I’ll update and add to this post later: For now, in the interests of getting it up there, a companion to Saundra’s post on choosing where/how to donate for earthquake response in Haiti. (Read Saundra’s post)
General Guidelines:
Don’t go to Haiti. If you’re not already employed by a relief organization that is working in Haiti, stay put. Just because it’s close (for Americans) and you can get your visa at the airport doesn’t mean that you’re needed there in person.
Send Cash, not stuff. Please do not collect food or clothes or anything else and then try to ship it to Haiti. Cash is the only thing you should be thinking of donating right now. Sorry, but this has to be said: think twice about supporting organizations that are asking for in-kind donations for Haiti.
Please Re-read this post: What to Do: The Donor Edition – Emergency Response.
For those in the United States, InterAction is probably your best consolidated source for information on which US-registered organizations are responding to this disaster. Here’s the link.
If someone will share comparable links for Europe, Australia in the comments thread below, I will update this post with that information.
My personal list of credible organizations responding to the earthquake in Haiti. I emaphsize that these are personal recommendations. I have selected the listed organizations based on the following criteria:
- Had established presence in Haiti prior to the earthquake
- Responding to the earthquake
- Known to engage in emergency response as a core competency
- I have personally encountered and/or have direct personal knowledge of their work in some context (more than just having had a few beers with one of their staff after a conference somewhere).
These are global organizations. In some cases I’ve given two links – one to the international website, and one to the USA-based website. The proximity of Haiti to the United States means that US agencies and the US offices of international agencies will be most likely emerge as the key players in this emergency response, at least operationally. If you are in Europe, Australia, Africa or Asia, search for the affiliate of one of these organizations nearest you.
For those who want to donate from the USA:
Action Against Hunger (ACF): www.actionagainsthunger.org
CARE. http://www.care.org/
MSF (http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/)
Oxfam. International: (http://www.oxfam.org/) USA: (http://oxfamamerica.org).
Plan. International: http://plan-international.org/ Plan-USA: http://www.planusa.org
Save the Children. http://www.savethechildren.org/
World Vision. International: http://www.wvi.org/wvi/wviweb.nsf USA: http://www.worldvision.org/
For those who want to donate from Canada (thanks Chaser!)
Care, Oxfam and Save the Children have set up a combined donation site for Haiti: http://www.thehumanitariancoalition.ca/
Pour des Canadiens, Care, Oxfam, et Aide e l’enfance ont installé un emplacement combiné de donation pour le Haïti: http://www.thehumanitariancoalition.ca/
For those who want to donate from Australia (thanks Michael and Carly!):
Michael points out that InterAction does not represent all credible US NGOs/charities (MSF is not a member of InterAction, for example).
- ACFID
- Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders
- World Vision, (Donate to the emergency fund )
- Oxfam
- Save The Children
- Australian Red Cross (who will mainly work through the IFRC)
- UNICEF
For those who want to donate from Germany: (thanks, Anna!)
Aktion Deutschland Hilft http://www.aktion-deutschland-hilft.de – network of ten German-based relief agencies. The German sections of some of the organisations you recommended above are members.
für Deutschland: Aktion Deutschland Hilft http://www.aktion-deutschland-hilft.de – ein Zusammenschluss von 10 renommierten deutschen Hilfsorganisationen
UPDATE #1 – 13 Jan. 2010: I knew this would happen. My gmail and twitter DM inboxes are already overflowing with people demanding to know why their employer was not included in my list. A couple of points on that:
-
Catholic Relief Services (CRS) comes repeatedly recommended as an agency with strong historical presence in Haiti. (I have very limited personal exposure to CRS relief programs.)
UPDATE #2 – 13 Jan. 2010:
The Red Cross. Make sure you know who you’re supporting: there is the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), and there is the International Federation of the Red Cross (IFRC). Of the two, IFRC is the one with a marketing appeal for Haiti on their website. Here’s the link: http://www.ifrc.org/
Hi, WFP focuses on responding to emergencies and was already on the ground before thehurricanes hit. Before the storm hit, already 1.9 people were classified as food insecure. For more info, check out http://www.wfp.org/haiti
Catholic Relief Services http://www.crs.org meets your first three criteria. Not sure about the fourth. CRS has been in Haiti for over 50 years, is responding to the emergency ($5 million initial commitment) and has emergency experience all over the world since its founding 65 years ago. CRS will still be in Haiti working on the rebuilding after the emergency phase is over.
How about Partners in Health (http://pih.org/)? They meet your first two criteria; I’m not sure about the third.
Jen, Michael – see the first UPDATE.
Liz – thanks for your comment. I confess I’d never ever heard anyone mention Partners in Health in the context of emergency response prior to @alanna_shaikh’s tweet an hour or so ago.
According to a colleague working in the office of the UN Special Envoy to Haiti – if you want to give funds to help support the relief efforts in Haiti, please consider giving to Partners in Health that has long experience in Haiti and will be asked to play a major role in the relief efforts.
Okay, so that I understand clearly: this disaster is still just hours old, we don’t have a confirmed death count, we don’t really know the full extent of the damage… hell, the UN can’t account for all of it’s own missing just yet. And alread the office of the UN Special Envoy is naming preferred partners?
Someone with a UN email address want to comment on this one?
For Canadians, Care, Oxfam and Save the Children have set up a combined donation site for Haiti: http://www.thehumanitariancoalition.ca/
Pour des Canadiens, Care, Oxfam, et Aide e l’enfance ont installé un emplacement combiné de donation pour le Haïti: http://www.thehumanitariancoalition.ca/
InterAction does not represent all credible US NGOs/charities, e.g. MSF is not a member.
Australia:
- Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders
- World Vision, but make sure you donate to their emergency fund, not to their sponsor-a-child programme.
- Oxfam
- Save The Children
- Australian Red Cross (who will mainly work through the IFRC)
- UNICEF
Thanks for that, Michael – will update the post momentarily…
For those in Australia, visit the Australian Council for International Development’s web page listing those agencies running appeals (MSF is not listed as they are not a member) http://www.acfid.asn.au/what-we-do/humanitarian-emergencies/haiti-appealse
Correct link for that one: http://www.acfid.asn.au/what-we-do/humanitarian-emergencies/haiti-appeals (superfluous ‘e’ at the end).
sorry, the link is http://www.acfid.asn.au/what-we-do/humanitarian-emergencies/haiti-appeals
Hi J.,
for those in Germany: Aktion Deutschland Hilft http://www.aktion-deutschland-hilft.de – network of ten German-based relief agencies. The German sections of some of the organisations you recommended above are members.
für Deutschland: Aktion Deutschland Hilft http://www.aktion-deutschland-hilft.de – ein Zusammenschluss von 10 renommierten deutschen Hilfsorganisationen
Germany/Austria: Ärzte ohne Grenzen /Doctors without borders http://www.aerzte-ohne-grenzen.de/
The Netherlands: giro 555, Samenwerkende Hulporganisaties (a cooperation between the most important Dutch aid organisations — a model that should deserve serious consideration elsewhere).
Helping Haiti is very important indeed. It is the people who do not take advantage of that who are the ones who normally do not succeed. If you stick with it and learn the ways, this industry can earn you a lot of money!! Good article, nice work .
~~The Burn List~~