CLERGYMEN are appealing to the people of St Albans to sacrifice food for a day and contribute to the Haiti relief fund.

St Albans Vineyard Church in Brick Knoll Park is encouraging people in St Albans to "Go hungry for Haiti" next Wednesday and then donate the money saved on food to aid agencies, which are struggling to get lifesaving supplies into the country.

The country, already ravaged by an earthquake, which devastated its capital Port-Au-Prince last Tuesday and killed around 200,000 people, was today hit by a massive aftershock measuring 6.0 on the Richter scale.

The tremor, reported to have lasted some 15 seconds, is likely to have caused further large-scale disruption to survivors and aid efforts.

Chris Lane, leader of the Vineyard Church, said: "The response of people in the UK has been tremendous, and we’re encouraging them to go hungry for a day and give a little more.”

The church has also joined the growing number of voices pushing for Haiti's outstanding $891 million of international debt to be cancelled, to help speed the recovery process following last week's earthquake, which also left 250,000 injured and made 1.5 million people homeless. Mr Lane added: “The International Monetary Fund’s offer to make a new $100 million loan to Haiti while continuing to collect $10 million a year in interest is completely inappropriate, and the richest countries should be focused on grant aid and cancelling Haiti’s $891 million debt.”