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

imcworldwide

do any of these charities have manned operators taking calls do you know?

we've made our donation through DEC but my gran (aged 90) wants to donate and there's no way she'd be able to cope with the interactive donations

IMC doesn't have a phone line (only a very small office here in London) but can receive cheques:

payable to IMC Haiti Earthquake Appeal

IMC-UK, 3rd Floor, 254-258 Goswell Road, London, EC1V 7EB.

Thanks for the link to give to ShelterBox.
My dd has donated 2 weeks pocket money along with our donation.

Shelterbox seems to me to be a small but intelligent and effective charity. You can also track the box that you paid towards which is paricularly nice for children.

thanks, have donated to shelterbox.

I just hope aid can get through.

Did someone mention that Oxfam are collecting blankets,clothes,food etc? I literally have no income of my own, but have lots of useful 'things' that i could donate.

I never quite know where i should look for info

Afaik, although well-intentioned, people sending blankets/clothes etc can do more harm than good as it takes up valuable time and resources sorting and transporting them. It is v inefficient to send these things halfway across the world. Far better to give a little cash if you can -- maybe organise a local jumble sale to raise funds?

here is a good explanation of why it's far better to send cash than blankets etc

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Thanks

Alicetheinvisible I read the other day that charities shops get more money for your junk than if you gave them to those doorstep collection people. Give spare stuff to Oxfam shop let them sell them to people over here and there money with help those in need.
I will donate even though friends state that officals and various groups misuse the funds.
Well as my dad use to say 'I'm not naive when I give money to charity, be it on there concience that it's not going to the right place.

we don't have much money at the moment either - so will be taking things to a charity shop later to be sold to raise money to send abroad. I've also been collecting this morning for the red cross and some kind people have put 10 pound notes in the tin. Everyone can do something to help, give time if you have no money.

Starbear your Dad's attitude- fabulous.

not allcharities misdirect, very few do and the charity commission anre buggers for checking. There an be issues with infrastructure, corruption in placesof course- but I personally think if you can manage it that it's better to try and be thwarted by bad people,than to not try at all.

I know the inter UK charities I have worked for (not relevant for this so won't list) have been excellent with how funding is adminsitered,and you should be able to get details of expenditure from charities.

Please don't forget shelterbox, they are sending boxes out filled with all necessities to give people shelter, cooking facilities, tools, blankets etc, they send out their response teams with the boxes to get them distributed. 300 more boxes were shipped off this morning to add to the 1000 (approx) already sent.

You can donate to them directly on their website, the more boxes that go the more people can be helped. Your money goes directly to the boxes.

www.shelterbox.org

Just donated to IMC Helsbels - somehow like the look of them. Am so saddened by all the photos - just been watching a special report on CNN.

Thanks for the info on IMC have checked out their website and immediately donated......

Haiti really needs your help.

I live in the Turks and Caicos Islands and we have a large Haitian population here. They come here mainly because they can earn a better wage here than at home though as a labourer here they are likely to only earn $7. Goes to show how little they would have earned back home in Haiti.

A lot of Haitians come here, illegally, in poorly equipped wooden boats, 100's of people to a boat. Most make it, but some are not so lucky. You are the lucky ones if you make it off the boat allive and then into the bush before the immigration officials get you.

It's that bad.

A guy I used to work with hardly ate as he wanted to send most of his wages back to his family in Haiti. It is so tragic.

And this was all before the Earthquake.

I have no idea what is going to happen now to that poor, destitute country and its lovely people.

Please donate as much as you can, via a reliable source lie the Red Cross.

Many people I know have lost relatives in the quake and many have been lucky to recieve 2 rings on their mobile phones from relatives just to let them know that they are alive and well. But without food and water they will not survive out ther.

Please, please pledge as much as you can.

I know Haiti isn't as well known to Brits as it is to the Americans, but just because it isn't on your doorstep doesn't mean that they don't need us.

They need us more than ever.

Florence xx

Today I got the kids to go through all their books and we got 3 bagfuls to take to the Oxfam shop. I told them they would be sold and some of the money would be used to help the people in Haiti and they were totally up for it. I buy loads of books in Oxfam and I think they are probably one of the easiest things for them to sell.

Dh wanted to take me out to lunch on Friday but I said we should donate the equivalent to DEC instead, so we did.

If people aren't sure about how much to give, just think how much you'd spend on a night out - pub/restaurant/babysitter etc - and donate an equal amount.

Ot how much you spend on wine when you have people round for dinner.

If everyone did that it would make a big difference.

I've just emailed the HT of DS1's school to see if they could do an impromptu mufti day to raise funds for a Shelterbox. They've got 315 pupils, 60 or so children in the nursery unit and over 50 staff, so between them all one own clothes day should raise enough for a box from the school. The kid's section on the site is great, and you can track your own box, so it seems quite a tangible thing for the school to do.

If anyone else fancies emailing their school I'm happy to post the wording of my email.

I am glad this thread is still going, albeit a little slowly, and really heartened by what people are saying. It gives me some hope in humanity! Along with the news of how much has already been raised in the UK. I gather a lot of this is down to twitter, t'internet etc.

My dh tells me the Haitians (before the quake) struggled to train a police force because they could not find the money to pay the cadets the US$1 a day they were meant to earn. It's been a dire situation for a while.

As others have said it can only get worse.

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Well done to all those who are doing so much. Even if you can't afford to send money, donating old clothes, toys or books to Oxfam gives them something to sell. Every little helps.

FourArms. What an excellent idea and it deserves it's own thread I think!!