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Direct Relief International is responding to a 7.0-magnitude earthquake and its aftershocks that struck Haiti today. The earthquake, centered off Port-au-Prince, destroyed a hospital in Petionville and damaged other buildings; the number of injured is expected to be high. Emergency aid is being offered to all our partners in Haiti to support their response to the quake. Two shipping containers, a 40-foot and a 20-foot container of ongoing medical material aid, arrived in Port-au-Prince today destined for St. Damien Children's Hospital; it includes emergency aid as well.

....Founded in 1948, Direct Relief is a Santa Barbara, California-based nonprofit organization focused on improving quality of life by bringing critically needed medicines and supplies to local healthcare providers worldwide. Direct Relief has provided more than $1 billion in privately funded humanitarian aid since 2000, including more than $150 million in assistance in the United States. It is one of two charities ranked by Forbes that received a perfect fundraising efficiency score for seven consecutive years and is ranked by the Chronicle of Philanthropy as California's largest international nonprofit organization based on private support. - Reuters

"Port-au-Prince is devastated, lot of deaths. SOS. SOS...," wrote Dr. Louise Ivers from Port-au-Prince, in an e-mail to the group's offices in Boston, Massachusetts. The clinical director of Partners In Health, which operates nine hospitals and health centers for poor people in Haiti, added: "Temporary field hospital ... needs supplies, pain meds, bandages. Please help us." - CNN