Haiti Earthquake: SOS Children Rescue Teams and Child Trauma Specialists Arrive in Haiti

CAMBRIDGE, England, January 19 - SOS Children emergency relief teams including child trauma
specialists from the Dominican Republic and Costa Rica have arrived at the
SOS Children's Village in Santo, on the outskirts of Port-au-Prince.

As well as the shipment of ten tons of food, water, medicine
and tents, the SOS Children emergency relief programme includes the arrival
of specialist psychologists and social workers who will help children cope
with their trauma and where possible, reunite children separated from their
families. The SOS Children's Village in Santo will provide temporary
emergency shelter for children and families and will also act as a mobile
clinic; equipment and medical staff are due to arrive today.

SOS Children, who has two Children's Villages in Haiti, works
in the country long-term so will if needed, (and it looks likely), provide a
long-term home for children who have been orphaned by the catastrophe. Andrew
Cates, SOS Children CEO says: "In an international emergency of this kind,
there is a high degree of co-operation with different charities focusing on
their core competences. As the world's largest orphan charity, with some
78,000 children in our care, SOS Children always ends up providing support
for the children orphaned by disasters. The needs of a child whose
family and home have been destroyed in an earthquake extend long
beyond immediate medical and trauma care. The right response to the
situation of such a child is a chance of a family-based childhood. The
nature of the work of other charities is a "quick patch-up and move
on", but we are long-term. Donors who make a longer term commitment to
our work in Haiti, including child sponsors, recognise the needs of a
child extending through into independence and they help by giving the child
love and a future."

SOS Children has been working in Haiti since 1978 and provides
a family for life for children who have lost their parents through war,
famine, disease, natural disaster and poverty. Over 78,000 orphaned and
abandoned children are currently cared for by SOS mothers in clusters of
family homes in more than 500 of Children's Villages in 124 countries
worldwide. Thousands more children benefit from SOS Children's outreach
support which includes education, vocational training, medical care and
community development programmes.

Haiti is the one of the poorest countries in the world and is
struggling to recover from years of violence, insecurity and massive natural
disasters. Port au Prince was still recovering from tropical storms in
November 2008 which destroyed 10,000 homes and made many more homeless.

On our website, you can read an interview with our National
Director of Haiti, Mr, Celigny Darius, who was himself caught in a collapsing
building; as well as how we plan to help children cope with the trauma of
this catastrophe.

Celigny Darius, National Director of SOS Children's Villages in Haiti
says "The most urgent thing needed is medical supplies, especially
painkillers, because many have been severely injured and the main hospital
isn't operational - people are dying in the streets. Nothing is open in the
capital and people are afraid to enter buildings out of fear it might
collapse at any moment. Since people are sleeping on the streets and ran from
their houses with only the shirts on their backs, there is also a need for
clothing."

If you would like to interview any of our field staff in Haiti please get
in touch with Doris Kirchebner doris.kirchebner@sos-kd.org

To donate to our Haiti emergency appeal, please visit
www.soschildren.org or call +44(0)1223-365-589.

Notes for Editors:

    - SOS Children CEO Andrew Cates and Director of Development
    Kathie Neal, are available for interviews and comment. Mr. Carlos Sibaja,
    Regional Advisor for Management at the SOS Regional Office in Costa Rica,
    is also available for interviews and can be reached at
    Carlos.Sibaja@sos-kd.org or over the phone at Tel. +506-2283-2301,
    ext. 114.

    - SOS Children will spend 100% of all funds generated by the
    appeal to helping children and families in Haiti, with absolutely no
    deductions for UK costs such as administration or fundraising

    - For more information, images and interview requests, please
    contact Elizabeth Rodgers, Press and Communications Manager, SOS
    Children, elizabeth@soschildren.org or +44(0)1223-365-589

For more information, images and interview requests, please contact Elizabeth Rodgers, Press and Communications Manager, SOS Children, elizabeth at soschildren.org or +44(0)1223-365-589