Haiti Relief: How you can help

anyone notice a pattern of consistent disasters going on in this world? i hate to bring this kind of perspective into light at a time of suffering for Haiti, but i feel like there always has to be some huge disaster going on, its just kind of fishy to me

I have no idea where my original post went. I am checking to see if this will post.

As a member of the large number of people who believe that hemp should be used to aid and rebuild Haiti, http://thehempcloud.com will be donating ALL of it's January revenue via TXT to 90999

Thank you soo much for this information, now i see it as my job to spread the word

Thanks Current. Adding this my blog and listservs now.

This is good and all, but you know whats interesting is that this is one of the poorest nations in the world. They have a higher death rate than the United States, despite having about 0.02% of our total population. Yet, we only manage to care when there is an earthquake. Really goes to show how people just don't give a shit. I'll bet that most people are giving to Haiti because everyone else is (or because they are being told to). Because if you really cared, you would have sent money a long time ago. Their lives sucked before this earthquake too you know. But no matter, let's just send them money and get them back to the shitty lives they had a few weeks ago! I don't understand what the ultimate goal is here... rebuild what?

Help? More? Thanks, but I'll pass on this one. My help begins and ends when the IRS makes the check stub number smaller. With the 'O Man's spending frenzy any cash for relief will have to be printed anyway, so I'll let my grandchildren help the Haitains, the banks, the GM union workers, clunker traders, illegals without dental care, the myriad of neighborhoods being organized, .... ad nauseum.

How about we send them contraceptives instead? Bulldoze the entire country, build an actual infrastructure, then never fucking do anything for them again. This is the best thing that's ever happened to Haiti. Everyone has just "forgotten" about what a shit hole it was before the quake. Cold truth: there are 50,000 less people suffering in that hell hole. All the aid being given *should* be used to build, not rebuild.

You can also donate through iTunes. A lot of great uses of new technology to help a country in need right now. How the U.S. helped Haiti after the devastation will go down in the history books too.

Saudis, Kuwaitis, and other oil-rich Muslim states send billions in aid to Haiti -- no, wait...

Actually, Muslim countries are conspicuous by their absence. This AP report (thanks to Dan) lists aid to Haiti coming from the United States, Canada, the World Bank, Britain, Australia, Norway, Japan, Italy, the European Commission, the Netherlands, the Italian bishops' conference, Denmark, Finland, South Korea, the Irish telecommunications company Digicel, Spain, Germany, India, China, Sweden, Venezuela, Mexico, France, Iceland, Portugal, Taiwan, Israel, and Switzerland.

Nary a majority-Muslim country in the bunch. Was this just a manipulative omission by an "Islamophobic" Associated Press? The notion is laughable; few news sources have been more compliant with the Muslim Brotherhood agenda than AP. So is it just a reflection of the fact that zakat, Islamic alms, are not to be given to kuffar? Probably.

How much aid is to much? Can you send to much? and who controls the money and how it is spent?

In fiscal year 1998, Haiti was a major recipient of US foreign aid, number 9 in the top 10 countries at $106 million for that year.

But by FY 2008, it had dropped from the list of the top ten recipients, replaced by regions including Afghanistan, Iraq, and Sudan, as terrorism threats changed aid priorities.

In May 2008, the Bush administration announced that it would send an additional $25 million in emergency food aid to Haiti, bringing its total emergency contribution to $45 million, in response to lingering food shortages after protests and the ouster of the prime minister led to a food crisis.

After four storms – two hurricanes and two tropical storms – caused flooding in all ten departments of Haiti in August and September 2008, the US Government committed over $30 million in humanitarian assistance to affected Haitian populations in response to the hurricanes in Haiti.

Congress provided $100 million for hurricane relief and reconstruction assistance for Haiti and other Caribbean countries in the FY 2009 continuing appropriations resolution, signed September 2008.

Haiti received an estimated $287 million in regular appropriations for FY 2009. The FY 2010 request is $292.8 million.

While the Red Cross has had issues and controversies in the past, I wouldn't throw the baby out with the bath water and advocate not to donate to them because the organization does a lot of great work in America and in other parts of the world. Being such a big organization has had it's downsides but the upsides are numerous- they have many volunteers who can respond to emergencies and locations all over the world, they can train people in life saving techniques, they have immense resources for international disasters (and are used to international work), they can work with the military (as they also provide services in war times and help deliver messages to and from troops), etc. When it comes to money, Charity Navigator reports that the CEO's percentage of expenses is 0.01% - compare this to some of the other charities collecting for Haiti that Charity Navigator lists, like Doctors w/out Borders (0.07%), Hope for Haiti (0.85% ), ActionAid International (1.70%) and so on. I'm trying to understand the reluctance towards the Red Cross, so if anyone has any links or anything I'd love to see them!

I am really so impressed and proud of the response of so many people to help. I hope that our desire to help does not end once the country has recovered from the earthquake but further into the future to create a sustainable place for these people to live. Its really tragic how many of them were living before and I hope that the attention they are receiving now can change that in the future.

I donated $100 to Doctors without Borders. Couldn't donate to Red Cross as it kept rejecting my card but DWOB was no problem. It's not much but I hope it helps and goes to getting water out there ASAP. Even if they have trouble reaching troubled spots, they need to load up planes and helicopters with bottle water and water purifiers and drop them everywhere and to such a degree that cuts down on water hoarding.

:)

i donated my $10 tonight, i was informed that it might take 48 hours to process due to high traffic, and it's already at 8 million! so thats great!

if anyone can tell me more about this, can't you send physical items somehow, blankets and such, how do i?
me and my mom want to.

Yes, wasn't the Red Cross questioned regarding donations given during Hurricane Katrina?

Very cool idea from Red Cross to use technology to aid in relief efforts.

ETA: I've since read that other organizations are using the Texting idea to raise funds. I also agree that my Red Flag went up with regard to Red Cross after Katrina. For the sake of being fair, I personally think if an organization can't provide me proof that $$ is going to DIRECTLY aid those in need, I will not use that organization. I understand staffing but I want to know that my $$ is being used to help workers get to and provide assistance in addition to the supplies needed by the people in need.

People have really donated a lot of money, I'm so proud of Americans! The Red Cross reports they have gotten something like $8mil from texts, what a great idea that was - I donated to their International Response Fund, and my job is organizing a donation pool that will be given to one of these organizations. People from all walks of life are really coming together to give!

Thanks for this information. Sent mine to Doctors Without Borders and my son did the text. Every little bit helps. I hope it goes to bring them the water, food, and medical care they so desperately need.