Our emergency intervention and relief efforts rest squarely upon the Catholic social principle of a "fundamental option (love) for the poor". For us, this means that we were created with a predisposition to care about one another's lives, which intensifies around suffering. The depth of human misery and squalor in Haiti reduces people to an inhuman state of despair and desperation. The human needs in Haiti's poorest slums and villages are overwhelming, far beyond our ability to meet them. But we do what we can with what God gives us.
When faced with such tragic situations such as death, emergency medical care, starvation, homelessness, persecution and violence, we pray for every suffering person. We do our best to provide emergency funds for medicine, food, rent, funeral expenses, and other urgent needs whenever we deem a situation utterly desperate. The constant stream of people that come to us for help only seems to grow each time we give assistance, and turning away those who are obviously desperate taxes us spiritually and emotionally. Asking God's help, we strive for compassion and gentleness if we must refuse help to someone. And we ask for the strength and power to continue to use whatever gifts God gives us to help the poor.
The information in the table below, taken directly from Fr. Tom Hagan's journal, lists the major emergency activities over the past several years.
| Fiscal Year | Description of Services | Amount |
| 2005 | Building materials and food to people in the Forte Dimanche slum where 150 homes were destroyed by gangs and fire;, emergency housing rent & relocation money for 7 staff people in danger, housing funds for 18 families, 189 separate instances of emergency cash gifts, funds for medical help to 64 people injured (mainly gunshot wounds) from fighting between gangs and police, emergency gifts to more than 100 people. | $24,685 |
| 2004 | Funerals for 3 young school children, emergency housing rent money for 15 staff people and 27 homeless, 244 separate instances of emergency cash gifts of $50, building 3 homes for homeless mothers with children, emergency food distribution in Gonaives area, funds for medicines for 34 people, 11 funerals, gifts to 200 people whose homes were destroyed by gangs, emergency gifts to 37 staff people. | $33,604 |
| 2003 | Cash to Brothers of Charity to help hospice and clinic, emergency housing and rent gifts to 23 people, gifts to the families of 18 people who died, funds to 23 elderly for medical care, housing money to relocate 3 staff families threatened by gangs, food money to mothers in Bariwone who eat mud pies, 223 separate emergency cash gifts to the very poor. | $23,696 |
| 2002 | Housing gifts to families whose homes were burned by gangs, 19 funeral gifts, cash to sisters of charity for emergency food, medical gifts to 3 pregnant women, rent assistance to 15 staff, food money to homeless students at our Becky DeWine school, 145 individual cash gifts. | $28,455 |
| 2001 | Cash gifts to help mothers pay education fees for preschool children unable to attend the Becky DeWine school, medical help to 9 elderly women, 97 individual emergency gifts, 8 funerals, housing funds for 31 families, miscellaneous emergency gifts. | $27,654 |
Emergency Intervention will always remain part of our approach to helping the poor. Life threatening conditions caused by severe poverty, political turmoil, government policy, violence, floods and ecological disaster, and outbreak of disease, demand that we use the resources available to us to save lives. Hands Together views this as the "first step" in creating a bridge over which people may walk to enter HT sponsored educational, health, and development programs that will help them live the lives God intended for them.