'On the Record' in Haiti

Video from Greta Van Susteren's Haiti special which aired Thursday on Fox News:
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"It was overwhelming" - Gov. Palin reacts to the extent of the devastation in Haiti, rejects suggestions that U.S. should halt aid and gives her take on what should done to help:


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"Everyone can make a difference" - Greta and the Palin family help Rev. Graham's Samaritan's Purse hand out gifts to Haitian children:


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"Port au Prince got hammered" - By helicopter, Greta, Rev. Graham and Gov. Palin survey the devastation that still grips Haiti's infrastructure:


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"There still is dire need here" - Greta and Gov. Palin tour the ravaged country and visit overwhelmed cholera clinics:



- JP

Sarah Palin: Helping Haiti this Christmas

A suggestion...
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Posted Wednesday by Gov. Palin on Facebook:

Helping Haiti this Christmas

If you are still looking for a cause to donate to this Christmas, allow me to make a suggestion. Todd, Bristol, Greta Van Susteren, and I recently traveled to Haiti to witness first hand the amazing work done by Rev. Franklin Graham’s organization Samaritan’s Purse. Bristol wrote about our experiences on her Facebook page here.

In an effort to fight a deadly cholera outbreak in Haiti, Samaritan’s Purse has flown over a dozen flights carrying vital medical supplies to the two cholera treatment centers it has been running since the start of the outbreak. These centers, run by medical volunteers from the U.S., Canada, and the UK, have helped save the lives of nearly 5,000 patients.

The cholera treatment centers are part of a larger Samaritan’s Purse effort aimed at restoring the human dignity and economic independence of the Haitian people. Since the disastrous earthquake in January of this year, Samaritan’s Purse has spent $29 million on relief, helping more than half a million people by building 10,000 shelters (more than half of the shelters built in Haiti to date have been put up by Samaritan’s Purse); providing non-cholera related medical assistance (including 250 surgeries) to a total of 43,000 patients; providing clean drinking water to more than 75,000 people; and clearing the rubble from 179 building sites.

None of this would have been possible without the generosity of countless small donors. With all the blessings bestowed upon us in this great country of ours, we also have an opportunity to share those blessings with people who are less fortunate. Samaritan’s Purse is doing exactly that – saving lives one person at a time.

If you’d like to support the great work Samaritan’s Purse does in Haiti and around the world, please visit their website.

Below you’ll find some photos of our Haiti visit taken by Greta Van Susteren. They show what we saw at a temporary housing camp, at the cholera clinics in Bercy and Cité Soleil, and at a meeting where we helped to bring smiles to children’s faces by handing out shoeboxes filled with presents as part of Samaritan's Purse’s worldwide Operation Christmas Child.

- Sarah Palin

Greta Van Susteren and her husband, John; Franklin
Graham and his daughter, Cissy; and Todd, Bristol,
and I had the privilege of passing out Samaritan’s
Purse gifts to Haitian children. Volunteers with
Samaritan’s Purse assembled 8 million Christmas
gift boxes to bless children around the world this season!

At a temporary housing camp. Over one million Haitians
have been displaced since January’s earthquake.

Washing clothes in streams they bathe in.

In Samaritan’s Purse’s cholera clinic operated by volunteers.

In the clinic with a baby receiving cholera treatment
in a syringe.

In the clinic with a tiny six-month-old baby with
cholera and pneumonia, a twin who was in the
clinic after his mother died.

Bristol and the six-month-old orphan.

Rev. Franklin Graham and I addressing media in Haiti.

At the end of a day in Haiti, Bristol and I took in the
physical beauty of the country while discussing what
seems like improbable poverty and great malaise in a
country with so much potential.

- JP

Greta previews her 'On The Record" Haiti special

December 23 at 9PM Texas Time for the full hour
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From GretaWire:

I hope you tune in to a very special ON THE RECORD this Thursday at 10 pm [9 pm Central]. Along with the Rev. Franklin Graham's Samaritan's Purse and the Palin family, we will take you to cholera-ravaged Haiti and take a look at the country nearly a year after it was struck by a deadly earthquake.

