Surrey family searching desperately for relatives in Haiti

BY ANDREA WOO, VANCOUVER SUN

Garry and Ruth Auguste and their two children scour the Internet for information about survivors in Haiti.

LES BAZSO, VANCOUVER SUN

Surrey resident Garry Auguste has countless friends and family in his native Port-au-Prince, Haiti -- none of whom he has been able to contact following Tuesday's devastating 7.0-magnitude earthquake.

Calling their cellphones and land lines resulted only in dead air and busy signals.

Calling the Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade's emergency operations centre also proven fruitless, as it only deals with finding Canadians abroad.

"I've been calling since an hour after the earthquake and none of [the telephone numbers] are working," said a sombre sounding Auguste Thursday. "The fear and the hopelessness are increasing as the days are passing."

A website created by the Red Cross could provide new hope, however.

The International Committee of the Red Cross launched the Haiti subcategory of its Family Links website ( icrc.org/familylinks)Wednesday, providing people with a place to register the names of missing relatives or confirm that they are safe.

People can enter the name, parents' names, sex, date, place of birth and place of residence of the person they are trying to find.

They can also enter their own information, including name, address, phone number and e-mail address.

Within 24 hours of launching the Haiti subcategory, more than 6,000 people were registered as being sought by relatives or confirmed as safe, said Alice Lam, spokeswoman for the Canadian Red Cross.

With 187 national Red Cross and Red Crescent societies around the world, the website is one of the most comprehensive ways to collect and match information about people displaced by the quake.

"The ICRC has also deployed specialists into Haiti to assist the Haitian Red Cross with this process so that people can make contact with their loved ones as soon as possible," Lam said.

The site also has subcategories for people looking to connect with missing relatives after conflicts in Nepal, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Iraq, Kosovo and Somalia.

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies increased its preliminary emergency appeal to $10 million US on Thursday, up from $2 million Wednesday.

"We expect this to increase as our field assessment teams are on the ground and they will provide more information on the immediate and longer-term needs," said Lam.

Premier Gordon Campbell announced Thursday the province will provide $500,000 to the Red Cross for immediate medical and emergency support.

"We will also coordinate with the federal government to explore the possibility of helping Haitians rebuild their homes, schools, hospitals and other infrastructure," Campbell said in a statement.

Forests and Range Minister Pat Bell will work with the federal government to provide wood products for rebuilding and construction expertise, as B.C. did after the 2008 Sichuan, China earthquake.

The Canadian government Wednesday pledged $5 million to provide emergency shelter, medical services, food, water and other various relief items.

On Thursday Ottawa announced it would match all individual donations to registered Canadian charitable organizations to support humanitarian and early recovery assistance, up to a total of $50 million.

"Canadian citizens have shown time and again their generosity with countries in urgent need, and our government is prepared to match their contributions dollar for dollar," said Beverley Oda, minister of international cooperation.

All donations must be made before Feb. 12.

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