Thursday, January 14, 2010

Early Edition: SYLW: Haiti- How You Can Help


With the earthquake devastation in Haiti, an early edition of Shine Your Light was warranted....I've been ready to jump on a plane and just go....not that I have a passport or anything (I'm thinking a passport is in the works, though, over the next year), but I would give my eye teeth to go and help these hurting people.  So, I decided to go on a quest for Shine Your Light and find as many agencies as I could find that are down there right now....and that need your help.  Yes, I said your help.  Even if you're stuck here in the U.S. watching from the sidelines, you can be a forefront fighter for these people by 1) praying, and 2) giving.  Who knows?  Maybe the resources listed in this post, along with the nudgings of the Holy Spirit, will lead your heart to want to go, as well.  Ok, so how can you help?

Here are some organizations that are trustworthy, some of whom are there right now, needing all the help we can muster.
  • Paige Strackman, a friend and Gospel music recording artist, is hosting a Benefit Concert for Haiti at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall on Friday, February 26 from 8:00-9:30PM.  If you can make it to the concert, you can purchase tickets here.  If you can't make it to the concert, you can make a tax-deductible donation to Lemonaid for Haiti.  Food will be purchased with your donation, and you will be sent a receipt.
  • World Vision- You can follow World Vision on Facebook and actually read their status updates on the situation there and what their workers are doing.  You can also help support their efforts by donating dollars that will help to provide food, water, tents, blankets, etc., to survivors who have, literally, no homes to go back to. If you want to know more, you can check out the different videos and information on the support efforts in Haiti that World Vision has posted on their site.
  • Convoy of Hope is there, trying to help provide food to the Haitian people, and they need our help.  Food is such a basic but necessary survival item.
  • The Red Cross has donated $10 million to relief efforts in Haiti.  If you have family you are searching for in Haiti or want to register as missing, you can do so on the Family Links Website
  • MercyCorps is sending an emergency response team, and you can donate, but you can also build your own fundraising page with MercyCorps.  Some pages have raised as much as $6,000 already.
  • Read up on the Salvation Army's disaster relief work in Haiti, and find ways you can help, including through texting.
  • To find countless other ways in which you can help, check out this page with the Today Show.  They have numerous listings/websites and phone numbers of organizations who are either raising funds for the relief efforts or are there offering relief, as you read this. 
You may think that you have nothing to give, but believe me, you can give if you get creative.  Put a Paypal Donate button on your site or blog, and start your own fundraising campaign.  Think of ways in which you can be of assistance.  Perhaps you could get your church or local classrooms involved in putting care packages together.  After all, these people are going to need basic necessities.  Some of them have lost everything, save the clothes on their backs; some of them probably didn't have a whole lot to begin with, as Haiti is considered to be the poorest nation in the Western hemisphere.  With countless orphans already, there are, sadly,  bound to be countless more.

Imagine it is you or I, sleeping with our children outdoors in the darkness of a park, surrounded by multitudes of other people.  Maybe we are even wounded and have no way of really getting medical help....imagine that your child is stuck in the concrete ruins of a building, with only her feet sticking out, crying out for help (yes, I actually saw that last night on Anderson Cooper).  Imagine that it is you or I....imagine that those children are our children....what can you give?  What will you do?  Will you shine your light in the darkest of days?

3 comments:

Goat Gal January 14, 2010 at 5:03 PM  

Thank you Mel. We have been planning a trip there in December 2010 for a couple of months now and feel like we want to be there in a hurry.

Anonymous January 15, 2010 at 8:33 AM  

Thanks for stopping by on my SITS day, I greatly appreciate it, and now I'm here to spread the comment-love!


GREAT POST!

MIG January 15, 2010 at 10:11 AM  

Hi Mel! Stopping by from MBC. I've been following from before. You might have to look back in your Google Friend Connect to find me as Mommy Is Green. :)

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