In partnership with the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC), the Jewish Federations of North America (JFNA) is mobilizing local federations to raise funds for the relief efforts for January’s 7.0-magnitude earthquake in Haiti.
The Jewish Federation of Ocean County raised $3,389 toward the effort; more than $4.8 million of the JDC’s Haiti total has come from the Jewish federation system, Berkofsky said, including $323,000 from New Jersey federations.
JDC has raised $5.5 million for Haiti so far, JDC spokesman Michael Geller told The Jewish Journal. JFNA is urging federations to open Internet and regular mailboxes for fundraising, suggesting that federations either gather money to send to JDC or direct donors to JDC itself, explained Joe Berkofsky, director of communications for JFNA.
JFNA is also part of the Jewish Coalition for Disaster Relief, which coordinated efforts among Jewish groups to make sure there isn’t any overlap in their efforts, Berkofsky said. In turn, he said, the coalition allocates funds to organizations such as the Afya Foundation and Chabad-Lubavitch of the Dominican Republic — groups who use their connections with local agencies and doctors to provide water, shelter, and emergency health care to Haitians.
“It becomes kind of an on-the-ground network of different groups,” Berkofsky said.
In its relief efforts, JDC is supporting EcoWorks International in operating a feeding program for patients and their families based out of the remains of a collapsed hospital, and allotted a grant to Chabad for convoys carrying milk for children.
Through the ProDev Foundation, a local Haitian Non-governmental organization (NGO), JDC is sponsoring 115 water tanks to ensure clean drinking water for earthquake victims living in tent villages.
Regarding medical aid and supplies, a JDC grant supported Magen David Adom (MDA) in sending its first Health Emergency Response Unit on Feb. 18 to spend four weeks in Haiti. The team is assessing the needs and availability of rehabilitation equipment, medical professionals, and facilities needed to help the great number of earthquake victims who have suffered amputations and other injuries.
JDC is also helping Heart to Heart International provide medical care, equipment, and services to victims of the earthquake, and has funded the purchase of four trucks to transport Heart to Heart’s teams of doctors and nurses to isolated communities which haven’t received adequate relief. Through Afya Foundation, JDC helped send three containers of mattresses and blankets to Zanmi Lasante/Partners in Health in Haiti.
Finally, JDC has been working with the Medical Corps of the Israel Defense Forces, whose medical professionals operated a field hospital in Haitian capitol Port-au-Prince for two weeks after the earthquake.

From its hospital at the national stadium in Port-au-Prince, doctors from JDC partner Heart to Heart perform triage and treat injured earthquake victims

“There has been all sorts of assessment going on from day one as to how we are going to respond [to Haitian needs] in the mid and long term,” Geller said.
One advantage of raising Haitian relief money through federations, rather than donors going directly to JDC, is that it gives federations the chance to engage their donors and develop relationships with them, Berkofsky said. Federations helped raise $10 million of JDC’s $18 million total for the Southeast Asia tsunami relief effort in 2004, in addition to fundraising for Hurricane Katrina and wildfires in Southern California, he said.
“We now have experience responding to these large-scale disasters,” Berkofsky said.
American Jewish World Service (AJWS) has raised slightly over $5 million for Haiti so far, said Joshua Berkman, associate director of media and marketing. For any natural disaster, AJWS provides relief through its network of partner organizations on the ground, which it calls “grantees,” Berkman explained. In Haiti, AJWS has had partners for over a decade, he said.
“If we have a critical mass or grantees in a particular country, we can respond [to a disaster],” Berkman said.
AJWS feels “very strongly that Haitians should have a central role in the rebuilding of their country” because only locals really know what their ever-changing needs are, Berkman said. Besides for sending caravans with water, food, and other survival supplies, AJWS has tried to address some overlooked needs such as feminine hygiene products, undergarments, and diapers, he said.

Tentcamps are the interim reality for hundreds of thousands of homeless people in Haiti

Currently, AJWS is beginning the second phase of its relief efforts, entailing the rebuilding of community centers, clinics, and schools as well as the recapitalization of the Haitian rural sector, Berkman said. After that phase lasts about six months, AJWS is planning for a third phase from 2011-2013 consisting of long-term development initiatives to put Haiti in a better place than it was before the disaster, he said.