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Anyone who has experienced a serious natural disaster understands how powerless and insignificant you can feel in the face of the awesome power of nature unleashed. Now consider experiencing such an episode in the Western Hemisphere’s poorest country.
Unless you’ve been living in a cave for the last week you know about the desperate conditions facing our Caribbean neighbor, Haiti, in the wake of the catastrophic earthquake that struck the capital city of Port Au Prince last Wednesday. In an effort to do what little we can to help the situation, Surf Caribe is re-posting this Haiti Travel Photo Feature to rekindle the positive reinforcement that this feature created about Haiti as a surf travel destination and to encourage our users to help. As we’ve seen on the national and international news, this relief effort has allowed new technologies to assist in raising funds on a level never before seen. Lots of small donations literally add up to millions of dollars, and below we’ve listed online destinations and ways that each of us can help.
First, however, photographer John Callahan, the man who documented this feature as well and an upcoming feature on Haiti’s south coast, and painter/surfer, Phil Goodrich, one of the surfers on that upcoming Haiti south coast feature have both pledged to donate 50% of all proceeds from sales of prints of John’s Haiti photos and Phil’s Haiti paintings to the Haitian earthquake relief. You can see both their work on www.imagekind.com.
For John’s Haiti photos go to: http://www.imagekind.com/GalleryProfile.aspx?GID=9a13c7bd-68ab-4892-81d5-e6b6471f345f&P=1
For Phil’s paintings go to: http://www.imagekind.com/GalleryProfile.aspx?gid=dc242f70-4ae4-46f7-a694-9a7d78bef964
Below is a list of reputable organizations collecting funds for Haiti’s crisis relief:
One of the easiest ways to donate is to text "Haiti" to 90999 and this will donate $10 to the Red Cross’s disaster relief for Haiti.
Musician Wyclef Jean has used Twitter to rally web users to contribute to his grassroots Yele Haiti earthquake fund. He’s urged his followers to text "Yele" to the number 501501. If you send the text, the organization will receive $5. The amount will be added to your next cell phone bill. Consider retweeting Wyclef’s updates and get some of your Twitter followers to donate, too.
The American Jewish World Service has set up the Haiti Earthquake Relief Fund to respond to the crisis by supporting a network of organizations it works with.
AmeriCares has pledged $5 million to Haitian quake relief, and is soliciting donations to a general emergency disaster relief fund to help it accomplish that.
CARE is sending relief workers into the city of Port-au-Prince and needs funds to support its efforts. Suggested donations range from $50 to $1,000, but you can name your own amount if you prefer.
Catholic Relief Services has an office in Haiti, and luckily it’s still standing even though one of its neighbors collapsed. The organization is accepting donations of any amount.
Direct Relief International has committed up to $1 million in aid through two on-the-ground partners, and is sending containers of medical material aid.
Oxfam has 200 people on the ground to deal with the crisis, and began its efforts by trying to get clean water to victims of the quake. One of its staffers recorded a podcast describing the situation. You can donate on the American or UK site, depending on where you’re located.
Here at Surf Caribe we are urging all our users to do something to help the situation in Haiti, and one of the absolute best things you can do, besides making any donation within your means in the short term, is to take a surf trip there after things stabilize. Summer is an excellent time to visit the country’s south coast, as you will see in the upcoming Photo Feature that we hope to post within about a week, so this summer could be a great time to get away (but not so far away) for some great surf and a rich cultural experience while also helping a Caribbean neighbor get back on its feet. And the flight is a little shorter than going to Indo.
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