MONTREAL, Nov. 16, 2016 /CNW Telbec/ - Sixteen skids of medicines and 2.8 million water purification tablets were delivered yesterday to Food For The Poor (FFTP) in Haiti. The operation was made possible thanks to a partnership between Air Transat and FFTP who flew 25 tons of basic necessities as well as aid workers from Montreal to Port-au-Prince.
"We would like to thank the Air Transat team for their incredible effort and their role in preventing the spread of cholera by partnering with us to deliver the water purification tablets, that will help purify 13 million litres of water, and medicines. We would also like to thank Health Partners International of Canada (HPIC) for working with 19 Canadian Pharmaceutical companies to provide medicines to 50,000 Haitians to treat Cholera and other diseases," said Samantha Mahfood, Executive Director of FFPC.
"Air Transat and Haiti's relationship goes back more than 15 years," said Jean-François Lemay, President of Air Transat. "Corporate responsibility is one of the core values of our company, it was natural for us to contribute to ongoing relief efforts and help meet the urgent needs of the people affected by the storm as we did in 2010 following the devastating earthquake," he added.
The emergency-relief flight was seen off in Montreal by Jean-Francois Lemay and the Ambassador of Haiti to Canada, Frantz Liautaud. It was welcomed in Port-au-Prince by the Canadian Ambassador to Haiti, Paula Caldwell St-Onge, along with Bishop Oge Beauvoir, Executive Director of Food For The Poor Haiti.
After the flight cargo was unloaded, the group were taken on a tour of the FFP Haiti warehouse where 300 Haitian staff distribute food to 250,000 people every day, and support public hospitals and clinics across the island with medicines and supplies.
About Food For The Poor Canada
Food For The Poor Canada (FFPC) empowers communities in Haiti and Jamaica through five areas of programming: food, housing, education, health and livelihood. Through basic aid and sustainable development, FFPC responds to urgent needs while building community and social infrastructure.
About Air Transat
Air Transat is Canada's leading holiday travel airline. Every year, it carries some 3 million passengers to approximately 60 destinations in 25 countries aboard its fleet of Boeing narrow-body and Airbus wide-body jets. The company employs more than 2,500 people. Air Transat was named Best North American Leisure Airline at the Skytrax annual World Airline Awards, held in July 2016. Air Transat is a business unit of Transat A.T. Inc., an integrated international tour operator with some 25 destination countries and that distributes products in over 50 countries.
SOURCE Transat A.T. Inc.
Image with caption: "Unloading in Port-au-Prince. (CNW Group/Transat A.T. Inc.)". Image available at: http://photos.newswire.ca/images/download/20161116_C4648_PHOTO_EN_820579.jpg
Image with caption: "Loading of the cargo in Montreal. (CNW Group/Transat A.T. Inc.)". Image available at: http://photos.newswire.ca/images/download/20161116_C4648_PHOTO_EN_820581.jpg
Image with caption: "Air Transat crew who operated the flight. (CNW Group/Transat A.T. Inc.)". Image available at: http://photos.newswire.ca/images/download/20161116_C4648_PHOTO_EN_820588.jpg
Image with caption: "The team from Food for the poor and HPIC. (CNW Group/Transat A.T. Inc.)". Image available at: http://photos.newswire.ca/images/download/20161116_C4648_PHOTO_EN_820594.jpg
Samantha Mahfood, Executive Director, Food For The Poor Canada, 647 350-7269, SamanthaM@FoodForThePoor.com, www.foodforthepoor.ca; Odette Trottier, Director, Communications and Corporate Affairs, Transat A.T. Inc., 514 908-8891, odette.trottier@transat.com