help haiti now! you can make a difference!

for those who haven't heard yet, a massive earthquake registering 7.3 on the richter scale struck haiti on january 12th. much of the damage was felt in the port-au-prince, the nation's capital. depending on what news source you read, up to 50,000 people are thought to have perished, with about 3 million people affected. thousands are injured and without food and water, and many are still stuck in collapsed buildings.

although world leaders have pledged millions in aid and have already sent search and rescue teams, food and medical aid, and other forms of disaster response assistance to haiti, help that has actually reached the ground is marginal, partly due to the destruction of much of haiti's transportation infrastructure and a lack of logistical support. read a general overview of the situation here.



close-up photos of the destruction can be seen here, here, and here.

if you can help, please do.

IMPACT YOUR WORLD BY CLICKING HERE! the link includes many of the most effective charities and relief organizations rated by charitynavigator.org, an independent, non-profit organization that ranks charities based on effectiveness in the field and financial stability.

haitians need immediate help with basic needs, shelter, medical aid, and food.

YOU can choose to which field you want to donate to HERE. but before you do, please read this article from change.org about "what not to give in emergencies."

oxfam america's appeal for its haiti earthquake response fund can be viewed here. this is what al gore had to say about oxfam america's work in rebuilding haiti:

The earthquake in Haiti has been catastrophic. More than three million people have been affected, and estimates are that over 50,000 have died. The human suffering is unimaginable.

That's why I'd like to pause from our usual conversation and ask for your help.

Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, with 85% of Haitians already living in desperate poverty. Now, with hospitals in ruin, dire shortages of even basic necessities like fresh water, and no way to find out whether family members are alive, the Haitian people urgently need our help.

A number of organizations are already engaged in critical relief efforts, and I urge you to support as many of them as you can. One of them, Oxfam America, has an emergency response team of more than 200 people already on the ground. The need for clean water and critical public health services is massive and immediate -- and our donations can help save lives.

avaaz's appeal can be seen here.

you can also text on your cell to donate $10 to the american red cross, one of many groups working to address the crisis in haiti. more info on that here.

for his contribution to the power of one fund, one friend donated $100 to oxfam america for haiti relief. my sister will donate $20 to one of the orgs working there. another one of my friends made separate contributions to oxfam america, partners in health, and doctors without borders/medecins sans frontieres. the $200 that was donated by 2 of my family members to the power of one fund, but not yet assigned to a particular cause, will be put towards partners in health. when i get back to the states in 2 days, i will put another $100 toward partners in health's stand with haiti campaign.

i'm sure that there are many credible and effective organizations working on relief in haiti; but i chose to donate to partners in health [pih] based on my own independent research of them and the testimony of one of my good friends who so happened to use to work with pih. this is what she had to say of them:

[Partners in Health] They've been working in Haiti for two decades, and their facilities are outside of Port-au-Prince, so they're in a really good position to help with relief. Plus, very little of their money goes to admin/overhead costs, compared to other groups like the Red Cross. I've been encouraging people to donate to PIH. You should put their link in your blog

other factors pushing me towards pih are that 1.) many pre-existing hospitals and clinics have been destroyed in port-au-prince, 2.) reports that i've heard have specifically asked for more medical aid and supplies, and 3.) a functioning emergency health-care system will undoubtedly save thousands of lives. (as a side note, according to this article, partners in health most likely just became the largest health-care provider still functioning inside haiti).

please help if you can. the people of haiti need us!

the preceding were my very amateur reflections on aid. a much more detailed and expert analysis on relief aid for the haiti earthquake can be found at saundra schimmelpfennig's blog here. she's one of the co-founders of the disaster tracking recovery assistance center, an ngo that works on aid coordination and ensuring better aid distribution.

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if you'd like to email your family and friends to help too, feel free to use this template:. you can also copy avaaz's template, which you can get from here.

hey x

how's it going? i'm x. anyways, i'm sure you've heard of the earthquake in haiti. it's really awful. i know money is scarce in these times, but if you have a few bucks to spare, i was wondering if you'd consider donating to the humanitarian effort to bring relief to haiti. if so, ways you can help out are listed on the blog of someone i know. it's linked below.

http://jeremymak.blogspot.com/2010/01/help-haiti-now-you-can-make-difference.html

i really don't mean to put pressure on you, and i know that there are a lot of other worthwhile charities that are working on other issues. so whatever you decide to do is fine by me. my heart just goes out to the people in haiti when i see the pictures of the destruction. i just don't know what else i as an individual can do at this point but spread the word. thought that you'd be someone interested in possibly helping, but don't mean to come across as pedantic about this, so please forgive me if that's how i come across. i don't make appeals to family and friends often or lightly. if you do find this blog post about the haiti earthquake helpful/insightful, please feel free to pass it along to anyone you think might want to read it. hope things are going well in x.


thanks for your consideration.

take care and be well,

x

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some new york times articles on the earthquake in haiti:

jan 13: haiti lies in ruins; grim search for untold dead
jan 13: in haiti, survivors search for the dead, and for solace
jan 14: tensions mount in devastated capital as nations step up aid pledges to haiti
jan 14: the missing in haiti
jan 15: rescuers race to find survivors in haiti as us troops work to speed aid flow
jan 15: relief groups seek alternative routes to get aid moving
jan 15: for those trapped, rescue is but the first hurdle