IRISH RESPONSE:MINISTER OF STATE for Overseas Development Peter Power will attend a meeting today in Brussels of European development ministers to co-ordinate the EU's response to the Haiti earthquake.
The meeting is convened by the new EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton. Mr Power said at the weekend that “it is vital that the EU works together to mobilise our resources in a co-ordinated and focused manner”.
Children’s charity Unicef Ireland is organising a candle-lit vigil for tomorrow at 5pm in the grounds of Christ Church cathedral, Dublin, to remember those killed in the earthquake. Candles will be provided to all who attend the ceremony and the cathedral’s bells will be rung at 5.15pm.
Irish donors have contributed more than €275,000 to Unicef’s Haiti appeal.
Unicef is the lead agency for the water and sanitation response in Haiti. The agency is distributing water bladders in badly affected areas and Haiti’s main water companies are providing tanker trucks to fill the bladders, which can hold between 5,000 and 10,000 litres each.
Meanwhile, efforts by Médecins Sans Frontières to set up an inflatable surgical hospital were frustrated when one of its cargo aircraft was refused permission to land at Port-au-Prince despite guarantees from the UN and the US.
The aircraft, carrying the inflatable surgical hospital, was re-routed to Samana, in the Dominican Republic. All material from the cargo plane is now being sent by truck from Samana, but this has added a 24-hour delay for the arrival of the hospital, according to the charity, which has set up an operating theatre in an old shipping container.
