Habitat is mobilizing all available resources to help in Haiti · HFHI TEAM IS ON THE GROUND: An assessment team from Habitat for Humanity International currently is making its way to Port-au-Prince, the capital of Haiti and the epicenter of the quake destruction. They are driving from Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic, which shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti. The team was expected to arrive in Port-au-Prince. Upon arrival, they will make contact with staff from Habitat’s National Organization in Port-au-Prince and begin an assessment of the quake’s impact on low-income housing. They also will connect with peer organizations such as World Vision, World Concern and CARE that we typically work with in disaster situations. In addition, they will have regular meetings with the United Nations-sponsored shelter cluster, of which HFHI serves as one of just a handful of permanent members. · NATIONAL ORGANIZATION STATUS: To date, contact has been made with one N.O. staff member, who is based at a Habitat training center about eight hours from Port-au-Prince. He was able to report that at least 10 of the N.O.’s approximately 50 staff members had been accounted for. There is no word yet on the remaining staffers, and no word on whether the 10 staffers who were accounted for lost homes or family members. Late word is that the N.O. office was destroyed by the quake; no assessment has been possible yet of the approximately 2,000 Habitat homes built in Haiti, nor of the status of those homeowners. · RAISING RESOURCES FOR OUR RESPONSE: HFHI launched a donation appeal on www.habitat.org Tuesday night, just hours after the quake. In addition, e-mail appeals were sent Wednesday. Public service announcements featuring President Carter were filmed with hopes that they can begin airing nationally this weekend. A satellite media tour will be conducted from in front of the Haiti house at HFHI’s Global Village & Discovery Center in Americus. · WHAT YOU CAN DO: First of all, pray—for the people of Haiti, for our teams there, for all of the humanitarian outreach efforts. If you can, please donate to support the response efforts. And, please, reach out to your friends, family, neighbors and church communities to tell them that Habitat is mobilizing all available resources to help in Haiti, and that their support is urgently needed, would be much appreciated and would be put to efficient, effective use by Habitat. Many have asked about the need for volunteers. Volunteers are not being recruited or deployed at this time and will not be until more stability can be returned to the country and there is more certainty that volunteers would be safe. A delegation from the Habitat affiliate in Lafayette, Ind., that was in Haiti working with a sister affiliate was safe. We will provide more details about needs as the situation unfolds. Watch My.Habitat for tools you can use to help raise funds for the Haiti response in your community.