• Half of the funds are being used to bring food and water to earthquake survivors. The American Red Cross is providing more 3 million pre-packaged meals, more than 1 million water purification packets and thousands of jerry cans so people can collect and transport clean drinking water.
• Thirty percent is for purchasing and distributing relief supplies, which includes items such as blanket, tarps, soap, hygiene supplies, kitchen sets and first aid supplies.
• The remaining 20 percent of funds is to provide logistical support and other items needed to keep the relief effort running. This includes the purchase of vehicles to deliver relief supplies, warehouse space, gasoline, transportation costs and the deployment of relief specialists.

As the aid pipeline to Haiti improves, the American Red Cross will provide large tents for an initial 14,500 people and is working around the clock to find and send more.

In addition, nearly 70 Creole-speaking Red Cross volunteers left Miami today and will join the USNS Comfort on Friday to translate for patients receiving medical care from the U.S. military.

American Red Cross President and CEO Gail McGovern traveled to Haiti on Tuesday to visit relief operations and help coordinate the distribution of aid. She witnessed firsthand the enormous devastation and the difficulty of getting aid into the country. Yet even with these enormous challenges, McGovern said, the Red Cross is truly making a difference.

“I saw American Red Cross staff, armed with first aid kits, going out to treat people. They have a truck and a door that they were using as a stretcher, and they were taking injured to a field hospital run by another country’s Red Cross. And every time a Red Cross truck would go through the streets, the people would clear the way to let it pass.”

Seeing the resilient spirit of the Haitian people as well as the tireless efforts of Red Cross teams from around the world left a strong impression on the American Red Cross president.

“I feel like I left a piece of my heart in Haiti, “ McGovern said. “Know that the Red Cross is going to do whatever we can to help the people of Haiti, both in the short term but also as part of what we know will be a vast and long-term recovery for this nation and its people.”