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On 22 January the President of the United States, Barack Obama, made a change to the law regarding tax returns for their charitable contributions. This means that people who have donated to charities providing relief to Haitians since the Jan. 12 earthquake can take a tax deduction for the contribution on their 2009 tax return instead of their 2010 return.
A five-truck convoy arrived on Jan. 26 in Port-au-Prince from La Vega for distribution in Pétion-Ville and Carrefour-Thorland. Commodities included food stuffs (2 trucks), potable water (2 trucks), and medications and clothing (1). All relief items were purchased in the Dominican Republic.
The 300,000 chlorine tablets reported on earlier were delivered in Port-au-Prince on evening of Jan. 25.
The drinking water unit – AquaCube – (acquired through BEGECA) arrived in Santo Domingo and is being trucked to Port-au-Prince with logistical support and transport provided by the UN. Fr. Jacques Charles, outgoing Haitian SDB provincial, will pick up the drinking water plant from a warehouse contiguous to the German embassy in Port-au-Prince on Jan. 27.
BEGECA’s representative in Santo Domingo, Gunter Timmermanns, will be working out of the SDB Antilles provincial house and is coordinating SDBs UN-led logistical support.
Jugend Eine Welt (Austrian Salesian NGO) in partnership with CARITAS Austria is seeking funds from the EU for a 6-month project aimed at providing emergency support for 20,000 youths associated with the “mini schools” at Cité Soleil and La Saline.
Parents and children of a European School in Bergen near Amsterdam, are raising funds to help the SDBs of Haiti rebuild some of the mini schools.
The SDBs of Haiti have requested 2,000 tents with capacity of 6 people each. Salesian Missions is making arrangements to procure and meet this urgent need.
Published 29/01/2010
