Posted on November 28, 2010

Verizon Foundation Awards $100,000 in Grants to Address Cholera Outbreak in Haiti

The Verizon Foundation has announced an additional $100,000 in grants to support ongoing relief efforts in Haiti, boosting donations from the foundation and Verizon employees to more than $1.3 million since the country was hit by a devastating earthquake in January.

In response to a recent cholera outbreak, grants of $50,000 each were awarded to Food for the Poor and World Vision. The funds will enable FFP to purchase two solar-powered water filtration systems — each of which can produce 10,000 gallons of clean water a day — in addition to the thirty it has already supplied, as well as meet immediate humanitarian relief needs. World Vision will use the funds to promote personal hygiene practices in relief camps and train staff to identify and treat cholera symptoms; the organization is also helping to distribute 720,000 water purification packets in areas with newly reported cholera cases.

Of the $1.3 million contributed by the Verizon Foundation and Verizon employees in 2010, more than $1 million was raised through a matching gift program in which the foundation matched employee donations dollar-for-dollar, up to $1,000 per employee.

"Verizon and its employees offered generous support for World Vision's work in quake-stricken Haiti," said Keith Kall, World Vision's executive director of corporate development. "We are so grateful to Verizon for standing with the people of Haiti as they experience an emergency within an emergency during the cholera outbreak and aftermath of Hurricane Tomas. It is thanks to committed partners like Verizon that we're able to continue responding to the urgent needs in Haiti as we approach the one-year anniversary of the quake."