Haiti - Damage on par with the 2004 Asian tsunami - how to help

[MmeLindt]

Haiti is one of the poorest countries in the world, life there was already harsh.

Now with one in three Haitians affected by the earthquake, the prospect of improvement just got much worse.

The harrowing pictures on TV cause distress, it is easy to turn off, to turn away.

We should not.

The Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) is already taking donations through a special phone line, 0370 60 60 900, and through its website www.dec.org.uk, and tomorrow it expects to launch a television appeal
Please donate what you can, either to the DEC or to other aid relief agencies.

Oxfam

Unicef

Save The Children

Haven't read all the thread so apologies if someone else has suggested this but I've put my facebook status as the link to the DEC website and phone numbers- I think a lot of people weren't sure how to donate but hopefully that will be coming through now.

However much any of us give, it just doesn't seem enough though. I guess because it's not.

I was very surprised there hasn't been anything in Chat on this today.

sorry to sound any kind of note of caution, but the cash raised by the DEC at the moment doesnt actually go straight to Haiti - what happens is that funds they already have will go- i am aware of a very unfortunate situation (through my previous job in which i was heavily involved in this), that many of the victims of the Asian Tsunami a few years ago, still hadnt received any financial assistance, OVER A YEAR ON, from a particular very well known charity, despite that charity having raised several million pounds as part of the DEC at the time.

Im not able to provide a solution to this im afraid; i think possibly, its also important to look at individual charities accounts on the Charity Commission website, to get an idea as to which charities spend more of their money on directly helping people and less on administrative costs. Lastly, bear in mind that as tax payers, we are at the same time, contributing on a permanent basis, to UN world food agency aid, DFID aid , and the search and rescue teams from the UK which are working in Haiti.

Donated to MSF last night.

Claraquack where are you? I am in the BVI - we are having a meeting tomorrow about Haiti relief efforts from here. You can CAT me.

From BBC website

"Britons have donated more than £2m to an appeal to help earthquake-stricken Haiti in the space of 36 hours.
The Disasters Emergency Committee said it was "delighted", while Gordon Brown said there had been an "extraordinary" response from the British public."

Just donated to DEC and wanted to bump this v important thead

Bump! have not posted on mumsnet for ages, but this is so important. I have donated to Medecins du Monde as i use to work for them, therefore know they are reliable and they already have people working in Haiti. Good to see that 2 million has been donated already.

Bumping too... If you're on Paypal, check your email. You can donate really easily to Oxfam, with just a couple of clicks...

Text "GIVE" to 70077 to donate £5 to DEC appeal for Haiti. £5 goes to DEC. You pay £5+std. network SMS rate.

New text based donations now up and running - and soooo simple!

Sorry if this has been said, PayPal has sent me an email to donate to Oxfam through them.

I have just logged on to Paypal and there's no link - could you post what they asked you to do, or the exact title of the recipient? Thank you

here HTH

Octopus
Yep, definitely get any taxpayer in the household to make the donation (or just fill in the details for him/her), it's worth another £28 (per £100), so worth the minimal effort involved.

Perhaps people are not discussing the disaster on Mumsnet so much because the scale of it beggars words. But I imagine a lot of people are donating because you cannot watch the images on the news without feeling human kinship and compassion for the poor people there.

Is htere anywhere I can donate via paypal?

Thank you very much cocolepew, done it.

Noddyholder - see cocolepew's link just above you

Just donated to DEC on behalf of my tax paying DH!!

Have just donated contents of my Paypal account to UNICEF. Haiti borders the Dominican Republic which is where I got married.

Have no concept of the size of the main city affected... anyone have any idea of a comparable UK city size wise?

thanks xx

another plug for Medicins Sans Frontieres as they are known to be one of the first responders to any disaster. Don't know how they do it but they deserve support.

DH's firm have offered to match any donations made by employees! Amazing.

Have donated via MSF, they have their appeal link set up now.

www.msf.org.uk/haitiappeal.aspx

As well as your own donations, if you are giving an ethical gift as a birthday/thank you/wedding present at the moment you can use the hunger site to contribute to haiti that way too here

DEC was on raadio 4 this morning. We must exhort our children, as the schools are, to donate some of their pocket money.It is only in this way that we imbue in them a sense of collective resposibility and moral right.
I think, at a certain age , mine are 7,10 12 they should be seeing the pictures and reading about these catastrophies. It is important we educate our children, not protect them about life, the world and their responsbilities. There are no rights without responsibilities

Donated to DEC and MSF