Red Cross: Family Links
In addition to the resources I posted yesterday, this site helps track and connect missing people and those looking for them.
Google’s Person Finder
Another database of the missing.
Texting for Earthquake Relief
The Red Cross has raised $5 million through text messages alone. Wyclef Jean raised $1 million in just one day for his charity, Yele Haiti, through Twitter and donor texts alone. Texting allows more people to donate small amounts of money faster than through traditional methods, adding up to a larger amount of relief money overall and transforming philanthropy.
–Text “Yele” to 501501 to donate $5 to Yele Haiti.
–Text “HAITI” to 90999 to donate $10 to the Red Cross.
(ETA: Since this post, controversy over financial records for Yele Haiti have popped up. Read a summary here and check out Wyclef Jean’s YouTube statement against the accusations here.)
(Donation appears on your phone bill.)
L.A. Times Coverage: Desperation, Looting
Photos, audio, and links to other stories are all over this article, too.
Haiti Flickr Photostream
From Troy Livesay, a missionary. (via The Lede)
CNN Portrait of Haiti
A quick look at the country’s geography, history, politics, economy, and security.
George Clooney to Host Haiti Telethon
No word on performers yet, but the fundraiser will air January 22 on MTV, ABC, NBC, HBO, and CNN. Tune in at 8 pm ET and donate.
Landslide Fears
The earthquake destabilized the ground. Add that to decades of deforestation, and Haiti faces the future risk of more landslides, particularly in the foothills. It’s the dry season there right now, but it won’t always be.
Finally, donate.
Donate, donate, donate if you can. All the organizations, whether they focus on food, medical attention, housing, or whatever – what they need most to operate is money and lots of it.
Makes you wonder about the people over there who have asthma and other respiratory conditions , but no electric power to run compressors and oxygen machines. So much suffering.
And any other conditions that require power & machinery–like dialysis patients, for example. Truly, it’s unimaginable to me.
We were contemplating obtaining some solar panels for our house recently. The only challenge was the cost. The cheapest system we identified was around ten thousand bucks. It could have taken us several years to recoup that amount of money. At any rate, we came across these directions for creating your own solar panel products. We ended up going that way. It ended up saving us a great deal of dollars, and the totally free, green power is great!
We operate several of our home appliances off of this grid.