Aid from the UAE began arriving in Haiti yesterday to help victims of the earthquake. First to arrive was an aircraft carrying 77 tonnes of basic relief supplies, including medicines, medical supplies and food from the Khalifa Bin Zayed Foundation for Haitians, which landed at Las Americas Airport in Santo Domingo, the capital of the neighbouring Dominican Republic.
The supplies were dispatched following a directive from Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed, the President of the UAE and Ruler of Abu Dhabi, to launch emergency operations aimed at alleviating the suffering of millions of Haitians affected by last week's earthquake, which killed and badly injured hundreds of thousands of people. A second flight also left from Dubai, carrying 40 tonnes of aid from the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Charitable and Humanitarian Establishment, the government news agency WAM reported.
The Khalifa Bin Zayed Foundation is co-ordinating its Haiti humanitarian operations with the Dominican authorities as well as international relief agencies such as the World Food Programme, Save the Children and the Dominican and Haitian Red Cross societies operating in the quake-shattered Caribbean nation. Delegations from the Khalifa Bin Zayed Foundation and the Red Crescent Authority were met by the foreign minister of the Dominican Republic, Carlo Morales Troncoso, to discuss ways the best ways to deliver aid to those affected by the quake.
Mr Troncoso stressed his country's readiness to receive any humanitarian assistance for Haiti because the airport in Port-au-Prince could not handle the number of aircraft arriving with aid from all over the world. The Dubai flight was sent following a directive from Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, according to the deputy chairman of Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Charitable and Humanitarian Establishment.
A delegation from the establishment was on-board the humanitarian flight, which is carrying canned food, cereals and materials to build shelters. They will continue to work with Life for Relief and Development, a US non-profit humanitarian charity involved in Haiti relief operations, to deliver the aid to victims. * WAM
