Tennis player Naomi Osaka has pledged to donate all of her earnings from her upcoming tournament to support earthquake relief efforts in Haiti. Osaka, who is of half-Haitian on her father’s side, will be playing in the Western and Southern Open in Cincinnati next week.
“Really hurts to see all the devastation that’s going on in Haiti, and I feel like we really can’t catch a break. I’m about to play a tournament this week and I’ll give all the prize money to relief efforts for Haiti. I know our ancestors blood is strong we’ll keep rising,” the 23-year-old four-time Grand Slam champion tweeted on Sunday.
A 7.2 magnitude quake struck the Caribbean nation on Saturday, killing over 300 people and leaving at least 1,800 people injured. The epicenter of the quake was approximately 12 km North East of Saint-Louis du Sud and 100 km west of the capital Port-au-Prince. Tremors were also felt in neighbouring countries including the Bahamas, Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, Turks and Caicos Island.
Several homes were destroyed and authorities scrambled to rescue survivors trapped in the rubble. Saturday’s earthquake was similar in strength to the devastating quake in 2010 that killed an estimated 300,000 people in the country.
Prime Minister Ariel Henry has declared a one-month state of emergency for the whole country. He said that he would not ask for international help until the extent of the damages was known.
“The most important thing is to recover as many survivors as possible under the rubble. We have learned that the local hospitals, in particular that of Les Cayes, are overwhelmed with wounded, fractured people,” he said, AP reported.
Meanwhile, several countries, including the United States, Argentina and Chile, have joined hands and offered humanitarian assistance to Haiti.