Tennis star Naomi Osaka, who recently competed in the Tokyo Olympics, tweeted on Aug. 14:
“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 (and) we’ll keep rising.”
Osaka, whose father is Haitian and mother is Japanese, said she would donate her prize money from the Western & Southern Open, which started Monday in Cincinnati, to help people affected by the magnitude-7.2 earthquake that struck southwestern Haiti earlier in the day.
According to UNICEF, around 1.2 million people, including 540,000 children, have been impacted by the earthquake, which left at least 1,941 people dead and more than 6,900 injured; that toll is expected to rise in the coming days, but search and rescue efforts are being hampered by a lack of resources and by heavy rains, which have caused mudslides that blocked roads in the region.