Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Time to Get Serious

We've bought the Lost DVDs, and all of the books (especially those with the words "Finding" and "Lost" in the title)... some of us have bought t-shirts, action figures, buttons, posters, and other ephemera.

Now I'm appealing to you to put your money in a different place. Any amount would do. Yesterday Haiti suffered the second massive earthquake in a week, the "aftershock" that was as big as many regular earthquakes. The country is devastated, and the people need help.

Please check around and see where the best places are to donate. If you are in the US, here is a good list of various charitable organizations that are currently in Haiti and could use your support. Here's a list of the Canadian ones (and the Canadian government has just announced it will match all donations, so you can double the money!). And here's a good list of ones in the UK. If you live outside of these three countries, please do a google search on "how to help haiti" and your country, and you'll probably find a listing.

Any charity is good, and any amount will do. I know we can pull together and do what's right for people who are in dire need of our help. I can't even imagine what it must have been like to have gone through a second disaster when everyone is still reeling from the first. My prayers are with them and their families and loved ones who live outside of the country.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oooh. Spam in a post about Haitian relief. That's low. :(

humanebean said...

Well said, Nik. I donated to American Red Cross through iTunes. Easy as pie and twice as valuable as any music I would ever download.

Here's hoping 'bao bao' develops an incurable itch in his jumpsuit.

Nikki Stafford said...

ARGH, I agree, guys. This person has become a major thorn in my side. (For anyone wondering what the heck we're talking about, this post was originally hit with spam for Nike and Puma shoes... I've deleted it.) He comes on here once a month, puts his stupid comment on every post for that month (so I'm assuming I'll find them all the way back to January 1) and then he disappears. I report him to Blogger every time and now I get, "you've already reported this person... you can't report them more than once." So MAYBE YOU SHOULD DO SOMETHING ABOUT HIM!!!

This is yet another reason why I should just switch to Wordpress and scrap Blogger. I hate it. I'm just so worried I'll lose posts on the switch-over.

asiancolossus said...

An easy way is if you are through Rogers and text HELP to 1291 through your cell phone. 5 bucks is added to your bill.

Fred said...

Like humanbean, we are going tomorrow to donate through the Red Cross. At least we can use our credit cards, and I'll have to check to see if the Harper govt. is matching. I think choosing charities that have matching funds form the govt. is a good way to get more out of a single donation.

As to baobao, pain the posterior. May he fall on Radzinsky's bad list.

Nikki Stafford said...

I have to agree that Red Cross is a great way to go. I did some reading on it last week and a big factor to me (and, I'm sure, many people) is how much of your donation actually makes it to the charity. In some cases, most is put toward administration fees and as little as 10% actually goes to the cause. In the case of the Red Cross, 95% of your donation will get to those in Haiti who need it, which is huge. My husband and I donated through Red Cross, and at work we collected funds and donated to Doctors Without Borders (which gives 82% to the cause, another big number).

Fred: If you follow that link I gave, I think it shows how to donate so the gov't will match it. I heard today on the news that Peter MacKay announced that Canada will be donating a field hospital to the relief efforts.

Two more aftershocks today. :( It's so heartbreaking.