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