Here's a preview of our special on Haiti. Don't miss Thursday's ON THE RECORD at 10!

Part 1: Gov Palin responds to Sen. Patrick Leahy's call to cut off direct aid to Haiti:

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Part 2: The Palins and Greta help Samaritan's Purse distribute Christmas gifts to Haitian children:


- JP

Rev.Graham: Sarah Palin's Compassion Touched Haitians' Hearts

She is a woman of strong principle and faith in God
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Rev. Franklin Graham, in a Newsmax.TV interview, said that Gov. Palin’s visit to Haiti is testimony that she is not “afraid to get her hands dirty.” The first woman in history to be governor of Alaska is a “woman of strong principle and no question she has a strong faith in God,” commented the son of famed evangelist Billy Graham:

The former GOP vice-presidential candidate “has tremendous compassion for people, she loves people, and she cares deeply about people,” Graham said.

“She was an encouragement not only to the staff and to the relief workers (but) even to the Haitian people who didn’t know her,” Graham said.

“She came in with her smile. She would sit on the cots. Now, you have to understand a cholera clinic, these cots have been soaked in urine, and fecal matter, and vomit. Cholera is a horrible thing, and she just sat right there in the middle of it, holding peoples’ hands, talking to people, holding babies, it was an amazing thing. She’s quite a lady and not afraid to get her hands dirty.”

[...]

As for Graham’s appraisal of Palin, he said: “When you read her book ‘Going Rogue,’ she gives a testimony on how she gave her life to God. And the last page of her book ‘Going Rogue,’ she mentions or says to the reader if you haven’t done what I’ve done, I encourage you to do it. And she invites a person to invite God into their heart, their life. I’ve seen the governor on a number of occasions and no question her faith is a big part of her life — that’s who she is. She’s a believer in Jesus Christ, a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ, that’s just her makeup. It’s her DNA.”

[More]

- JP

Video: Mission of Mercy in Haiti

This is a country in great need
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From "On the Record" Monday night on Fox News, video of Greta Van Susteren and Sarah Palin in Haiti with Rev. Franklin Graham:



And courtesy of Samaritan's Purse, here's video of Rev. Graham and Gov Palin at a press briefing held this weekend in Haiti:


- JP

SMH: Palin broadens horizons in troubled Haiti

"I do urge Americans not to forget Haiti"
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Samaritan's Purse Video

From the Sydney Morning Herald:

Sarah Palin toured Haiti Sunday amid post-election unrest, comforting quake and cholera victims and gaining humanitarian kudos as she geared up for a possible White House bid in 2012.

The 46-year-old former Alaska governor and Republican vice-presidential candidate was accompanied on the weekend trip by her husband Todd and 20-year-old daughter Bristol.

On the 11-month anniversary of January's devastating earthquake, there is deep political uncertainty in violence-plagued Haiti, where rioting after disputed elections killed five people this week.

During their tour, the Palins distributed Christmas shoe-box gifts to children, held the feet of baby cholera victims and offered solace to homeless quake survivors.

The cholera epidemic has claimed 2,200 lives since it erupted mid-October and concern is growing about its possible spread in the neighboring Dominican Republic where more than 20 people have been infected.

In a tightly-managed press opportunity on Sunday, Palin, the media superstar of American conservatism, spoke only briefly to reporters and refused to take questions.

"The reason why I won't be answering questions is because we don't need to be getting political here today, okay folks," Palin said.

"If some of these politicians would come here again, not to get political, but if some of the politicians would come here and see the conditions, perhaps they would see a need for say, military airlifts," she later added.

[...]

Before leaving the press conference on Sunday and surveying the destruction for herself with a helicopter tour of the ruined capital, Palin urged the world not to forget Haiti's plight.

"Young people, perhaps through Bristol's eyes, will be able to see that what really matters in life is not the material comforts that we seem to crave and strive for in the US," she said.

