Red Cross Romania joined the efforts of Red Cross International Federation and red Half Moon and launches "Aid for Haiti" appeal. The campaign aims to raise funds, directly and online, and to make family connections service available for people to be able to get in contact with relatives in Haiti.

Plus, mobile telephony operator Orange Romania supports the fund raising campaign: anyone can text 887 for donations. One text is charged 2 euros without the VAT. The number is valid in the Orange network and the money will be donated to Red Cross Romania. The initiative is part of a bigger programme, coordinated by group France Telecom Orange in the countries where the business is present. Calls to Haiti are supported by the network.

Additionally, in the area affected by the earthquake, Orange Dominican Republic offers technical support for humanitarian actions and makes special telecoms services available.

"We invite all those willing to support the international humanitarian effort, companies, business people, governmental and non-governmental organisations, to respond to our appeal. Collected funds will be donated to Red Cross International Federation and Red Half Moon", a communiqué shows.

For online donations, go to www.crucearosie.ro. Special accounts where money can be donated are with BRD, Piata Romana branch:

LEI: RO02BRDE410SV61136934100

EURO: RO35BRDE410SV27880794100

To support immediate aid given to the humanitarian disaster victims, the Red Cross Societies International Federation and red Half Moon (FISCR) have already allocated 500,000 Swiss francs. Plus, FISCR launched an Emergency International Appeal. The sum needed to attend to 20,000 affected families, is estimated to 10 million Swiss francs (10 million dollars.6.8 million euros).

The collected sums will be used by FISCR for first aid support and will be mostly spent on temporary shelters, repairing the sweet water supply and sanitation facilities, as well as medical assistance and psychological support to the affected population.

On January 12 an earthquake measuring 7.3 magnitude on Richter scale caused a humanitarian tragedy in Haiti. This earthquake mainly affected Port-au-Prince, Carrefour and Jacmel, all in West, with an estimated 2.2 million people population.