To date, however, more than 820 million people do not have enough to eat. The COVID-19 pandemic is worsening the situation, according to Mr Antonio Gutierez, Secretary General of the United Nations, in his address of June 9.

« One out of three Haitians needs urgent food aid, that is 3.7 million people, a significant increase compared to 2.6 million people at the end of 2018. If no immediate action is taken, between March and June 2020, 1.2 million people could eat a meal every two days and around 2.8 million people could eat a single meal a day,” OCHA said (in Nouvelliste 12.30. 2019).

Reacting to this urgent call from the SG and OCHA around the threatening food crisis, Haitian Red Cross quickly approached some donors including the World Food Program and other global philanthropic organizations in order to support an immediate assistance program to the vulnerable population who have more and more difficulties to feed themselves.

Our call for help was therefore heard by two large philanthropic organizations based in the United States, it is the Liberland Aid Foundation represented by Ambassador at Large Dr. Steven V. Melnik and the Global Confederation for Promotion & Development, Inc headed by Reverend Father Philippe Charles, PhD who donated a container of food products, mainly rice and beans, to be distributed in bags to vulnerable families. For this first phase, the Haitian Red Cross targeted the Maïs Gâté area.

This Sunday, June 28th, 2020, in the presence of representatives of the two foundations, a food distribution was therefore organized for the benefit of 561 vulnerable families represented by the heads of households who were pre-registered via the Open Data Kit (ODK) special software system of the Red Cross and assisted this morning at our Maïs Gâté campus. Haitian Red Cross has taken all measures to reduce the health risk inside the campus from obligatory hand washing at gates, compulsory wearing of a face mask for everyone and strict physical distance observance. All beneficiaries also received a pair of protective masks and a small awareness poster in creole on the correct use of protective mask. This operation ended around 2:00 pm to everyone’s satisfaction.

Our thanks to the Haitian National Police, which guaranteed security and order in the external perimeter of our campus, and to the internal security agents of the Haitian Red Cross, who facilitated a peaceful distribution.

We also thank the press, including Radio Télé Zenith for the media coverage.

We plan to assist other vulnerable areas with the next supports.

Thank you to the HRC volunteers who were present starting the home visits during the whole week until the closure of operations.

Our gratitude to Liberland Aid Foundation and the Global Corporation for Promotion and Development on behalf of assisted families.