We were going to have a new post today. Ironically, it was about infrastructure, but it seemed inappropriate to be castigating our usual cast of characters in light of the disaster in Haiti that has touched so many of my online social network, Facebook, Twitter, email.
We all know that in times of peril, whether man-made or acts of god, women and children pay a heavy price on account of their physical vulnerability. When chaos reigns, women and children feel pain. They were already struggling with bone crushing poverty, I can’t imagine being injured and losing shelter on top of that. Below we have a message from the Department of State and how you can help and we are temporarily lifting our intense aversion for the Huffington Post to bring you their compilation of various organizations that are offering help. Do your own due diligence because you know at times like this scam artists reign:
How To Help: Red Cross | Mercy Corps
About the Author: Cheryl Mills serves as the Counselor and Chief of Staff to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Earlier today, a powerful earthquake with a magnitude of 7.0 struck Haiti. Reports are still coming in, but it appears that many schools, hospitals and other buildings have collapsed, adding more suffering to an already impoverished nation, the poorest country in the western hemisphere.
Reports continue to pour in from all over and we are extending all our thoughts and prayers to those who have been affected.
As Secretary Clinton said earlier, the U.S. government will offer assistance to Haiti and others in the region in the form of civilian and military disaster relief and humanitarian assistance.
For those interesting in helping immediately, simply text “HAITI” to “90999″ and a donation of $10 will be given automatically to the Red Cross to help with relief efforts, charged to your cell phone bill.
Or you can go online to organizations like the Red Cross and Mercy Corps Mercy Corpsto make a contribution to the disaster relief efforts.
The State Department Operations Center has set up the following number for Americans seeking information about family members in Haiti: 1-888-407-4747. We’ll provide more details and opportunities to help as we learn more. To stay up-to-date, follow us on state.gov.
From the Huffington Post Impact Page
•The American Red Cross is pledging an initial $200,000 to assist communities impacted by this earthquake. They expect to provide immediate needs for food, water, temporary shelter, medical services and emotional support. They are accepting donations through their International Response Fund.
•UNICEF has issued a statement that “Children are always the most vulnerable population in any natural disaster, and UNICEF is there for them.” UNICEF requests donations for relief for children in Haiti via their Haiti Earthquake Fund. You can also call 1-800-4UNICEF.
•Donate through Wyclef Jean’s foundation, Yele Haiti. Text “Yele” to 501501 and $5 will be charged to your phone bill and given to relief projects through the organization.
•Operation USA is appealing for donations of funds from the public and corporate donations in bulk of health care materials, water purification supplies and food supplements which it will ship to the region from its base in the Port of Los Angeles. Donate online at www.opusa.org, by phone at1-800-678-7255 or, by check made out to Operation USA, 3617 Hayden Ave, Suite A, Culver City, CA 90232.
•Ben Stiller’s Stillerstrong campaign will be temporarily diverting all donations to support the Haiti relief effort.
•Partners In Health reports its Port-au-Prince clinical director , Louise Ivers, has appealed for assistance: “Port-au-Prince is devastated, lot of deaths. SOS. SOS… Temporary field hospital by us at UNDP needs supplies, pain meds, bandages. Please help us.” Donate to their Haiti earthquake fund.
•Mercy Corps is sending a team of emergency responders to assess damage, and seek to fulfill immediate needs of quake survivors. The agency aided families after earthquakes in Peru in 2007, China and Pakistan in 2008, and Indonesia last year. Donate online, call 1-888-256-1900 or send checks to Mercy Corps Haiti Earthquake Fund; Dept NR; PO Box 2669; Portland, OR 97208.
•Direct Relief is committing up to $1 million in aid for the response and is coordinating with its other in-country partners and colleague organizations. Their partners in Haiti include Partners in Health, St. Damien Children’s Hospital, and the Visitation Hospital, which are particularly active in emergency response. Donate to Direct Relief online.
•Oxfam is rushing in teams from around the region to respond to the situation to provide clean water, shelter, sanitation and help people recover. Donate to Oxfam America online.
•International Medical Corps is assembling a team of first responders and resources to provide lifesaving medical care and other emergency services to survivors of the earthquake. Donate online.
13 comments ↓
Also, I donate regularly to FINCA International. The organization supports micro-finance options for entrepreneurs in developing countries. It has a Haiti page if you would like to donate after you have helped with initial life-saving efforts: http://www.villagebanking.org/site/c.erKPI2PCIoE/b.2603941/k.BBB2/Mission_and_Vision.htm
https://www.kintera.org/site/c.erKPI2PCIoE/b.5611521/k.E9BC/Change_the_lives_of_75_Haitian_women_today/apps/ka/sd/donor.asp?c=erKPI2PCIoE&b=5611521&en=nsINLUOIJdJIL3NIL7JII5PNKmJ3J9NJJiIRL5MJLdJPK4PQKwE
This is the actual link to donate.
Thank you Gina for providing this information on how to donate.
Thank you Gina for the info on how to donate.I am so saddened by all this.Noone can afford for something like this to happen but I am led to believe that rebuilding and cleaning up will be twice as hard for those in Haiti as it would be for other.My prayers are with the victims and their families at this time.
