Five months after the Haiti earthquake, the Red Cross is providing relief to vulnerable Haitians and preparing people and communities for what is expected to be an active hurricane season.

• The Red Cross continues to provide clean drinking water, latrines, medical treatment, emergency shelter supplies and other services on a large scale. For example, one-third of all of the tarps distributed so far in Haiti for emergency shelter have been from the Red Cross.
• The Red Cross is currently conducting two in-depth training programs to camp residents: one on disaster response and the other on health and first aid. Volunteers are directing residents to dig drainage ditches, secure embankments, and install early warning systems. The Red Cross plans to prepare 25 at-risk camps in coming weeks.
• In addition, the Red Cross is prepositioning disaster-relief stocks in 10 cities and towns across Haiti, with additional stocks being readied at the Red Cross's regional disaster-response headquarters in Panama. This way, the supplies will be close at hand should a hurricane or other disaster strike.
• Shelter is a top priority. As with any other humanitarian organization working in Haiti, the Red Cross is waiting until there are cleared plots of land available with clear legal rights before building large numbers of transitional shelters. In the meantime, the Red Cross is shipping building supplies for thousands of shelters, and has been training Haitian Red Cross staff and volunteers to construct these shelters.

At the same time we are distributing emergency relief, the American Red Cross is working on projects and programs for long-term recovery of Haitian families and communities.

• The American Red Cross continues to add staff in Haiti, and we now have 60 staff members dedicated to earthquake recovery.
• We are developing new programs to help Haitians, focusing on key areas like water, sanitation and shelter.
• The American Red Cross is also partnering with Fonkoze, Haiti's largest microfinance institution, to provide cash grants and loans to some Haitians. Thousands of female heads of household in Haiti are receiving cash grants to meet immediate needs, and many are also being empowered with a micro-loan to help restart their business following the earthquake. Financial assistance can help in the emergency response phase, and it also will help the families and the economy begin to recover.

The American Red Cross will support earthquake survivors in many ways in the months and years ahead, and will be there in Haiti until the last donated dollar is spent. We'll also continue work in Haiti that has been ongoing for many years, such as programs in health, disease prevention, disaster prevention and disaster response.

• Since the earthquake struck Haiti on January 12, the American Red Cross has spent approximately $117 million. About half of the money has been spent on food and emergency services; about a third for shelter; and the remainder has gone towards livelihood development through activities such as cash assistance, as well as water, sanitation and health programs.
• The spending rate is slower now than in the first months following the earthquake because many of the relief supplies arriving in Haiti were purchased earlier, while our long-term recovery programs are in an earlier stage.
• The American Red Cross expects to spend about $200 million to meet the survivors' immediate needs - mostly in the first 12 months following the earthquake. The rest of the funds raised will go to long-term recovery over the next several years.
• The American Red Cross spending plan for Haiti includes both relief and recovery. Shelter will get the biggest share of our total spending, but we also expect to spend significant amounts on emergency relief, water and sanitation projects and grants, loans and other financial assistance. Other priorities are disaster preparedness and health programs. Planned allocations for each program will likely shift in the years ahead in response to the fluid situation and the evolving needs of the Haitian people.

While the American Red Cross has been making an impact on the lives of hundreds of thousands of Haitians, our work may not be as visible in Haiti as it is in the U.S. That's because our approach in international disasters is different from what we do in responding to disasters in the U.S.

• We could have sent large numbers of American Red Cross volunteers to Haiti, but they don't speak the language or know the country, and would need food and shelter supplies that are already in high demand. Instead, in a coordinated effort, we have deployed a total of 165 people over the past four months, most of them highly-trained disaster specialists who work with the Haitian Red Cross to deliver relief supplies through the network of Haitian volunteers.