Humanitarian response to the 2010 Haiti earthquake

The response to the 2010 Haiti earthquake included national governments, charitable and for-profit organizations from around the world which began coordinating humanitarian aid designed to help the Haitian people.

The damage to the Haitian government ministries, all of which suffered varying degrees of destruction and personnel deaths, impeded coordination of the disaster response.

In April 2010, the Haitian government asked that food distribution in the Pétion-Ville camp cease in order to allow the normal economy to resume.

[8] The European Union thus pledged at least €429 million to Haiti in both emergency and humanitarian aid to help the medium and long-term work of rebuilding the country devastated by the earthquake.

In addition, the 27 countries decided to send some 150 troops from the European Gendarmerie to ensure that humanitarian aid would reach the people affected by the earthquake.

[11] Many non-governmental organizations, including international, religious and regionally-based NGOs, immediately pledged support in the aftermath of the 2010 Haiti earthquake.

Much of the US aid funding was hindered by US statutory restrictions limiting spending to US products, materials and employees, which had to be transported to Haiti.

American and French rescue workers carry a survivor, who was trapped under the rubble from the debris of the Hôtel Montana in Port-au-Prince , Haiti, on January 15, 2010.
Rescue workers supplies delivered to Haiti from the U.S. Navy ships, on January 16, 2010.
The Israel Defense Forces team extracts a person, who was trapped under the rubble from the government building in Port-au-Prince , Haiti, on January 17, 2010.
The Los Angeles County Fire Department urban search and rescue workers pulls Haitian woman from the earthquake debris in Port-au-Prince , Haiti, on January 17, 2010.
U.S. Air Force pararescueman climb a ladder to save a survivor at the collapsed building in Port-au-Prince , Haiti, on January 19, 2010.