UPDATE: See additional ways to support the relief effort below.

Details are still sketchy about the magnitude 7.0 earthquake that struck Haiti yesterday, though with daybreak that will soon change.  The country was still recovering- an inadequate word for the poorest nation in the western hemisphere- from a category 4 hurricane in 2008.  [See “Haiti’s History of Devastation” in the Toronto Star.]   Initial reports indicate the death toll and injuries have been significant.

Though Haiti is less than 2,000 miles from the USA, most of us know and hear very little about this Caribbean nation on the island of Hispaniola.  About 20 years ago I spent one night in the capital, Port-au-Prince.  My dad and I (as the passenger) were ferrying a small airplane from California to Venezuela and our route took us through Haiti.  Having grown up in South America I was used to occasional scenes of poverty, but there was nothing in my experience that compared with what we saw in Haiti.  Flying away the next morning we could easily spot the border between Haiti and the Dominican Republic: green tropical forest to the east and a gray, smoking landscape to the west.  I’ve never again seen anything so utterly sad.

In the coming days there will certainly be financial appeals to aid in the relief work in Haiti.  Tall Skinny Kiwi points to World Vision and Yele Haiti as reputable agencies worthy of your donations.  Is anyone aware of additional organizations doing responsible development work in Haiti?

UPDATE:

• Andy Crouch recommends Beyond Borders for “long-term change” in Haiti.
• Nicholas Kristof points to a ways to help via ABC News.
• A rather comprehensive list of relief agencies in the New York Times.
• My Mom rightly points out that MAF, the agency my Dad flew with during our visit to Haiti, will be providing relief and surveying flights to the more remote areas.
• We learned this morning that Maggie’s sister is in route to Haiti with a response team from Samaritan’s Purse.  She and those she will serve are in our prayers.  The expect to be on the ground for at least two weeks.
• In President Obama’s short speech this morning he directed people to visit whitehouse.gov to donate.

The CIA World Factbook contains some background information that will be helpful to keep in mind in the following days as we learn more about this disaster.

Background:

The native Taino Amerindians – who inhabited the island of Hispaniola when it was discovered by COLUMBUS in 1492 – were virtually annihilated by Spanish settlers within 25 years. In the early 17th century, the French established a presence on Hispaniola. In 1697, Spain ceded to the French the western third of the island, which later became Haiti. The French colony, based on forestry and sugar-related industries, became one of the wealthiest in the Caribbean but only through the heavy importation of African slaves and considerable environmental degradation. In the late 18th century, Haiti’s nearly half million slaves revolted under Toussaint L’OUVERTURE. After a prolonged struggle, Haiti became the first black republic to declare independence in 1804.

Populations:

9,035,536

note: estimates for this country explicitly take into account the effects of excess mortality due to AIDS; this can result in lower life expectancy, higher infant mortality, higher death rates, lower population growth rates, and changes in the distribution of population by age and sex than would otherwise be expected (July 2009 est.)

Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere with 80% of the population living under the poverty line and 54% in abject poverty. Two-thirds of all Haitians depend on the agricultural sector, mainly small-scale subsistence farming, and remain vulnerable to damage from frequent natural disasters, exacerbated by the country’s widespread deforestation. While the economy has recovered in recent years, registering positive growth since 2005, four tropical storms in 2008 severely damaged the transportation infrastructure and agricultural sector.