How to Help People in Haiti

So by now everyone's heard about the ~7.0 magnitude earthquake that hit Haiti a few days ago just outside of the capitol Port-au-Prince. As someone who is very much impressed by the work of Compassion, International, I wanted to give you, my three readers, a synopsis of how you can help with their work in Haiti as they try to rebuild.

First off, the status of their various centers there is unknown at this time. They had a team from the Dominican Republic fly in yesterday, but communications are difficult, at best, so they only know that their country headquarters are still standing. They don't know if the building is still usable, just that it's still standing. They also don't know anything at this point about their local staff or the more than 65,000 Haitian children that are served through Compassion. You can follow their ongoing effort in many ways:

• Twitter
• Compassion Blog
• Facebook
• Compassion's Crisis Update Page

To facilitate their disaster relief effort, they have set up a special fund to which you can donate (no amount is too small!). To do so, click here or on the banner to the right. All funds raised in response to the Haiti earthquake will be used immediately to provide for Compassion-assisted children and families affected by this crisis. Any funds raised in excess will be stewarded by Compassion for additional and future disaster relief efforts.

• $35 helps provide a relief pack filled with enough food and water to sustain a family for one week.
• $70 gift helps care for their needs for two weeks.
• $105 helps provide relief packs filled with enough food and water to sustain two families for two weeks.
• $210 gift helps care for two families’ needs.
• $525 helps provide relief packs filled with enough food and water to sustain 10 families for two weeks.
• $1,050 gift helps care for 10 families’ needs.
• $1,500 helps rebuild a home.
• $2,100 helps supply 20 families with the basics for three weeks.

It is the plan of my MOPS small group to partner with (at least) one of Compassion's Haitian Child Survival Program Centers to help them re-establish their work once the immediate disaster relief effort has passed. To that end, we hope to get a list of physical needs that we could meet (e.g., maybe they lost their classroom set of scissors and that needs to be replaced). Since communications are still mostly down, we don't expect to have that list of needs for days or possibly weeks (so please don't give me scissors - that was just an example!). It may also end up that they ask that we just send money. When we know for sure that the needs are, I'll pass that along so that you can help.

Other organizations are assisting in this time of need as well. Be aware that the FBI is already reporting Haiti charity scams that have popped up since the earthquake. When you give, make sure you are giving to an organization with a good reputation. CharityNavigator.org and The American Institute of Philanthropy are two well-respected charity-rating organizations.

Having said that, other organizations that I, personally, trust are:

• Samaritan's Purse (who already had a relief plane on the ground yesterday)
• WorldVision
  
• The Southern Baptist Convention's International Mission Board's disaster relief arm - Baptist Global Response (that's a mouthful!)
  
• The American Red Cross

Lastly, even if you don't have a single penny you can give, you can always pray for the people in Haiti, both whole and injured - for courage as they face the coming days. Pray for those disaster relief teams that are there are or are forming - for health, safety, and success. And for those (like my friends Johnny and Jeanette) who are in the US but who are _from_ Haiti and who are still awaiting news from family there.