HAITI, Together Now and in the Long Run

Dear friends,

Once again, Haiti has been battered in its progress towards a better future for all. We know the Haitian people, and we know that they should be a guiding reference for the world. Their courage, wisdom and solidarity are stronger than the misery and catastrophes gripping their country.

Many people have been asking us what they can do, in addition to keeping Haiti in all our hearts.

ATD Fourth World has been present in Haiti since 1981, committed alongside families in hillside hamlets and urban districts with their communities and local partners, working together for all people to have access to knowledge, to health services, to training, and also creating places for people of all backgrounds to mobilize to fight poverty.

It was not until 48 hours after the earthquake that we finally received news from the nine members of our team in Port-au-Prince and several friends of ATD Fourth World. The team is continuing to seek out the most isolated people and families, some of whom have been killed or seriously wounded. The districts where these families, our team and many of our friends live,Grande Ravine, Fontamara and Martissant, are very close to the earthquake's epicenter.

In the face of this disaster, we will reinforce our team of full-time volunteer corps members in Haiti in everything they are undertaking alongside hundreds of families living in extreme poverty and their communities. These families take action in solidarity with others every day, despite the repeated calamities they have undergone these past years. Together with them, our team, other members of ATD Fourth World, and in link with the country's efforts, we will define our most urgent priorities in order to address them over the long term.

Several times in our history, we have shared in the suffering of families faced with catastrophes: in Honduras, New Orleans (USA), Burkina Faso, the Philippines. This is why we invite all those who can to donate to large-scale emergency aid efforts, such as the routing of emergency supplies or the rebuilding of medical and communications infrastructures.

We also invite you to make a donation for Haiti to ATD Fourth World on this fundraising page. Through its long-term presence, our team is relying on its knowledge and relationships of mutual trust to support families' efforts to find their loved ones, to find shelter and health care, to come together so that no one will be in mourning alone, to mobilize with young people in rebuilding efforts, and to resume a dynamic of gatherings, cultural activities and pre-schools.

When nothing else is left, lasting presence and constancy are fundamental so that those living in the most extreme situations of deep poverty will not be abandoned, and so that they will be at the heart of shaping their country's reconstruction and its future. It is in this perspective of long-term commitment that ATD Fourth World will invest the money raised through solidarity with Haiti.

We invite you to share this message with your friends. We also invite you to get together with others in your communities or schools to imagine gestures of solidarity that we can make together, now and in the long run.

Eugen Brand

Director General

International Movement ATD Fourth World