NEWS RELEASE: OpUSA Readies Aid for Haiti in Wake of Hurricane Isaac

LOS ANGELES, CA (August 25, 2012)—Los Angeles-based International relief agency Operation USA announced today that it will send emergency aid to Haiti as necessary as part of relief efforts responding to Hurricane Isaac, which made landfall yesterday and continues to bring torrential rain. The hurricane caused widespread flooding and at least 3 deaths to the island nation which is still working to recover from the devastating earthquake that hit in 2010—and the world’s largest cholera epidemic in this century affecting 600,000 people.

 

Operation USA will focus its efforts in the city of Jacmel—where the agency rebuilt a large public school in partnership with Honeywell, which opened in 2011. The 1.5 acre, 9 building campus has been designated as an emergency shelter location, and Operation USA staff on the ground are assessing shelter, safe water, food and other needs.

 

HOW TO HELP:

Donate online at www.opusa.org, by phone at 1.800.678.7255 or, by check made out to Operation USA, 7421 Beverly Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90036.

 

Text AID to 50555 and donate $10 to Operation USA’s disaster relief efforts. Corporate donations of bulk quantities of disaster-appropriate supplies are also being requested. United and Continental air miles can also be donated to Operation USA through United Airlines Charity Miles program at www.united.com.

 

ABOUT OPERATION USA
As part of large-scale disaster relief efforts following the Janaury 2010 earthquake that devastated much of Haiti, Operation USA and Honeywell partnered to rebuild the destroyed public school, Ecole Nationale Jacob Martin Henriquez, in Jacmel. This public primary school now serves 900 students grades K-7 who couldn’t otherwise afford to go to school. Rebuilt as a nine-building school complex, the campus now includes a soccer field, basketball court, library and computer lab. An on-site cafeteria provides each student a free daily meal—for many of the school’s students, the only guaranteed meal they may eat each day.

 

Operation USA is an international relief agency that helps communities at home and abroad overcome the effects of disasters, disease and endemic poverty by providing privately-funded relief, reconstruction and development aid. Since 1979, the Los Angeles-based Operation USA has worked in 100 countries, delivering over $375 million for relief and development projects.

 

Learn more and make secure donations at www.opusa.org.