Austria Joins the Haiti Relief Effort

The immense catastrophe in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, has been met with an equally large international humanitarian effort. The poor island nation has received aid from all over the world, Austria included. The City of Vienna has donated 500,000 euros to the relief fund.

The support organization known as Nachbar in Not (Neighbor in Need) includes many charities like the Austrian Red Cross and Caritas Austria. These non-profit organizations have been delivering supplies like blankets, tools, water and food to Haiti from Vienna’s airport, which has specifically waived parking and landing fees.

Accounts have been set up so that anyone can donate to the relief fund.  For Caritas: PSK 7.700 004, (BLZ 60.000) and the password is "Erdbeben Haiti". For the Austrian Red Cross: PSK: 2.345.000 (BLZ 60.000) using the same password. According to their website, the entire Nachbar in Not effort has raised 6.9 million euros so far.

Any infrastructure that did exist in Haiti before the tremor now lies in ruins. Basic needs such as water and food are being provided by the humanitarian effort there. Rebuilding an already extremely underdeveloped country, however, will unfortunately take significantly more time.