Thanks for the info, Gina. I’m hoping the world doesn’t pull a ‘Hurricane Katrina’ on the people of Haiti.
To give to Wyclef Jean’s Yele Haiti Earthquake Relief Fund, text “Yele” to 501501 to donate $5.
I got this info from Wyclef’s twitter page.
Thank you all for your donations. I feel like I’ve been punched in the chest. I have second cousins in Haiti and have no way to contact them. I also have family in Montserrat (the volcano blew 24 hours before the Haitian earthquake).
Also if you believe in prayer, please do it our the behalf of the Caribbean.
My heart goes out to the people of Haiti. I definitely will be donating money, clothes, toys; whatever that can help.
Make sure to share the info with everyone you know.
I wish the citizens of Haiti all the best.
who can i contact so i can help with the infracstructure of haiti? i have 17 generators that each one can light up a building here in the states! the company i work for is willing to provide them at cost and waive the freight charge to a forwarder in miami.(they are heavy so that in itself is a huuuge cost) send me an email.
We must certainly do what we can to assist the sisters and brothers of Haiti to help themselves. There are many reliable, ethical organizations out here, i.e., Partners in Health, etc. Personally, after Hurricane Katrina, I wouldn’t trust the American Red Cross to rescue my dog.
Also, when using the text method to donate $5 to Yele Haiti, please note that the $5 only goes to the charity once you pay your monthly bill. Suppose you have already paid your bill? That means it will “sit”, the money will take up to a month to get to the charity.
Also, I was saddened and surprised by several news reports in the past two days about the financial practices of Wyclef’s charity. One report states that if you donate to the charity, the charity rents office space from a building that Wyclef is part owner. In the non-profit world, this is a big no-no, it may also be illegal. Surely Wyclef could have found an attorney experienced in non-profit management to properly advise him in such matters.
Lastly, I am very insulted that Pres. Obama appointed former presidents Clinton and Bush Jr. to head up the U.S. aid effort. Former Pres. Bush Jr., that helped in the coup against fairly elected Aristide? He and his wife forced onto a plane to Africa by armed U.S. soldiers? Former Pres. Clinton, who tried to make Haiti “ideal” for sweatshop labor? Is Obama kidding us? Or are we just seeing his true political colors? Time will tell . . . . . .
Obama sends in The Marines as our representatives for this humanitarian effort in Haiti. Aaargh! The Marines are not about saving lives–their job is to kill, to destroy [infrastructure]. Needless deaths have occured because of Obama’s decision to militarise this rescue and relief mission. (Al Jazeera English did a really good report about this, which Democracy Now featured on their program today. You can probably watch the Al Jazeera piece at their website, or you can go to Democracy Now to access it, I suppose.)
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With international turf battles and diplomatic spats slowing the distribution of food, water, medicine and security in Haiti, the stricken people are now fleeing to the countryside. This may actually help the situation in one sense, as it might be easier to get aid to more people in unruined areas; however, it will also put a great strain on regions which are themselves mired in poverty and deprivation, and lacking in infrastructure.
Meanwhile, in Port-au-Prince, as aid begins to trickle in, anguished medical professionals are lamenting the multitude of unnecessary deaths that the bureaucratic bottlenecks have caused. As the Guardian reports:
Médecins sans Frontières says confusion over who is running the relief effort – the US which controls the main airport, or the UN which says it is overseeing distribution – may have led to hundreds of avoidable deaths because it has not been able to get essential supplies in to the country. “The co-ordination … is not existing or not functioning at this stage,” said Benoit Leduc, MSF’s operations manager in Port-au-Prince. “I don’t really know who is in charge. Between the two systems (the US and the UN) I don’t think there is smooth liaison [over] who decides what.”
…There has been criticism from some aid agencies of the Americans for giving priority to military flights at the airport while planes carrying relief supplies are unable to land. MSF has had five planes turned back from the airport in recent days, three carrying essential medical supplies and two with expert surgical personnel.
“We lost 48 hours because of these access problems,” said Leduc. “Of course it is a small airport, but this is clearly a matter of defining priorities.”
Asked how many avoidable deaths had been caused by the delays, he said that hundreds of critical lifesaving operations had been delayed by two days.
“We are talking about septicaemia. The morgues in the hospitals are full,” he said.
… John O’Shea, the head of the Irish medical charity, Goal, [said], “there is only one thing stopping a massive and prodigious aid effort being rolled out and that is leadership and co-ordination. You have neither in Haiti at the moment.”
The American government response has largely been a militarized one. But the celebrated American war machine — whose annual budgets could lift millions out of poverty, deprivation and lack of infrastructure every year — seems too musclebound to respond with the precision and flexibility that the situation requires. No doubt most of the individuals involved in the effort are working tirelessly; but a system designed for war, for death, destruction and domination, will never be a fit instrument for humanitarian relief. …
If you want to read the rest, click on this link:
http://www.chris-floyd.com/component/content/article/1-latest-news/1906-death-by-bottleneck-musclebound-militarism-hampers-haiti-relief.html