Haiti Earthquake: Doctors Without Borders Donation Information
If you can, please send a donation to Doctors Without Borders so they can continue to spread relief around Haiti after the devastating earthquake.
And, be careful of scams. The first couple of Google hits I got were from organizations pretending to be Doctors Without Borders, promising to send donated money to them.
Follow the link below. It will take you to the Doctors Without Borders website, where they address the scams and you can donate money securely.
https://donate.doctorswithoutborders.org/SSLPage.aspx?pid=197&hbc=1&source=ADR1001E1D01
January 14th, 2010 at 10:17 pm
David–This is from my friend Nancy Casey, a local writer and radio producer who travels to Haiti each year to teach farming technique:
“Most of the news from the media is coming from the capital and othercities where the situation is very bad. Most construction is of concretethat is skimpy on cement and rebar. (Once I heard a homeowner argue witha handyman over whether a repair was going to require 4 or 6 nails.) Thepoorest people live in shacks made of materials propped together. In thecities, the destruction, terror and suffering going on now are on ascale that is hard for us to imagine. Survivors won’t have access toclean water, sanitation will go south, the roads that bring food fromthe countryside are surely broken and every family has lost loved ones. The disaster on LaGonave has a somewhat different flavor. Casualties anddamage are less in the countryside than in the capital. Life is livedoutdoors. There are fewer buildings and fewer people inside them. Theyexperienced shock after shock (see below). Many houses fell down. Peoplewere hurt, but I don’t know that anyone was killed. People are franticfor family members on the mainland, especially children going to highschool in Port au Prince. Cracked cisterns will cause water shortages.The transportation system that brings food to the island–docks, roads,vehicles, ships and boats–is entirely disrupted, so in a few days therewill start to be a critical food shortage there. The good news/bad news is that the progressive community on LaGonave hasexperience with this kind of catastrophe–in the aftermath of the coupof 2004 and the hurricanes of 2008, they faced crises of similarmagnitude (from which they are still recovering). Even now they areorganizing their response. There will be a fund to expand school mealprograms to include families. They might charter a boat to bring foodover from the mainland. They will know what to do. There will be a fundto expand the reconstruction program put together after the hurricanes. More good news is a coalition of groups called “Farming is Life”. Theyhave been working for many years to heal environmental damage and strivefor food sustainability. Every year they make gains towards the goal ofmaking the island less vulnerable to these kinds of food crises. So here’s the pitch: You can put money straight into the hands of peoplewho truly need it in the throes of this disaster by sending a check tothe VP Foundation PO Box 9757, Moscow, ID 83843, fiscal agent for thiswork in Haiti. On your check you can write:FOOD and the money will ward off starvationSHELTER and the money will go to the reconstruction of homesFARMING and the money will support long-term food self-sufficiency.Or you can write “as needed.” You can also donate online using PayPal. Go to vpfound.org/support.htmland click on Courageous Women. LaGonave is a remote hinterland of Haiti, so help that emmanates fromthe capital might or might not trickle there. The support you send is somuch more than a drop in the bucket. Thank you very much. Nancy Casey.”
January 15th, 2010 at 10:10 am
Thanks for posting Nancy’s email, Paula. And Nancy, thank you for the info about Haiti.