As the world's media attention begins shifting from Haiti to other news, Catholic Relief Services (CRS) and many other organizations will be shifting as well.  The immediate needs of food, shelter and medical care are still a priority, but the shift to long-term rebuilding efforts has been in the planning stages since shortly after the quake.  Catholics in the United States have been extremely generous in their support for Haiti and what may well be one of the ten deadliest natural disasters in recorded history.

A senior communications specialist for CRS, Caroline Brennan, has written a moving account of the conditions in Haiti and what CRS has accomplished through the generosity of Catholics around the United States.  (Click here to read Caroline's letter.)

From Ken Hacket, president of Catholic Relief Services (CRS):

While roads are starting to clear and food and aid are reaching hundreds of thousands of people, the needs are still enormous in Haiti. Toppled buildings, sprawling camps and tented homes set up on the roadside are sobering reminders of the long road ahead.

New fears loom about the oncoming rainy season and the critical needs for emergency shelter and sanitation. "It's going to turn into Woodstock out there," says Lane Hartill of Catholic Relief Services, as he explains that the grass has all but worn away under the tents in Pétionville at the former golf course turned into a CRS-led organized camp that attracts as many as 50,000 people during the day and up to 80,000 at night. To help prepare for the coming rains, CRS and our partner, Caritas Haiti, have ordered materials for 20,000 temporary shelter kits, and are planning for more.

Nevertheless, we are making strides daily and reaching more people than ever. CRS and Caritas Haiti are distributing an average of 62 metric tons of food per day. In addition to Pétionville, CRS has been designated as lead agency for coordinating relief efforts in the town of Léogâne, as well as for serving around 50 smaller church-identified sites. As a result, CRS and Caritas are anticipating helping hundreds of thousands of people in the next few months.

Internationally, 2.5 million people are currently victims of human trafficking. Their days are spent in forced labor, prostitution or slavery. Trafficking is the fastest growing crime and the third largest crime behind illegal drugs and weapons sales. Each year 600,000 to 800,000 men, women and children are forced or coerced with offers of employment to cross borders, as human trafficking is active in over 127 countries.

Domestically, 15,000 people annually are smuggled into our communities to forcibly work in prostitution, sweatshops, agricultural industries, or as domestic housekeepers. This is compounded with 200,000 American children at risk from trafficking for sexual exploitation.

Mount St. Mary's College, at the Doheny Campus in Los Angeles, will host Justice Symposium 2010: Human Trafficking: The Price We Pay on February 27th, to explore the international and domestic facets of trafficking. The event is sponsored by fifteen religious orders, The Coalition to Abolish Slavery and Trafficking (CAST), Los Angeles Archdiocese Office of Justice and Peace and Pax Christi Southern California.

Agency Increases Commitment to $25 Million

Baltimore, MD -- Lifesaving supplies from Catholic Relief Services (CRS) are reaching desperate survivors in quake-shattered Port-au-Prince, Haiti. CRS is distributing food and water from its warehouses in the Haitian capital and the city of Les Cayes. Additional aid is on its way from CRS' supplies in the neighboring Dominican Republic.

CRS has increased its original funding commitment and is planning an emergency response with an expectation of raising $25 million from its generous supporters. To date, CRS has already received more than $6 million in cash and commitments, including a $1-million disaster response donation from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and a $225,000 gift from the New York Yankees baseball team.

WASHINGTON --The Church mourns the terrible suffering of the people of Haiti, and parishes across the country are urged to take up a special collection the weekend of January 16-17 for the humanitarian efforts of the U.S. bishops and Catholic Relief Service (CRS) in Haiti, according to a January 13 letter to Catholic bishops of the United States from Cardinal Francis George of Chicago and Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York.

Cardinal George, President of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), and Archbishop Dolan, chair of CRS board, said the magnitude 7.0 earthquake that ravaged Haiti "destroyed countless homes, churches, seminaries, schools, and other buildings and has left millions without the most basic necessities of life. Our faith compels us to pray for and reach out to our brothers and sisters in their time of suffering."