A Salvation Army volunteer helps a woman with food and water at a food distribution.

While The Salvation Army continues to provide support and assistance to the approximately 20,000 displaced families taking shelter near our compound in Port-au-Prince, the Haiti Relief Team in the field continues to reach out and extend help and hope to even more victims in the country.

The Salvation Army Relief Team, supported by the US Army 82^nd Airborne, delivered more than 174,000 meals to the coastal community of Petit Goave (Little Gulf) that lies on the north coast of Haiti’s peninsula.  To our knowledge, this was the very first major delivery of food to earthquake survivors in this affected area!

The city of Petite Goave, with an estimated population of 200,000, is expected to have lost 1,500 lives in the earthquake with 3,000 others  injured. Within a 6 mile radius, 6,000 people are living in temporary make-shift  shelters.

Assessment visits are being organized to the coastal communities of Leogane and Jacmel as well to investigate the level of need and the logistics of extending relief operations to these communities.

The Salvation Army has also been paying significant attention to the children of the country.

Infants from a Port-au-Prince orphanage.

An assessment team visit to the Le Bon Samaritan orphanage in Port-au-Prince resulted in a delivery of 20 tents and seven cases of food.  Our team has committed to continue weekly deliveries of food to the 130 children there and continues to visit other orphanages in the area to assess their needs.

Also, despite receiving significant damage to the building, the ‘College Verena’ school located in the Salvation Army compound has developed a daily feeding program that serves 600 children per day.

Children enjoy returning to school, which helps them escape from the trauma of the earthquake.

As The Salvation Army expands its outreach, we continue to work with partner agencies to provide for the many needs of victims in Port-au-Prince, providing food water, medical treatment, education, and other services.

To stay updated on our efforts, visit our national website at www.salvationarmyusa.org or follow us on  Facebook and Twitter.

You can also find more on-the-ground updates from our team in Haiti through  www.salvationarmyhaiti.org or The Salvation Army’s  Haiti Facebook page.