Haiti: Six months later

Thanks to donors across the world, including those in the Kentuckiana area, the Red Cross has raised a total of $468 million for Haiti relief and recovery efforts. During the first six months 1/3 of the donations have been spent as follows:

38% on food and emergency services
35% on emergency and transitional/semi-permanent shelters
10% on livelihoods and host family assistance
8% on health and disease prevention programs
5% on on disaster preparedness activities
4% on providing clean water and sanitation

The shelter and financial assistance agreements to be signed in the next several weeks will add another $71 million in spending.

A lot of work has been done, and there is still so much more to do. Red Cross will use the remaining funds on long-term recovery spanning the next 3-5 years. Spending plans focus on health, shelter and financial assistance.

For a detailed report on the progress in Haiti and future relief plans, check out the full press release.

American Red Cross 10% Tuesday!

Every Tuesday throughout the month of July, head to any area Tumbleweed, (that includes our Hoosier neighbors to the North) and 10% of your bill will be donated to the Louisville Area Chapter. Enjoy fresh Tex-Mex with an ice cold drink all while supporting your local Red Cross!

Just print off the coupon pictured above, and bring it in to your nearest Tumbleweed. Oh, and don’t forget to bring your friends!

Check out Tumbleweed’s menu before you head out.

The LAC serves the Kentuckiana community via its main office in Louisville and six service centers in Kentucky and Southern Indiana.

Road to Recovery

The recovery process has begun and things are getting back to normal around here, well, as normal as you can get in disaster response. We closed our last shelter yesterday after ensuring everyone had a place to stay. But even with the shelters closed, our volunteers are still hard at work distributing clean-up kits and giving out referrals.

Friday I got a chance to tag along on one of our clean-up kit runs. While the size of the ERV (Emergency Response Vehicle) and LERV (. . . Giant Water Truck) may have been intimidating, the Red Cross symbol on the side of each vehicle let people know help had arrived.
Some were already busy cleaning up after the storm; others got to work as soon as they had a broom and bucket in hand.

Everyone we delivered to was happy to see us, and at the risk of sounding cheesey, I must admit the thanks we received made the heat, humidity and zig-zag streets of Louisville much easier to deal with.

And now that we're on the road to recovery, I have only one personal request: No more rain!