Help For Haiti

I’ve been absolutely thrilled and touched with the outpouring of response from my fellow budget bloggers regarding the crisis in Haiti–so many of these women have come up with creative and hopeful ways to offer financial and spiritual support.  Most seem to follow along the lines of donating for each comment they receive.  I will tell you that The Todd and I have already donated to the Red Cross.  If you missed my earlier post, you can simply text “Haiti” to 90999…you will receive a text back asking you to approve the charges…$10.00 will be sent to the State Department’s designated charity, the Red Cross.  You can also donate at www.redcross.org.

Our experiences in radio and working with disaster relief experts has taught us some important lessons, I’m hoping you might find them helpful, too.

1. The days for canned food drives are over.  The disaster relief groups already on the ground can spend your donation and get triple the value in food, medicine, cleaning supplies, etc. because of their connections.  Any food or clothing donations cost more to ship than they’re worth.

2. Don’t under-estimate the power of prayer.  Or…lighting a candle…or meditating…or song…whatever you do to offer spiritual hope and comfort to those suffering.

3. Learn about what you can do after the immediate crisis. FEMA executives have told us that the real hope for places like these come after the crisis is past.  Those who developed an interest, read about the region, learned about local charities–these are the people who make the difference in long-term recovery. 

The Todd and I are fortunate to know the Aitkens, an amazing  family from Utah who built an orphanage in Haiti and are awaiting word of the three beautiful little ones they’re adopting from there.  They were nearly finished with the paperwork and were going to bring them home in March.  Can you imagine?  So, our passion will be the long-term recovery of Hope For Little Angels of Haiti.  In a couple of months we’ll be holding a fundraiser to rebuild the orphanage and we’ll be going over with the Aikens to work on helping in the recovery of a beautiful culture.  I hope that you will find a project there that inspires your passion as well.  I’ll pass along information about Hope For Little Angels of Haiti as we begin our work–maybe you’d like to be involved!

Love and gratitude to everyone who’s opening their hearts this week!

Tags: charity, Haiti, prayer, Red Cross, support