Haiti Earthquake, Jan 2010

An earthquake with a magnitude of 7.0 rocked Haiti in early 2010. The quake is measured to have claimed 220,000 lives and injured a further 300,000. IODR raised and donated £5,900 to provide emergency aid for Haiti. This donation ensured that families were able to live together in warmth and dignity by providing a tent, thermal blankets, insulating groundsheets, water filtration equipment, mosquito net, cooking utensils, children’s activity pack and tools for basic work so that people can begin to rebuild their lives and become sustainable.

We continued to work in Haiti and were able to sponsor the Haitian Paralympics Team and fly them to London to take part in the Paralympics Games to compete for only the 2nd time in the history of the Paralympics Games. Grange hotels hosted the Paralympics team and with the benefit of local corporate engagement planned a fundraising event in London to provide equipment for the team.

One in ten people in Haiti are disabled. Nephtalie Jean-Louis one of Haiti’s Paralympians, told us

‘...I want to change the way they treat people with disabilities in my country, to help them, to give them motivation, to help them realise their dreams, so they will be treated differently. In Haiti, normally the main sport is football. That’s how people spend most of their time. It is our national sport. But I believe if I win a medal, the people will be very happy. It will help people take into consideration the other sports. That is one of the good things that can happen.’