Haiti: How You Can Help
January 15, 2010
Our hearts go out to the people of Haiti following the earthquake on January 12th. Although HAI doesn't directly do work in Haiti, like many people we have colleagues, friends, family and loved ones who are there or who are impacted by this disaster.
If you are looking for ways to help, we suggest donating to an organization that has been working in Haiti for 20 years and often joins us in advocacy efforts:
Partners In Health also has an immediate need for surgeons and surgical teams, ER doctors and nurses and related medical personnel to volunteer (read more here).
Other organizations providing emergency relief and accepting donations include:
* Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders)
* Albert Schweitzer Hospital in Haiti
* Haiti Emergency Relief Fund / haitiaction.net
Reports from Port-au-Prince indicate that relief efforts are hampered by the damaged port, lack of fuel and vehicles to take supplies from the airport to where they are needed, blocked roads and destroyed communications and power systems. Weakened public infrastructure is compounding this natural disaster into a human one on a giant scale.
When the immediate crisis is past, the international community will need to move to a longer-term plan to help Haiti rebuild its public sector so that its government can provide for the safety, health, education and opportunity for all Haitians. As Tracy Kidder wrote in the New York Times this week, "the ultimate goal of all aid to Haiti ought to be the strengthening of Haitian institutions, infrastructure and expertise."
In the meantime, our thoughts are with those who are suffering, and those who are providing help.
We will continue to post updates to our site as we have more information on what is needed and how best to help.
Update: January 20, 2010
As relief efforts finally seem to be making headway in Haiti, here are some other ways you can contribute.
- Sign the ONE campaign's petition to cancel Haiti's debt. Haiti owes about $1 billion to international creditors including the Inter-American Development Bank and the IMF, in part because the country was forced to pay reparations of 150 million francs (the equivalent of $21 billion today) to France back in 1825 for France's loss of income when the former slave colony freed itself in 1804. Additionally, the Duvalier dictatorships from the 1950s to 1980s borrowed and used for personal purposes hundreds of millions more. Read more about the history at the Jubilee Network USA web site, and sign the ONE campaign's petition here.
- Support I-TECH's staff in Haiti who have suffered personal loss. I-TECH, like Health Alliance International, is a center of the University of Washington's Department of Global Health. They build the capacity of national training programs for health workers in many countries, including Haiti. They have set up a web site with instructions for how to donate to a relief fund to help their Haitian staff recover from the destruction of their homes.
We know that Partners In Health has set up mobile clinics in Port-au-Prince and is working on restoring the main hospital there to functioning. You can read updates and make donations on their web site, standwithhaiti.org.
Other organizations you could donate to, in addition to the ones listed below, include:
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