UCP Support for People with Disabilities in Haiti

UCP has updated the online Disaster Information Center that includes information regarding relief efforts, recommendations for donations, how UCP is supporting disaster relief, and future UCP plans to help people with disabilities affected by the earthquake that hit Haiti on January 12. The Web page is available from a hyperlink on the UCP home page at www.UCP.org and in the News section online at www.ucp.org/ucp_generaldoc.cfm/1/8/28/28-28/9766.

UCP affiliates across the country also have relief efforts underway, including the following:

• UCP Wheels for Humanity has provided 100 wheelchairs to Direct Relief International, 65 wheelchairs to Operation USA for immediate air shipment into Haiti, and is reaching out to its international disaster relief partners. After initial needs are assessed, UCP Wheels for Humanity is prepared to donate more wheelchairs and ambulatory aid equipment for Haiti if needed.

• Several UCP affiliates have created Haiti-specific relief funds. UCP of Nassau County is raising funds, and UCP of South Central PA has instituted mobile donations and reports they are going very well. Please remember that funds raised specifically by UCP affiliates for Haiti disaster relief must be directed for that purpose. Following Hurricane Katrina, the IRS and State Attorney Generals began carefully monitoring this.

• UCP is working with affiliates to direct long term assistance to people with disabilities in Haiti. UCP is in contact with several developmental disability organizations to identify exactly what will be needed in the next few months. UCP of South Florida has already collected thousands of dollars in cash donations and truckloads of supplies, including medical supplies and adaptive equipment, in support of this effort out of Miami.

At this point, the UCP national office recommends monetary donations be made to the American Red Cross International Response Fund designated to Haiti relief, or to the ANCOR Foundation's CARES Fund, which will assist people with disabilities who are caught up in the devastating earthquake in Haiti. ANCOR’s Foundation is directing funds to CARES, a partner in the Dominican Republic, which is engaged in cross-border emergency assessment and support for people with disabilities.