will encompass emergency repair, provision of medical and support personnel to assist in the service delivery and operations, critical medical supplies,Cheap Jerseys Free Shipping, emergency supplies and security for emergency personnel in this effort.Aside from the targeted health response, member nations of Haiti have been pledging funds to help bring relief to Haiti, with Guyana,China Jerseys Authentic, Trinidad and Suriname being the biggest donors to date with contributions of US$1M each.Carrington said it has not yet been decided where those funds would be lodged.For the reconstruction of Haiti, the Community has appointed former Jamaican Prime Minister P.J. Patterson to lead its delegation to an international meeting in Montreal, Canada this Monday.The gathering of foreign ministers from the so-called Friends of Haiti group, which includes the United States, France and several Latin American nations, is designed to prepare for a major donors meeting later in the year.Haiti officials estimate the death toll from the magnitude 7 earthquake that destroyed much of the Haitian capital two Tuesdays ago to be between 100,000 and 200,000.For the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA), which is co-ordinating CARICOM’s response, the operational infrastructure in Haiti is the biggest challenge.Jeremy Collymore, the Executive Director of CDEMA, said there is limited access to the Haiti’s only airport and its port, but he expects the situation to improve in the coming week. He said that CDEMA has 350 persons in the operational area, including 35 members of the CARICOM Disaster Relief Unit. He also expects that regional aid could start going into Haiti from the coming week, using Jamaica as the operational hub.Guyana’s endorsement of this CARICOM response is in addition to its own national mobilisation of financial and material resources for Haiti which is recovering from the devastation after last week’s earthquake.Haiti Prime Minister,NFL Jerseys China, Jean-Max Bellerive,Nike NFL Jerseys China, has expressed his country’s gratitude for the quick response of Caricom in the wake of the devastating earthquake.CARICOM moved its assistance to Haiti to another level with the deployment of a Tactical Mission last Sunday.Less than 24 hours after the earthquake struck on 12 January, Jamaica had deployed medical personnel and security forces to Haiti as a first response. Jamaica is the sub-regional focal point in the area that includes Haiti, The Bahamas and the nearby Associate Members under the system established by the CDEMA, the regional response mechanism to natural disasters.A medical facility was quickly established by the Jamaican team, while arrangements have also been made to transport some of the injured to Jamaica for hospitalisation.Carrington said some CARICOM countries have said they would be willing to open up their hospitals to accommodate some of Haiti’s sick.This crucial area of health was identified as the sector that would receive a targeted response by the Community following a meeting involving CARICOM Chairman, Roosevelt Skerritt, Prime Minister of Dominica; David Thompson, the Prime Minister of Barbados; Bruce Golding, the Prime Minister of Jamaica; and Carrington.CARICOM assistance in the area of health includes the provision of additional medical and support personnel as well as medical and emergency supplies and security for those engaged in the provision of the services.CDEMA, in this effort, continues to work closely with the Pan-American Health Organisation (PAHO), the CARICOM Implementation Agency for Crime and Security (IMPACS), the Regional Security System (RSS) and the CARICOM Secretariat.On Monday last, President Preval and members of his Cabinet, together with Prime Ministers,cheap nfl jerseys, Skerritt, Thompson and Golding, Bahamian Prime Minister, Hubert Ingraham, and Trinidad Prime Minister, Patrick Manning and Carrington participated in a meeting in the Dominican Republic on the crisis arising out of the earthquake.The meeting, convened by Spain in its capacity as current President of the European Union and attended by other countries and international agencies, sought to identify and resolve problems of co-ordination of the aid and relief effort in Haiti.CARICOM leaders expressed concern over the future of tens of thousands of children who had been made orphans by the tragedy and agreed that this problem needed to be addressed urgently.All participants acknowledged the major logistical difficulties in the situation including the almost insurmountable challenge of reaching communities outside Port-au-Prince which have also been devastated by the earthquake, and recommended ways to tackle this issue. |
