Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Public Welfare Foundation Helps Haiti
Seeking to help victims of the recent earthquake that has devastated
parts of Haiti, the Public Welfare Foundation has made a $20,000 grant from the
President’s Discretionary Fund to support the relief efforts of Partners In
Health, based in Boston,
Massachusetts.
‘Like so many Americans, we were deeply distressed to learn
about the tragedy in Haiti,”
said Deborah Leff, president of the Public Welfare Foundation. “In past years,
Public Welfare has provided disaster relief throughout the world as well as development
grants for Haiti.
A strong philanthropic response is needed now to help Haiti rebuild
and meet the needs of its people.”
Partners in Health, which brings modern medical care to poor
communities in nine countries, has been working in Haiti for more than 20 years. Since
the earthquake, the organization has worked around the clock to set up
operating rooms and to bring urgently needed surgical teams, medical supplies,
water and food to people in and around Port-au-Prince
where the quake was most destructive.
At PIH sites in the Central Plateau and Artibonite regions,
additional operating rooms and surgical teams have also tended to the medical
needs of quake victims who have been able to escape the Port-au-Prince area.
Helping residents of the Artibonite
Valley region in central Haiti is not
new to the Public Welfare Foundation. After L’Hopital Albert Schweitzer was
built in 1956, the Foundation gave financial support for more than a decade as
the hospital’s rural health and development program served more than 200,000 people
in the area.
As the Foundation again reaches out to help, PIH Chief
Program Officer Ted Constan notes that Haiti’s “immense need” will require continuing
support “to ensure that the aid doesn’t stop when the final emergency surgical
team returns home.”
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