KUALA LUMPUR: Mercy Malaysia is accepting donations to provide emergency medical relief for survivors of the Haiti earthquake that killed thousands of people on Jan 12.

Its president Dr Ahmad Faizal Perdaus said the fund would be channelled directly to Haiti to be utilised by Mercy Malaysia’s partner, Medical Emergency Relief International (Merlin), whose people are now on the ground at Port-au-Prince.

“Providing support in this way is much more efficient. Channelling funds directly to Merlin’s on-site team is a better way for us to contribute to the earthquake survivors without adding to the current logistical bottleneck in Haiti,” he said in a statement on Wednesday.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs recently reported that fuel shortage, damaged infrastructure and the sheer scale of the Haitian earthquake disaster were hampering a massive relief effort, but aid was getting through to survivors.

According to Merlin’s director of programmes, Pete Sweetnam, Merlin had sent two teams to Haiti, with the first response team arriving in Haiti on Saturday and delivering assistance.

The 7.0 magnitude earthquake that struck Haiti killed thousands of people and damaged schools, hospitals and homes.

Source: BERNAMA