AGUA FOR HAITI

NOTICE TO CONTRIBUTORS

Update December 19, 2010- Emergency powers were granted to President Chavez this week to issue decrees relating to the crisis affecting Venezuela as a result from the heaviest rains to hit the country in over 40 years. Over 130,000 people have been displaced, dozens killed and farmlands devastated. The decrees will help to resolve the situation in a rapid and effective manner, while building long-term structural solutions to prevent such tragedy from happening again.

Early this year, Axis of Logic launched AGUA FOR HAITI, a project to send bottled, potable water to the people of Haiti from Venezuela. The project began as a response to their lack water due to the earthquake. We intensified our efforts with the heavy rains that came to Haiti in spring and again when cholera struck in the fall. It took us longer than expected to raise the $4,000 needed to purchase 9,000 litres of clean drinking water but we finally reached that goal in November. We announced that we would commence with the first shipment in November.

The process for shipping the water here in Venezuela is to make the purchase from a reliable water company and have it trucked on pallets to Protección Civil, the government agency that responds to natural disasters. The agency then trucks the palleted water to the port from which it is flown or shipped, free of charge, to Venezuelan recipients in Haiti for distribution to those who need it most. Protección Civil has been shipping food, water, medical supplies, drugs and building materials to Haiti since the January earthquake.

Just before we asked our water company to send the first truckload of water to Protección Civil in October heavy torrential rains descended upon Venezuela creating massive flooding throughout the country and continued through November. These rains were unseasonable. November normally marks the final weeks of the rainy season with the dry season beginning in December, lasting for about 6 months. As a result of these rains and flooding, thousands of families have been displaced. Rather than supplying water to Haiti, Venezuela has been the recipient of aid-water from countries like Bolivia and Ecuador. To top it off, Protección Civil has been overwhelmed with the demands that flooding has placed on the agency. We expect things to settle down sometime in January, perhaps late January, as the levels of water recedes in Venezuela's flooded lakes and reservoirs, as Protección Civil completes its work with flood-stricken families and Venezuela is again in a position to ship our water abroad. Again we expect this to happen by the end of January and we plan to make Agua for Haiti a permanent, ongoing Axis of Logic project.

To all those of you who contributed to this project: Thank you for your generous contribution(s) and thank you for your patience. Your contributions are on deposit at the Axis of Logic Fundación account at Banco Bicentanario (Acct. No. 0811023988) in La Victoria, Venezuela. As soon as Proteccion Civil is free to resume their work for Haiti, we will make our first shipment and publish notice with photos here, in Axis of Logic´s featured section.

Sincerely yours,

Les Blough, Editor
La Victoria, Venezuela