"This disaster has struck the poorest country in the western hemisphere, and the people of Haiti urgently need our help." - Paula Sansom, Merlin Response Team Co-ordinator

A strong earthquake (magnitude 7.0) struck Haiti at 21.53 GMT on 12 January. The epicentre was only 10 miles South West of Haiti’s densely populated capital, Port au Prince, and up to three million people are affected. The epicentre was relatively shallow, magnifying the crisis. Through the night there were 30 aftershocks, two of which were severe.

Our humanitarian aid and assistance is urgently needed in Haiti: Click here to donate now

The United Nations has described the situation as a catastrophe. In Port au Prince there is widespread structural damage – at least one hospital (Petion-ville) is devastated, and several other health facilities have had to be evacuated, according to reports. Amongst the buildings wrecked are the UN’s Haiti headquarters. Telephone and electricity services are also down.

A high casualty rate is feared, and unless help is delivered quickly, there is a real risk of an even greater disaster in the weeks and months to come. Haiti is one of the least developed countries in the world, with a chronically poor and vulnerable population, and infrastructure that is little able to cope with an emergency of this scale.

Please give as much as you can to help us mobilise our expert relief teams and start saving lives

“We are particularly concerned about vulnerable people living in the slum areas of the city who are more exposed to disease in the aftermath of the earthquake,” says Sansom.

Merlin’s eight strong emergency response team left on the first available flight to Haiti. Their initial task is to assess the most urgent needs, which are likely to be water, sanitation, shelter, disease prevention and restoration of basic health services. Our team is likely to concentrate immediately on distributing essential shelter kits, as well as medical equipment such as hygiene kits and blankets, supporting local health staff and mobilising communities to ensure disease outbreaks are prevented. We are mobilising all necessary resources now.

Make an online donation now to help us save more lives

Because of the severity of the disaster Merlin’s fundraising target has been revised upwards to £4.4m to cover the cost of our immediate charity response, and our we are hoping to raise half of this from private sources. We are appealing to trusts, foundations, companies and individuals to help us reach our target as quickly as possible and save as many lives as we can in this tiny Caribbean nation.

If funds raised exceed the needs for this emergency, your donation will be used wherever the need is greatest.

More news from Haiti