Haitian earthquake orphans arrive in Canada
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Twenty-four Haitian earthquake orphans arrived in Ottawa on Sunday as the first batch of 154 Haitian children to be adopted by Canadians.
The remainder of those children are expected to arrive in the next few days.
The 7.3-magnitude temblor that devastated the Caribbean island country on Jan. 12 is feared to have left thousands of children without parents, apart from claiming the lives of at least 110,000 people.
While the United Nations Children's Fund took inter-country adoption as the last resort, Canada joined other countries in adopting earthquake orphans from Haiti, as an initial assistance.
Canada has so far raised 67 million Canadian dollars (63 million U.S. dollars) for Haiti after having set up a relief fund on Jan. 14.
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said his government had to remove the 50 million Canadian dollar (47 million U.S. dollar) ceiling on the amount of individual donations from his country.
The relief fund will be funneled to various aid programs.
The official Canadian International Development Agency is providing Haiti with 85 million Canadian dollars (80 million U.S. dollars) worth of humanitarian aid.
Canada and Haiti established diplomatic ties in 1954. Haiti is the largest beneficiary of Canadian development assistance in the Americas and the second largest beneficiary of Canadian assistance in the world after Afghanistan.
Canada has lost 18 of its nationals in the Haiti earthquake while 236 other Canadians are still unaccounted for in Haiti.
