On January 12, 2010 at 4:53pm a catastrophic earthquake with magnitude of 7.0 struck the town of Port-au-Prince, Haiti's capital city. The earthquake lasted 35 seconds, and when it was done, over 200,000 people were dead, 300,000 injured and one million Haitians were rendered homeless. Among the dead were:

While there has been an overwhelming worldwide relief response, the state of affairs and quality of life in Haiti is in desperate need of many resources. JEBCA is one of the many organizations dedicated to raising awareness and organizing relief services in Haiti.

- At Least One Million people are homeless. Maintaining proper sanitation and hygiene is a major issue throughout the tent cities. Rainy season is approaching and will only exacerbate the issue unless proper shelter is restored.

- The entire jailed population is at large, security continues to be a challenge for the small police force. The government is doing all it can to keep crime under control.

- School has been closed since Jan 12th and while the government plans to re-open on April 5, 2010, Over 1300 educational establishments are destroyed and an additional 2916 are severely damaged. An estimated 2.6 billion dollars will be needed to restore the education system. About $450M is urgently needed over the next 6 months for the immediate reinstatement of educational activities. JEBCA is working ferociously to make sure that we get as many children into the classroom as possible.

- Donor countries met on March 31st and pledged around 10 billion dollars to Haiti's reconstruction. We hope and pray that pledges will translate into commitments.