Sending $$ To Haiti
I was so glad to see that UNICEF was one of the charities to make the list among all the…
I got this list of relief organizations from M+R Strategic Services. They work to build nonprofits and corporations, and they are an organization I trust. They recommend these non-profits in Haiti. The president is Bill Wasserman. I don’t know him, but the co-founder is an RPCV. That’s good enough for me.
Here is what Bill sent me today:
The tremendous organizations we work with every day at M+R have responded swiftly to the crisis, and we are humbled by their efforts. Many have long experience in Haiti, where their aid workers and emergency response teams are already helping dig through rubble to find survivors, and providing clean water, urgent supplies and medical care for those who have lost everything but their lives.
We hope that you will contribute to their efforts, giving as generously as you are able:
UNICEF – UNICEF’s field staff is working around the clock to help save the tens of thousands of children who have been injured in the quake, separated from their families, and desperately need clean water, food and other help.
PlanUSA – Plan already has 143 staff on the ground in Haiti working to provide immediate relief in the wake of the disaster. The organization has a long-standing presence in the country, where their programs serve 42,000 children.
Oxfam America – Oxfam’s 200 staffers stationed in Haiti, including a highly trained emergency response team of 15, are rushing to meet the most urgent needs, such as providing clean water and other public health necessities.
ActionAid – ActionAid has worked in Haiti since 1996; their crisis response efforts focus on providing shelter, clean water and medicine to survivors.
ACCION International – ACCION is working with SOGESOL, its Haitian partner, to provide services and support to its 13,500 microfinance clients in the nation.
I also want to thank everyone here at M+R. Ever since the first news of the quake broke, you have been working diligently to help these organizations fund their emergency response in Haiti. I am never as proud to work with you as in moments like this.
Thank you,
Bill
Bill Wasserman
President
M+R Strategic Services
David Brooks has a very interesting article in today’s NYTimes on the puzzling nature of economic and cultural development. Forty years ago we thought we knew how to do it. (food sufficiency, the ‘take-off’ stage, and all that). Given the successes and failures of the past, I’m not sure what we should do next. Does anyone? Indeed it’s a puzzle.
I recommend sending funds to the Salvation Army which has a substantial presence in Haiti. I observed several relief organizations in trhe wake of the worse hurricaines we have had in Florida this decade. The Salvation Army consistently delivered required assistance in a timely and efficient manner.
For the last 3 days we have non-stop attempted to get doctors and medical supplies from Miami into Haiti where we have an ausiliary office where we were doing micro-credit. .
1.) On Thursday we got 23 doctors from Indiana in to Port-au- Prince and wounded out on same airplane ( donated flight)
2.) Today 3 doctors are going with alot of medical supplies which they had run out of.
3.) On Wedensday Jack Allison ( Malawi 67-69), an emergency physician, and several other medical personnel, and medical supplies will go into Haiti.
No overhead. All volunteer labor.
Money goes directly into medical supplies and gas to get the people to the clinics.
PLEASE HELP> WE really need help to heal the children’s wounds.
send donations to Greater Caribbean Envergy and Environment Foundation. suite 1 .1359 SW 22 terrace, Miami, Fl 33145.
there will be a credit card button on the web site gceef.org by Tuesday.
andrew Oerke .( malawi ’67-71;jamaica ’71-’72)
David, I want to paste your comment here because I find it so revealing coming from you:
“Forty years ago we thought we knew how to do it. (food sufficiency, the ‘take-off’ stage, and all that). Given the successes and failures of the past, I’m not sure what we should do next. Does anyone? Indeed it’s a puzzle.”
This is the very first time I can recall that you have expressed the slightest doubt about what the US should do next. You have always seemed very certain that the road was clear, programs taken were correct, and that US culture, techniques, “get up and go,” “off with the old, on with the new” spirit would prevail.
For me, the real Peace Corps “experience” begins with exactly where you are now. “What do we do next?”
For me, it was the realization that we did not always know what we were doing; that what looked good on paper did not always translate in the field, and most importantly, that the people we were working with were more knowledgeable about their environment than we were.
Almost fifty years ago, the people I worked with had a generational knowledge of how their technology worked over time and space. We lacked that information on our own technologies. The most important thing that I began to understand was that first, I had to learn and listen.
Peace Corps has a small niche in the world of “development.” I would have hoped that Congress would have mandated that PC/W maintain a detailed record of those efforts, so we could learn. Congress did not see fit to require that of the agency. Indeed, one might even say that Peace Corps was exempted from the most basic federal regulations about managing public records. But, that is a discussion for another day.
I was so glad to see that UNICEF was one of the charities to make the list among all the other fine ones mentioned. Carol Bellamy, RPCV Guatemala, was the first RPCV to be the Director of the Peace Corps and then went on to direct UNICEF for ten years. After hearing her speak about how UNICEF worked with children in war torn countries and violent environments, UNICEF became our family’s choice to make contributions instead of gifts to each other. When asked how she was able to help children with violence all around in countries torn by fighting and terror. she said that they worked to find “corridors of peace.”