We know that rabble readers want to be sure that that their contributions to Haiti go to those organizations who will make best use of the donations to help those most at need. The Canada Haiti Action Network has compiled this list of recommedations for donations to Haiti.
Know of other organizations that should be listed as options? Please add to the comments section below.
Jan. 14, 2010 at 5 p.m. local time, a powerful magnitude-7 earthquake struck in Haiti. It was centred near the capital city Port-au-Prince and has caused massive destruction. The Canada Haiti Action Network urges Canadians and others around the world to contribute generously to emergency relief.
You can contribute to the Haitian Red Cross through its international partners in the International Red Cross. Contributions are tax deductible. The Canadian Red Cross is at: http://www.redcross.ca/article.asp?id=33900&tid=001.
We also encourage contributions to the following organizations. Remember that you must provide a name and return mailing address in order to receive a tax-deductible receipt:
Zanmi Lasante/ Partners in Health
The Zanmi Lasante medical center is located in the Central Plateau of Haiti and delivers health care through a network of clinics in that region of the country. It also trains Haitians as doctors and health professionals. The health center survived the earthquake and is moving to deliver aid to the disaster zone. Donations in the U.S. are tax deductible. To donate, go to:
http://www.pih.org/home.html
By mail, "Haiti Earthquake Relief" in cheque memo line to:
Partners In Health
P.O. Box 845578
Boston, MA 02284-5578
Doctors Without Borders/ Medecins sans frontières
Doctors Without Borders operates clinics in Port au Prince and surrounding neighbourhoods. It has expertise in disaster relief. Donations in Canada and the U.S. are tax deductible. Go to:
http://www.msf.ca/news-media/news/2010/01/haiti-update/
By mail, “Haiti Earthquake” in memo line:
Doctors Without Borders
720 Spadina Ave, Suite 402
Toronto ON M5S 2P9
Sawatzky Family Foundation-SOPUDEP School
SOPUDEP is a pioneering school in Petionville with an enrolment of 600 students from elementary to senior high school grades. The school was not in session when the disaster struck; we do not know if the building survived. The resources of the school and its teachers are being mobilized to assist the neighbouring population. The Sawatzky Family Foundation is a registered charity in Canada and issues tax deductible receipts. Go to: http://www.sopudep.org/donate .
By mail:
The Sawatzky Family Foundation
PO Box 626, 25 Peter Street North
Orillia, Ontario, Canada L3V 6K5
Haiti Emergency Relief Fund
In association with the Haiti Action Committee in San Francisco/Bay Area, this fund delivers resources directly to grassroots organizations in Haiti. It was founded 04 following the 2004 coup d’etat that forced the elected president of Haiti, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, from office and imposed a two-year regime of human rights violations whose consequence continues today. Go to: http://www.haitiaction.net/About/HERF/HERF.html
By mail:
Haiti Emergency Relief Fund/EBSC
East Bay Sanctuary Covenant
2362 Bancroft Way
Berkeley, CA 94704
For more information, including telephone contact, go to the website of the Canada Haiti Action Network.
"I won't give a nickel through the Red Cross because they are no more likely to recognize the viability and full humanity of Haitians and their communities than [they] did on the Gulf Coast." - Bruce A. Dixon
Haiti! I am interested to know where our GG fits into this. I have seen here weeping and grieving on telly and I know
she eats sea meat with the Inuit.
However she has also collaborated twice with the Harper government in proroguing Parliament which,
especially in the latter case, seems to be unnecessarily undemocratic.
Is not the history of Haiti a long trail of valiant resistance to monster colonising and exploiting forces:
historically the French and latterly the US? Have not the small ruling Haitian "elite" conspired with these forces.
Is Michele Jean of the "elite" and why did she come to Canada?
So far her record says nothing for democracy here with a lot of crocodile tears.
I would like to know more about this lady other than the standard hagiographic standard puff pieces fed us by the MSM
The Canada Haiti Action Network is also promoting a petition campaign.
The petition reads:
Haiti needs emergency relief, not military intervention!
21 January 2010
We, the undersigned, are outraged by the scandalous delays in distributing essential aid to victims of the earthquake in Haiti. Since the US Air Force seized unilateral control of the airport in Port-au-Prince, it has privileged military over civilian humanitarian flights. As a result, untold numbers of people have died needlessly in the rubble of Port-au-Prince, Léogane and other abandoned towns. If aid continues to be withheld, many more preventable deaths will follow. We demand that US commanders immediately restore executive control of the relief effort to Haiti's leaders, and to help rather than replace the local officials they claim to support.
We note that obsessive foreign concerns with 'security' and 'looting' are largely refuted by actual levels of patience and solidarity on the streets of Port-au-Prince. The decision to avoid what US commanders have called 'another Somalia-type situation' by prioritizing security and military control is likely to succeed only in provoking the very kinds of unrest they condemn.
In keeping with a longstanding pattern, US and UN officials continue to treat the Haitian people and their representatives with wholly misplaced fear and suspicion. We call on the de facto rulers of Haiti to facilitate, as the reconstruction begins, the renewal of popular participation in the determination of collective priorities and decisions. We demand that they do everything possible to strengthen the capacity of the Haitian people to respond to this crisis. We demand, consequently, that they allow Haiti's most popular and most inspiring political leader, Jean-Bertrand Aristide (whose party won 90% of the parliamentary seats in the country's last round of democratic elections), to return immediately and safely from the unconstitutional exile to which he has been confined since the US, Canada and France helped depose him in 2004.
If reconstruction proceeds under the supervision of foreign troops and international development agencies it will not serve the interests of the vast majority of Haiti's population. Neoliberal forms of international 'aid' have already directly contributed to the systematic impoverishment of Haiti's people and the undermining of their government, and in both 1991 and 2004 the US intervened to overthrow the elected government and attack its supporters, with devastating effect. This is why we urgently call on the countries that dominate Haiti and the region to respect Haitian sovereignty and to initiate an immediate reorientation of international aid, away from neo-liberal adjustment, sweatshop exploitation and non-governmental charity, and towards systematic investment in Haiti's own people and government.
We demand a much greater international role for Haiti's genuine allies and supporters, including Cuba, South Africa, Venezuela, the Bahamas and other members of CARICOM. We demand that all reconstruction aid take the form of grants not loans. We demand that Haiti's remaining foreign debt be immediately forgiven, and that the money that foreign governments still owe to Haiti - notably the massive sums extorted by the French government from 1825 through to 1947 as compensation for the slaves and property France lost when Haiti won its independence - be paid in full and at once.
Above all, we demand that the reconstruction of Haiti be pursued under the guidance of one overarching objective: the political and economic empowerment of the Haitian people.
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Initial signatories:
Pierre Labossiere, Haiti Action Committee (USA)
Kevin Pina, filmmaker
Noam Chomsky (MIT)
Peter Hallward, Middlesex University, UK
Jean Saint-Vil, Canada Haiti Action Network
Niraj Joshi, Canada Haiti Action Network
Brian Concannon, Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti
Kevin Skerrett, Ottawa Haiti Solidarity Committee/Kozayiti
BC Holmes, Toronto Haiti Action Committee
Roger Annis, Haiti Solidarity BC
Yves Engler, Haiti Action Montreal