Haiti and helping

[jrtom]

I was thinking last night about appropriate actions to take regarding Haiti, and other places and people in varying degrees of need. My first inclination--airport nonfunctionality and local logistic problems notwithstanding--is to go there and try to help.

But the fact is that I don't think that, right now, I could help enough to pay for the cost of my plane ticket and other expenses. That is, the value added by me, personally, showing up in Haiti to help out is not a lot: I can't help to rewire their electricity or communications, I'm not a doctor, I'm not a civil engineer or even a skilled construction worker. In this context all I really have to offer is grunt labor and compassion, and I don't think that Haiti's really short on warm bodies right now. I can do a lot more good by giving money to Doctors Without Borders, or whatever organizations may be helping out with infrastructure reconstruction.

All that said, this feels like rationalizing. Hopefully it will feel less so after I donate some money.

EDIT: by request of dandelionteeth: I have not done my own research, but I have a couple of references to people and organizations that have done so, and I trust them:

http://fdmts.livejournal.com/546588.html
--this is from a friend of mine that has done volunteer work in Haiti a few times over the last few years.
http://www.google.com/relief/haitiearthquake/
--this is from Google. (Which has already donated $1M itself, and will probably end up donating a lot more because they match charitable donations from its employees.)

Also, my wife donated some money on our behalf a few minutes after my original post...and hadn't seen this yet. I am simultaneously amused and proud.

Comments

[dandelionteeth.livejournal.com]

Well, okay. If you want to do something more to help, how about this:

Research the various charitable institutions that are collecting money for Haiti and then post on which ones appear to be the most well organized and have the best plans of action.

Right now, I'm hearing a lot of "Haiti is in trouble. They need water, food, medicine, and a working infrastructure. No idea how we're going to get those to the people right now." I would feel a lot more comfortable donating if I knew where the money would be going and what organizations were planning to do.

That is something you can do and if you noise your findings about, then you could well end up getting more money to Haiti than not.

[jrtom.livejournal.com]

Per your suggestion...see above. And thanks.

[opalmirror.livejournal.com]

A friend of mine trained in Search and Rescue had their trained dog search for bodies in earthquake zone. Other friends in S&R and Emergency Response have told me repeatedly: It really takes special training, skill development, and temperament to be able to make it worth the funds to haul your carcass to a disaster site and maintain yourself there. The situations are dire and deeply disturbing. Most of us can help best by contributing funds to trustworthy organizations, putting money and support behind those skilled, optimize, trained and talented in this work. For widescale volunteer organizations, sometimes relieving their local workload by volunteering your time allows their skilled personnel to go help in your stead as well.

I'd rate Red Cross and UNICEF pretty highly myself. I know I cannot in good conscience spend money on vacation and hobby plans right now when I know the need is so very great in Haiti, so some money I had planned to go to those is going to disaster relief instead. I donated to the Red Cross International Relief Fund and plan to keep making weekly donations until I feel I have donated 'enough' (as far as generously what I feel I can afford, which will be more this year than in prior years, I think).

[opalmirror.livejournal.com]

Also, if you want to do emergency relief work yourself in the future, find opportunities to train with professionals in this area now, so you are prepared for a future crisis either here or abroad. Get your EMT training, national incident command system, emergency communications, and practice simulated emergencies with the experts. Check out Community Emergency Response Teams and volunteer. In my own small local way my Amateur Radio Emergency Radio Service volunteering is making me a bit more aware of these things (I have boned up on my First Aid, CPR, ICS-700/100/200 NIMS training, CERT, and will next work on EmComm classwork). The skills learned here may be useful in my trails reconstruction and backcountry hiking work, although they have not been tested there, yet.