By Stefanie Ju

Staff Writer

On January 12th, a 7.0-magnitude earthquake shook Haiti, devastating the already impoverished nation. A death count has not yet been confirmed, but as search crews have continued to clear through the disaster that the quake has left be-hind, the body count rises. As of January 15th, estimates ranged from 100,000 to 150,000 casualties.

The United States responded to this tragedy quickly, pledging $100 million for Haiti relief efforts two days after the quake took place. The United States military has lent their services in order to provide humanitarian aid to Port-au-Prince, Haiti’s capital and a hard hit area of the earthquake. U.S. helicopters have dropped supply packages, and U.S. soldiers are supporting search-and-rescue missions; by January 18th, over 6,000 military personnel arrived in Haiti. Also, the United States sent its naval ship, the “Comfort”, which houses the equivalent to a fully equipped hospital.

Other international organizations have also mobilized and donated their efforts; relief organizations such as the Red Cross and UNICEF have directed their efforts towards aiding victims of the Haiti earthquake. Relief efforts have poured in from various countries and organizations, but affected citizens are still in dire need of increased aid. As injured and starving Haitians continue to die every day, these organizations must find ways to funnel water, food and supplies to the suffering victims.

The United Nations peacekeepers and Haiti government have teamed up and kept control of the situation in the Port-au-Prince. The United Nations has also worked on finalizing a $562 million plan that will help 3 million Haitian victims for 6 months. The United Nations Food Program has also been working to get food to the starving victims; they were able to supply 2 million people with “one-week rations of ready-to-eat-food” (U.N. World Food Program).

The Red Cross has donated its efforts to help victims of the Haiti earthquake as well by focusing its fundraising on this cause. The organization has also reached out to young people by involving cell phone providers and such social networks as ‘Twitter’ in order to increase donations collected. The Red Cross has enabled those that want to lend a helping hand to Haiti in this time can simply text or ‘tweet’ a donation to the Red Cross. By January 15th, 3 days after the earthquake, these campaigns had generated more than $10 million for Haiti relief funds.

UNICEF has contributed to the relief efforts by distributing a plethora of supplies to victims. These include: dehydration salts and water purification tablets. They fear that the al-ready devastating conditions that many Haitians have lived in have further intensified; their need for fresh water has be-come dire, and UNICEF has focused its efforts on providing supplies to “halt diarrhea infections and diseases” (CNN).

Relief agencies have reinforced the message that monetary donations are the best way to contribute to the humanitarian relief efforts in Haiti. And the charitable donations have poured in from across the world to organizations that are currently represented in the Haiti relief efforts. However, this tragedy has also prompted the growth of fraudulent organizations, trying to scam charitable people out of their money. There have already been reports of fraudulent organizations that link potential donors to “malicious software sites” (CBS News). Shortly after the earthquake hit Haiti, the FBI warned Americans to make their donations to reputable organizations, and to avoid emails that ask for donations. But despite the threat of these organizations, people all over the world have banned together to help Haiti in this moment of tragedy and crisis.