A simple green circle marks the gate of a home that we pass. Two doors down, a red circle with a line through it. A seemingly meaningless change in color, but therein lies the all the difference for households here in Port au Prince. Behind the first, a structure spared, while beyond the second lies a home in ruins.

In the neighborhood where I have spent the past weeks, the destruction seems random. Along one street, only a few red circles, only a few scattered piles of rubble. Behind compound gates you catch glimpses of tents in driveways, the only safe housing for families fearful of returning indoors.

Driving toward the General Hospital, the distribution of suffering becomes ever less random. The equity of loss and destruction is overwhelming, yet numbing in its uniformity. The once majestic dome of the Presidential Palace slumps like a fallen souffle. The Ministry offices are like giant dollhouses, gaping structures missing the fourth wall. Here there are fewer tents, but many more people. Families here have no driveway left, their homes are now lean-tos made of sticks, sheets, and a layer of tarp if they are lucky.

The loss of shelter, sustenance and security are the result of natural disaster. The culpability for the continual erosion of the rights to housing, food, and water however, must be found elsewhere. The international community has yet to offer coordinated assistance to the Haitian government to fulfill these rights. Concerned individuals must not allow the urgency for Haiti and its population to fade in the coming weeks and months ahead. Of course the irony is that only now does the gap in the stark inequality of the distribution of suffering among Haiti’s population begin to close. We must each stand with Haiti, today, tomorrow, and in the years to come.

-Joan VanWassenhove, Partners in Health

American Red Cross
Read a situation report from President and CEO Gail McGovern.

AmeriCares
Chief of Staff Carol Shattuck recounts her experience on AmeriCares first emergency airlift to help Haiti with earthquake and humanitarian relief.

CARE
A story from the field by Rick Perera.

Catholic Relief Services
CRS turns a golf course into a relief camp in Port-au-Prince.

Concern Worldwide
Program Officer Susan Finucane offers a video update of Concern’s work on the ground in Port-au-Prince.

Leon H. Sullivan Foundation
“In the aftermath of the largest earthquake to hit the Caribbean nation of Haiti in more than two centuries, the Leon H. Sullivan Foundation has initiated a relief effort to help meet the population’s immediate needs and participate in long-term efforts to restore normalcy to a country plagued by natural disasters.

“To merely replace the unsound buildings and feed people temporarily will not be enough. My organization is working on projects to help Haiti and its people become more self-sufficient over the long term,” said Hope Masters, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Sullivan Foundation. “We who have so much must never forget to help those who have so little.”

Mercy Corps
Cassandra Nelson, Director of Multimedia Projects, talks with CNN.

Oxfam America
A blog update from staff member Coco McCabe on the ground in San Juan. Also, a video on distributing water in Haiti.

Partners in Health
An on-the-ground update from Dr. Evan Lyon, who has been working at the general hospital in Port-au-Prince since Saturday.

Physicians for Peace
A blog update and photos from Dr. Lisbet Hanson in Haiti. Also, Physicians for Peace will be holding a collection drive in Norfolk, VA this Saturday.

Save the Children
Save the Children sets up child friendly spaces in Haiti.

TransAfrica Forum
An online resource for the latest news on the earthquake and its aftermath. TransAfrica Forum also held a candlelight vigil at the Haitian Embassy in Washington DC earlier this afternoon.

World Food Programme
“Within the next week, we aim to move the equivalent of 10 million ready-to-eat meals so that people whose homes have been destroyed, and who have no access to cooking facilities, can feed their families,” said WFP Executive Director Josette Sheeran. “We are also procuring 4.2 million rations of supplementary ready-to-use foods specifically designed to give children the calories and nutrition they need each day.”

American Red Cross:
“We are humbled and thankful for the outpouring of support from our blog visitors offering their services to help those in need in Haiti. We committed $200,000 last night, and increased that amount this morning to $1 million.”

AmeriCares:
“AmeriCares is sending $3 million worth of medical aid to survivors of yesterday’s deadly, 7.0-magnitude earthquake in Haiti from our Stamford warehouse. Disaster relief modules stocked with emergency medicines and medical supplies valued at $2 million have been deployed from the Amsterdam warehouse.”

Bread for the World:
An extensive list of where and how to help earthquake victims.

Catholic Relief Services:
“In the Dominican Republic, the country that shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti, CRS is preparing 10,000 packages, each containing food and water for a family of five. The first 500 are scheduled to be delivered to Port-au-Prince on Friday. Today four CRS staff members are traveling by bus from the Dominican Republic to Port-au-Prince as CRS begins to increase our presence in Haiti to respond to this unprecedented disaster. CRS has committed an initial $5 million (US) to help survivors of the devastating quake.”

Episcopal Relief and Development:
View a video statement by Presiding Bishop and President of Episcopal Relief & Development.

FEED:
In 2009, WFP School Feeding reached over 400,000 Haitian children in 850 primary schools. FEED is working to maintain WFP School Feeding in Haiti during this critical time.

International Relief & Development:
IRD, a specialist in disaster response and emergency relief operations, has mobilized an emergency response team to Haiti. IRD will focus on the provision of emergency commodities, such as water, sanitation kits, medicines, hygiene kits, and shelter materials.

Islamic Relief:
Islamic Relief USA announced that it will immediately fly a $1 million shipment of aid to Haiti.

Jubilee USA:
Jubilee USA is calling on the Obama administration to take 3 specific steps as part of its comprehensive response to the Haiti earthquake.

Mercy Corps:
A blog post showing satellite images from Port-au-Prince.

Oxfam International:
A six-strong team of Oxfam emergency specialists has been dispatched to Haiti from the UK today to assist the 200 staff who were already stationed in Haiti when the earthquake hit on Tuesday.

Partners in Health:
On the ground reports from staff in Haiti.

Save the Children:
An interview with President and CEO Charles MacCormack.

World Food Programme:
“A WFP food distribution reached 3,000 people in the southern town of Jacmel on Wednesday and, despite logistical difficulties, more distributions were planned for Thursday in three areas of Port-au-Prince with high a population concentration.”

World Vision:
“On Thursday, World Vision will rush 18 metric tons of lifesaving supplies from its warehouse in Denver to Haiti, which was hit by a 7.0-magnitude earthquake Tuesday that affected some 3 million people. Thursday’s shipment will include tarpaulins for temporary shelter, blankets, collapsible water containers, hygiene kits, and cooking sets.” Also, click here to watch an interview with Laura Blank, Media Relations Manager at World Vision.

Yele Haiti:
Wyclef Jean’s nonprofit organization, Yele Haiti, has raised over $1 million for the victims of Tuesday’s devastating earthquake from mobile donations.

Some ONE volunteers and I just returned from an amazing forum in Norfolk, VA! We heard from some incredible panelists on collaborative, sustainable health care in the developing world at the Physicians for Peace Global Health Forum 2009 at Norfolk State University. Global health expert and humanitarian Dr. Paul Farmer gave the keynote address. Dr. Farmer is founding director of Partners in Health, an organization that works with poor communities worldwide to fight extreme poverty and preventable disease. He was glad to receive another ONE band from his “ONE peeps”, as he put it, and smiled for a picture with ONE volunteers and Brig. General Ron Sconyers, President and CEO of Physicians for Peace (left). General Sconyers has partnered with ONE before as a panelist in the ONE Town Hall discussion at Old Dominion University last month.

There is a lot of exciting advocacy work happening in southeastern Virginia where groups like Operation Smile and ONE partners Operation Blessing International and Physicians for Peace are headquartered – learn more and get involved today!

-Lauren Conn, ONE Field Organizer