By Laura Woodhouse | 17 September 2008, 15:17

From international women’s rights organisation, MADRE:

In Haiti, four back-to-back storms have caused severe flooding, destroying farmland and crops. Prices had skyrocketed in Haiti even before the storms. Bananas are $7 a bunch and on the rise. And the cost of rice, a food staple, has escalated by 150% and is out of reach.

In Cuba, over 200,000 families have been displaced by three back-to-back storms. The US embargo prevents Cubans from accessing basic medicines and medical supplies, causing serious hardship for Cubans even when there are no extraordinary circumstances. After three hard-hitting storms, the Cuban government’s emergency response is badly compromised without the medicines that people so desperately need.

Your help is urgently needed.

Flooding and mudslides have destroyed roads and bridges, cutting relief workers off from people in desperate need of aid: food in Haiti and medicine in Cuba.

But MADRE is helping.

Our locally-based partners, KOFAVIV, Zanmi Lasante, and the Cuban Red Cross, are already on the scene and have launched into action. The systems are in place to procure and deliver emergency supplies.

Your support is critical. Please give generously to this emergency response effort. Donate now.