News from the Field

Japan has joined the international rescue effort to help tens of thousands of survivors of the worst earthquake to hit the Caribbean island of Haiti in two centuries.

A 25-strong emergency team from the Japan Disaster Relief (JDR) system is spending an estimated one week in-country as a global international relief effort continued unabated to help the survivors of last week’s earthquake.

Emergency supplies of such needed items as tents and sleeping bags were also dispatched from JICA’s main warehouse in the region in nearby Miami following a request for assistance from the Haiti government and Japan also pledged US$5 million in financial assistance to be channeled through the two U.N. agencies, UNICEF and World Food Progam (WFP).

A six-man team headed by Nobutaka Shinomiya, Japanese ambassador to Haiti and neighboring Dominican Republic had been dispatched earlier to the stricken country to assess both short and longer term needs for Haiti in the wake of this week’s quake which caused probably tens of thousands of dead and many more injured and homeless.

The medical team was working at the scene of what government officials described as the result of the worst tremor to hit one of the world’s poorest countries in two centuries.

JICA functions as the Secretariat of the Japan Disaster Relief (JDR) Team, a part of Official Development Assistance, capable of sending rescue and medical teams and emergency supplies to disaster situations around the globe.