WASHINGTON – The International Monetary Fund said on Wednesday it would disburse $114 million (€81 million) to Haiti by Friday to help the government get back on its feet and restart the economy devastated by the earthquake.
The loan includes $102 million in new emergency funding approved by the IMF’s board on Wednesday.
The IMF said Haiti would not pay interest on its IMF loans until the end of 2011, as part of a package of measures agreed last year to help poor countries cope with the impact of the global financial crisis.
“The emergency augmentation will provide urgently needed financing for essential imports, and make cash available to banks and transfer houses,” the IMF said in a statement.
The 7-magnitude earthquake that struck Haiti on January 12th has killed as many as 200,000 people. While international rescue teams still sift for survivors in collapsed buildings in the capital Port-au-Prince, parallel efforts are being made to get the country functioning again.
The IMF funding will be used to import equipment for the government to resume operations after state buildings were flattened and records destroyed.
A teenaged girl was pulled alive from under a collapsed house in Port-au-Prince on Wednesday, 15 days after the quake.
She was severely dehydrated and had a leg injury but was conscious when she was dragged out of the rubble by French and Haitian rescuers.
“I don’t know how she happened to resist that long. It’s a miracle,” said rescue worker JP Malaganne, adding that the girl, named Darlene Etienne, was happy, shocked and crying.
“She will live. She is only 16 years old and she has her whole life ahead of her,” said Col Michel Orcel, a French doctor. “We are providing the care she needs and she will be okay.” Someone heard the girl’s voice and urged local Red Cross and civil protection workers to send rescuers to the site, said Stephan Sadak, a member of the French rescue team.
The girl was trapped between a collapsed wall and a door in the remains of her home near a school.
“She was able to survive because she wasn’t crushed by the rubble and there was a space where she could lie down,” Mr Sadak said.