I can’t begin to tell you how bad the destruction is in Haiti after the massive earthquake yesterday. Reports right now are that the death toll is expected to be in the thousands and that bodies are being piled in the streets. I’m going to post a list of links for places where you can follow the news, but first, here’s how you can help.
If you want to donate money but are a little short right now, the State Dept. has set up a way to donate via text message. Text “Haiti” to 90999 and a donation of ten dollars will be added to your next phone bill and forwarded to the Red Cross.
You can also give directly to the Red Cross here.
Mercy Corps is also there–you can donate to them here.
Partners in Health is already on the ground in Haiti.
Yéle Haiti was established by Wyclef Jean and is also on the ground (though his server is really slow right now). You can also donate here via text message. Text “yele” to 501501 to donate $5 to the relief effort in Haiti.
The Mennonite Central Committee has been in Haiti since 1958 and is planning their efforts right now.
OxFam America and Medecins sans Frontieres are both places I’ve donated to in the past and highly recommend.
Mother Jones is also following the story and providing aid information.
Democracy Now! speaks with Edwidge Danticat and Kim Ives.
Richard Morse is in Haiti and tweeting details.
Some really rough photos posted through Twitter.
If you have suggestions for links to add, send them to me at poetry@therumpus.net. I’ll be updating this as the day goes on. Spread the word, but also open your wallets.
Updates:
More on Haiti 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.
10 responses
Thank you for doing such an excellent, quick and thorough job. Blessings!
Is there any one charity that you can recommend that would represent the best bang for the buck for the giver? A charity that gives most, if not all, the funds collected to needs rather than further solicitation?
Speaking only for myself, I would say Médecins sans Frontiéres–they won a Nobel a few years ago and their history is that something like 90% of the money they take in goes directly to the field. They’re one of the absolute best when it comes to keeping overhead low.
The GreaterGoodNetwork has a place one can donate too.
Here:
https://shop.thehungersite.com/store/item.do?itemId=40883&siteId=220&origin=EPF_THS_40883
Any non church/christian ways of sending money to Haiti?
Médecins sans Frontiéres/Doctors without Borders is a secular/non-church-based charity, N, as is the Red Cross and Yele, at the very least.
Hope for Haiti – http://www.hopeforhaiti.com – has been on the ground helping the people of Haiti for 20 years. They’ve built hospitals and orhanages. Their primary focus is children, but they’ve been having to mobilize constantly for disaster relief. Their primary base is at the southern part of the county in Les Cayes and so they were able to put together a field hospital just outside of Port-au-Prince. Doctors and nurses just arrived from Naples, FL. GoDaddy.com just gave them $500,000 but they need more donations to deliver in-kind supplies to help the injured and homeless and rebuild in the months to come. Check out their website, http://www.hopeforhaiti.com
Thank you for posting this information. Tzu Chi (慈濟) (http://www.tw.tzuchi.org/en/) is a Buddhist Compassion Relief organization not listed above. I donated to this organization to help Haiti and others may want to consider doing the same.
Thank you for posting such a broad variety of resources. This is going to be my go-to post for pointing people to credible, established organizations.
The h, h, and h graders at this Dickson County school are gathering supplies to make 442 “health kits” for people displaced by last week’s earthquake in Haiti.
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