The IAFC is closely monitoring the situation in Haiti and will alert our members to information or opportunities to assist as it becomes available.
The IAFC echoes the USFA reminder to not self-deploy and urges its members not to initiate response efforts that aren’t coordinated with the federal and/or international response effort.
We understand the great desire of our members to contribute their skills and resources to Haiti. President Obama stated this morning that initial federal and military teams have arrived and initial assessments have begun. These assessments will be critical to understanding the current situation and what resources will be needed in the response, as well as the long and hard road ahead for recovery and rebuilding—stages that may provide our members the greatest opportunity to help.
We must remember that Haiti is an international effort and that it’s unlike any we have seen in recent history, given the extreme poverty and lack of infrastructure typical to the developed nations that most of our members reside in. We must be patient and take our lead from those who are currently on the ground.
The IAFC is monitoring the news and social networking sites and has reached out to USFA and others who can provide information and analysis, as well as to our members in Haiti.
In an effort to connect rapidly and provide the most recent up-to-date information to our members, we will use our social networking sites—Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter—to convey information as it becomes available. If you are not connected to the IAFC via one or more of these tools, we encourage you to do so today.