[More]

Additional coverage: Reuters story here, video here. Katrina Trinko mentions it at NRO's The Corner here. Examiner Devonia Smith has an op-ed here and a photo gallery here. Greta Van Susteren posted a short video here. Greta will report on the Haiti trip in Monday's "On The Record" at 9PM Central on Fox News.

- JP

Rev. Graham and Gov. Palin arrive in Haiti

Evangelist and Samaritan's Purse president Franklin Graham and Sarah Palin arrived in Haiti today to survey the organization's work with cholera patients, deliver Operation Christmas Child shoe box gifts, visit shelters, tour rubble removal sites, and meet with volunteers and staff.

"I am pleased that Gov. Palin will accompany us on a brief trip to Haiti this weekend, and I appreciate her willingness to visit Haiti during such troubled times,” Graham said. “I believe Gov. Palin will be a great encouragement to the people of Haiti and to the organizations, both government and private, working so hard to provide desperately needed relief."

Fox News host Greta Van Susteren, who visited North Korea with Samaritan’s Purse in 2008 and 2009 to report on the organization's medical work, is also on the trips.

More, including photos, at the Samaritan's Purse Today blog.

Updates...

AFP reports:

Conservative US politician Sarah Palin was undeterred by days of politically-charged rioting that has left at least five people dead as she began a weekend tour with a visit to an earthquake refugee camp.

Stepping off a yellow helicopter, Palin visited a community where Christian relief organization Samaritan's Purse provides shelter for victims of an earthquake in January that killed 250,000 people and left 1.5 million homeless.

"I've really enjoyed meeting this community," Palin said. "They are so full of joy. We are so fortunate in America and we are responsible for helping those less fortunate. Samaritan's Purse is still here doing the tough work."

Palin, accompanied by leading US evangelist and Samaritan's Purse president Franklin Graham, will see for herself the massive devastation from the quake and learn about a cholera outbreak that has claimed more than 2,200 lives.

Also along on the trip, Todd and Bristol Palin, as well as Rev. Graham's daughter Cissie Graham Lynch, who is tweeting here.

- JP

Samaritan's Purse: Saving lives in Haiti

"We're going to be here for several years to come"
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As we reported Thursday, Gov. Palin is headed for Haiti this weekend with evangelist Franklin Graham. Hopefully, her visit will help focus some attention on the work Rev. Graham's relief organization Samaritan's Purse is doing in the earthquake-ravaged country. Here are some videos that describe the situation in Haiti and the relief efforts undertaken by Samaritan's Purse:


- JP

Gov. Palin headed to Haiti with Franklin Graham

In humanitarian effort by Samaritan's Purse, Franklin's relief organization
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Politico has confirmed with a Palin source that Sarah Palin is traveling to Haiti this weekend with Franklin Graham, the son of Billy Graham and an evangelist like his father. CNN broke the news today that Gov. Palin and Rev. Graham will visit a cholera clinic and other locations in a humanitarian effort by Samaritan's Purse, Franklin's relief organization.

Leave it to Politico to focus on the political aspects of the trip, as Andy Barr doesn't shy away from doing:

The Haiti trip could serve two distinct political purposes for Palin.

First, it provides an opportunity to expand her image and policy portfolio beyond her limited image as a darling of the tea party movement.

Second, she'll be able to better establish her claim to evangelical voters if she chooses to seek the Republican presidential nomination. Evangelicals overwhelmingly supported former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, one of Palin's potential 2012 rivals, in the early 2008 GOP primaries and caucuses.

Or maybe Rev. Graham simply asked Gov. Palin to help out some people in need. 'Tis the season...

- JP

Sarah Palin's Statement On the Tragedy in Haiti

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Late Wednesday night our time, Sarah Palin posted a statement on her Facebook Notes page in the aftermath of the earthquake in Haiti:

On the Tragedy in Haiti

Todd and I join the world in extending our thoughts and prayers to the victims and families of those so impacted by the earthquake in Haiti. Our hearts are with the people of Haiti as they rebuild their country. Join us in donating to the American Red Cross relief effort. To assist those in need, consider sending a $10 donation to the Red Cross by texting 'Haiti' to 90999. Click here for details.

- Sarah Palin

- JP