A third of the popualtion directly affected. No one unaffected. People poorer than anyone who owns a unicycle have lost everything: children, homes, jobs, food, fresh water.
If you have a credit or debit card, it takes a minute to donate online. If everyone in this forum donated the cost of a Starbuck’s coffee, or a beer, it would all add up to a lot of money. How much money do you fritter away in a week on newspapers, magazines and coffee? Will you miss £5 or $5?
I did a collection at work today and the result was a donation of £100.
Many agencies are helping the victims. One good place to start is the Red Cross.
It’s an unimaginable tragedy and yes, whatever people can donate will help a lot. The news reports said it was a “shallow” earthquake, which can be much more devastating since its epicenter is much closer to the earths surface than usual. Very sad and makes whatever day to day problems we may have, seem very minuscule by comparison.
I’m not saying that’s going to be the case today, but I hope people aren’t “giving blindly” during these times. Donating money to a corrupt or inefficient organization could be compared to taking money from a deserving cause.
Mikefule, thanks for posting this…I have also heard that there are ways to donate via text message which might open up the ability to people without credit cards, etc.
Just send a text message, text “HAITI” to “90999” & $10 will be sent to the Red Cross, charged to your cell phone bill. This is on the State Department’s website so it is legite. Also, remember most of us text all the time so $10 for a text isn’t bad & if half of everyone did thi…s think of how much financial help Haiti would receive. I am
including the link to the State Department for verification… http://www.state.gov/
My research into the Red Cross is that a whole family of my friends were saved from starvation in a refugee camp by the Red Cross, and were then helped to migrate to a new life. One of those friends was so impressed he now works for them helping refugees.
No organisation is perfect. You give a Pound (or a Dollar) and some will go on admin, and some will go on bribes, and some will be diverted, and some will be intercepted, and some will be stolen by local gangsters, but still some will help the victims.
Use the excuse that it doesn’t all get there as a reason to give nothing, and the victims get nothing at all.
yes it still helps. This isnt gonna be all cleaned up within a month, so when that money becomes available, its gonna be helpful, even if its not something immediate.
Its weird to look for something immediate when in this situation, nothing can be immediately done. Unless you are actually there in the street able to hand a family a dollar or help pull bodies out from the rubble then your gonna have to wait. Wait for money to get there, for people to get there, for food and water to get there.
earthquakes are something special for me: as a boy I lived in Agadir (Morocco) and all my neighborhood was completely flattened (we had moved then). One student of my mother was picked out of the rubble one week later!
we need to invent better devices for rubble searching (train rats?)
Yes it really is helping. Sure, immediate aid is of the utmost urgency. Most big charities tend to have some reserves that they can mobilize quickly…IF they have local representation. But how quickly other aid becomes effective is restricted by distance, by infrastructure ( what may remain of it) and by various other factors.
Most immediate need is aid to help rescue victims. Food and shelter is needed both initially and on a longer term basis. Such aid is invaluable a long time after the initial crisis. The people in Haiti will need help for many months.
Members of my family have been hit by various disasters, by mudslides, by Pinatubo, by Mayon, by floods. Any aid was much appreciated by them. Luckily all of them survived. Most have rebuilt their lives. Without the aid this might not have been the case.
Sure no organisation is perfect, but few would question the Red Cross in its objectives.
To suggest you might be better off burning your money is quite offensive. It you have so much, then donate it. Get your hand in your pocket, and do it regularly. To wait until the disaster occurs is one cause of the inefficiency your link exposes.
I made a donation on friday, I have to admit (to my biggest shame) it’s the first time I do so, I gave three times what I intended on first thought because I saw I would get a tax credit for this.
Like I said I’m not a “samaritan” but this is such a tragedy.
I was pretty offended hearing that CNN has 2 or 3 chopers flying permanently. I’m certainly over simplyfying (??) but I’m pretty sure there can be better uses for gallons and gallons of kerozen.
Sure we need to be informed, and it’s a way to increase donations. But filming devastated areas for hours doesn’t make sens to me.
The fact that it was really difficult to be informed was a good indicator of the hard times the Haïtians are going through, in my opinion.
Emotionally, I agree. Pragmatically, I know that the minute the world’s eye is turned somewhere else, the donations will dry up - so as long as the choppers are up there, people are watching, and people are giving.
The minute Paris Hilton gets out of a sports car and flashes her bits, or Amy Winehouse stumbles on stage, or a golfer is caught with his trousers down, the world moves on.
Strangely, people don’t suddenly come back to life, or recover from amputations, or rebuild their shattered lives and livelihoods so quickly.
Hope for Haiti is based out of Naples, FL and has been sending planes filled with supplies. They are accepting donations through their website and anyone near Naples can drop off supplies at their office (see the bottom of this page).
As for donating to the Red Cross or other well-known charity effort, I think we have to see this as a general support of the on-going readiness of aid agencies and not as direct aid to a specific event. The only way to help Haiti directly is to actually know someone there that you can help and to have tangible means of moving supplies to them. This is an unfortunate reality of any disaster area, particularly one in which most roads are destroyed and the terrain makes movement of supplies very difficult.
I wish I could do something direct and immediate to help, but I cannot. Still, by donating to (insert favorite aid agency here) I can help maintain their readiness to marshall large-scale bulk aid to wherever they currently are able to operate.
As for donating to the Red Cross or other well-known charity effort, I think we have to see this as a general support of the on-going readiness of aid agencies and not as direct aid to a specific event. The only way to help Haiti directly is to actually know someone there that you can help and to have tangible means of moving supplies to them. This is an unfortunate reality of any disaster area, particularly one in which most roads are destroyed and the terrain makes movement of supplies very difficult.
I wish I could do something direct and immediate to help, but I cannot. Still, by donating to (insert favorite aid agency here) I can help maintain their readiness to marshall large-scale bulk aid to wherever they currently are able to operate.
They speak English as if they learned it from Sidney Poitier. No Ebonics American negro dialect for these folks. They speak a fine English, as far as I can tell fluent Spanish, and a special Haitian French, that does not sound Quebec or French to me, but I am not learned enough to catch a word of it.
Sometimes you can still see a woman walking with stuff balanced on her head. Overall, the Haitians I have met have seemed superior in work ethic and linguistic ability to normal black or white USA people.
It is sorta like the smartest and sharpest Haitians got out. If they were all as sharp and hard working as my neighbors, Haiti would be the Japan of the Caribbean.
Except THEIR country had to pay huge amount of money to MY country, just for being free.
Sometimes it really sucks to be french.
It could be one of the most socially advanced countries, it actually was but it seems like my ancestors didn’t want to be taught what freedom really is.
I’ve heard the french government thinks about giving this money back, though.
