Haiti: How you can help.

Posted from TabithaHale.com.

If you follow me on Twitter or are a Facebook friend, you know how completely obsessive I’ve been about the disaster in Haiti. I have been watching every news report I can find and have wept over photos.

I want nothing more than to get on a plane and go down there. I want to hold the kids and make it better. But right now, there are others much more equipped to be effective.

There are missionaries that my home church supports who moved to Jacmel, Haiti this year. The parent organization,: Joy in Hope, is a new non-profit that is run by a close friend of mine. I have been speaking with him and reading reports from people on the ground about what can be done. The Red Cross is a natural response. : Here is what Gwenn Mangine of Haitian Children’s Home had to say:

Right now the meeting of immediate needs (food, water, shelter, etc) are things that can only be done by Kreyol-speaking people. We have no where to host teams— we don’t have the time to host teams right now. We love that people are interested in coming to visit— we want that. Our longer term dreams (still in their infancy) include a number of medical teams a number of rebuilding teams… lots of dreams. But for now there isn’t A) a way to get into Haiti. Or B) a way to get from Port Au Prince to Jacmel. We don’t know when either airport/charters will be running again.

The other main inquiry we’re getting has to to with sending supplies. People want to help and we’re so glad because we know a lot of people here that NEED help. The problem is there is no way to ship supplies to us. No way. Literally. Even before the earthquake we didn’t have a good method for getting supplies here, now it’s impossible. Additionally, the more supplies we can buy locally, the better of the local economy will be. Water, food, clothing, cement, concrete blocks— we’re supporting our neighbors when we buy from them… And frankly, our neighbors need all the help they can get right now!

What we need, (and what other organizations need unless they tell you otherwise), is funds to work in the community. Joy in Hope (the organization we work through) is a 501(c)3 non profit organization. All donations are tax-deductible.

You can donate here:
www.joyinhope.org/donate.asp

Or if you’d prefer— donate to ANY other organization you trust doing work in Haiti. But I am going to level with you— people need funds the most.

Also, read : Gwenn’s blog for some pretty gutwrenching first hand accounts.

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