Where's the American Red Cross in Haiti?

The American Red Cross issued it's three month report on expenditures in Haiti recently, but people are asking, where's the American Red Cross in Haiti? After a recent trip to Haiti, Democratic Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz, of Florida also had her doubts about Red Cross efforts in Haiti. "The lack of a visible presence of the Red Cross even prompted the congresswoman to question whether she could recommend that citizens donate to the group. 'I wouldn't say that,' she said when asked if the Red Cross was the best place for [people] to donate."

"The organization has collected more than $409 million in donations, including more than $32 million from a text message donation campaign facilitated by the State Department and promoted by the White House."

After the Red Cross released a two months report on expenditures it said amounted to 106 million dollars
in Haiti, this video surfaced which sought evidence on the ground of the money spent.

The Red Cross response:

"The American Red Cross has been on the ground responding in Haiti since the moment the earthquake struck and has spent a record $110 million so far for food, water, shelter, health and family services," the American Red Cross said in a statement. "Our efforts have touched the lives of close to two million people."

Those efforts just may not be so visible on the ground, a Red Cross spokesperson told Hotsheet, because the Red Cross relies largely on local Red Cross workers and volunteers. They may not be as conspicuous, but they know the people, the language and the geography, and they have established relationships with other organizations and the government."

Haitians who have been on the ground in Haiti don't see the evidence for these assertions made by the Red Cross. NR, a Haitian-American and Librarian recalls, "I saw two 'local' Haitian Red Cross buildings while in Haiti. They were a disgrace to the organization. What money and aid are being provided to the local chapters were not evident."

A camp inhabitants interviewed in the video above present "cookies" that they were given by the World Food Programme. One resident says the water provided by the Red Cross was giving her a stomach ache. Another said that besides coming around to give water and vaccinations, they have not gotten food aid from the Red Cross. From the makeshift blankets on stilts behind her, the Red Cross is not providing water-proof tents either. The camp is just yards away from Red Cross headquarters in Port-au-Prince. The video was made in March and uploaded to YouTube on April 1st of this year.

Tapped-out in front of Red Cross headquarters in Port-au-Prince.

It's clear that the population in the tent cities are being watered and vaccinated, but they feel that substantive nutrition is not being provided? Neither is medical attention. A woman who is suffering with a leg that is broken in two places had not been visited by a doctor, although the Red Cross (across the street) was made aware of her situation.

A “Responders Tent” sits empty in a camp across the street from Red Cross headquarters
in Port-au-Prince. It was reportedly abandoned just 2 weeks after the quake.

Vaccinations are being done with the stated purpose of stopping diseases, but given the toxins in these shots, there is a potential risk in taking these controversial inoculations

Here are some excerpts from a 1996 Third World Traveler piece called "U.S. AID Go Home" on the purpose of aid and vaccinations in Haiti:

"[...] AID is the primary conduit of a host of health care, agricultural, environmental and economic programs that liberals defend as emblems of the true spirit of American generosity and that Sen. Jesse Helms derides as international welfare, or more specifically, "pouring money down Third-World rat holes." In reality, of course, AlD's humanitarian programs hew closely to the aims of U.S. national security policy, often to the detriment of the people they are ostensibly designed to help. And the agency often plays hard ball with recalcitrant governments of recipient nations. AID, the World Bank and the IMF are holding hostage millions of promised dollars in loans and aid because the Haitian government has not moved fast enough to privatize state industries despite overwhelming opposition among Haitians and their newly elected Parliament to neoliberal economic policies.

[...] AID boasts that it delivers primary medical care to 3 million Haitians through contractors like Boulos' clinic. In fact, it has served to advance a central U.S. foreign policy priority in the Third World-population control. Nearly half of the agency's health care spending in Haiti is taken up by the Private Sector Family Planning Program, under which so-called NGOs dispense birth control methods, and each of the other programs-including the "Expanded Urban Health Services" program, which funds Boulos' CDS-has a substantial family planning component."

and...

[...] Haitian women's health activist Rosann August, who received the Reebok International Human Rights award last year for her work exposing the use of rape as a political weapon by FRAPH and the Haitian military, sums up the link between U.S. political and health policy: "U.S. health policy is from the same agency that overthrew the government. [In Cite Soleil,] they've taken over every thing-health, literacy, justice. Where they've invested millions, there's no improvement in health. Eighty percent of the people are desperate and illiterate, but the programs are cosmetic and immediate. The problem is social inequality."

The bottom line is: the people in the camps should refuse vaccinations for ailments that they might not even contract. Their bodies need to grow their immunity to these viruses and bacteria in order to become immune to them -- and the healthiest way to do that is to catch the virus. Also, vaccines in general contain toxins such as, squalene, mercury, aluminum, formalin, detergents, spermatocides and more. The vaccination being promoted by aid agencies will ultimately hurt Haitians by undermining their personal immunity, sterilizing them (make infertile), raise oxidative stress and deprive them of much needed antioxidants.

A woman explains that the Red Cross recently visited the camp to give vaccinations.

What Haitians need and are not getting from these "aid" organizations are high quality nutrition, super foods, vitamins, minerals and trace elements to improve their health and overall resistance to disease. It's infinitely more effective than potentially lethal vaccines or iatrogenic medical drugs.

More reading:
Red Cross under fire! Where’s the money for Haiti? by Amadi Ajamu | SF Bay View
"The American Red Cross has already admitted to financing its own debt with donations given for Haiti relief."

For more information on the The American Red Cross visit the Charity Navigator website.
Listed are a slew of negative comments about the ARC from their past mishandling of emergency relief services, such as Hurricane Katrina.