Ways To Help Our Friends In Haiti’s Tragedy

Posted by on 01/14/2010

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Here is a compiled list of other ways to help from CTV News.

Following is a list of links to Canadian organizations that have a track record of providing aid to Haiti:

  • Canadian Red Cross

The Canadian arm of the international aid and medical relief organization works around the world through the federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent societies, based in Geneva, Switzerland.

click here to donate

  • Unicef Canada

This well-known organization’s is to raise funds to support UNICEF’s work for children in more than 150 countries and territories and build awareness among Canadians about the issues facing the world’s children.

Click here to donate

  • The Humanitarian Coalition

This group is a joint effort between Oxfam Canada, Oxfam Quebec, CARE Canada and Save the children. The humanitarian coalition is dedicated to a united response in cases of humanitarian crises.

Click here to donate

  • Plan Canada

Plan works to promote child rights and lift millions of children out of poverty based around eight core areas: education, health, water and sanitation, protection, economic security, child participation, sexual health including HIV.

Click here to donate

  • Direct Relief International

This organization provides specifically requested medical resources to community-based organizations in 59 countries.

Click here to donate

  • Doctors Without Borders

This international organization focuses on emergency medical relief in areas where there is no medical infrastructure or where the existing one cannot withstand the pressure to which it is subjected.

Click here to donate

  • United Jewish Appeal of Greater Toronto

This Jewish group is seeking donations and has already sent $45,000 to IsraAid: The Forum for International Humanitarian Aid, to support search and rescue efforts in Haiti. The group is sending a team that includes medical staff, to Haiti.

Click here to donate

  • Salvation Army

This Christian organization is asking Canadians with Rogers and Bell cellphones to donate $5 or more by texting the word “haiti” to 45678. Donations can also be mailed or dropped off at local offices.

Click here to donate

  • World Vision Canada

World Vision is a Christian relief, development and advocacy organization that works with children, families and communities around the world to deal with poverty and injustice.

Click here to donate

  • SOS Children’s Villages

This independent, non-governmental social development organization works to unite families, shape futures and develop communities and has been doing so since 1949.

Click here to donate

  • Samaritan’s Purse

This organization’s emergency relief programs provide assistance to victims of natural disaster, war, disease and famine, through provision of food, water and shelter.

Click here to donate

  • The Mennonite Central Committee

MCC’s work in Haiti over the past years has focused on reforestation and environmental education, human rights and advocacy for food security. MCC is responding to the Haiti earthquake with emergency assistance and long term reconstruction and trauma support.

Click here to donate

  • Mission Aviation Fellowship

Canadian branch of worldwide team of specialists, meeting the transportation andcommunications needs of overseas missions and relief and development organizations. They have a Canadian pilot in Haiti now.

Click here to donate

  • Centre d’etude et de cooperation internationale (CISC)

CISC is a private, not-for-profit corporation that fights poverty around the world, and has operations based in Haiti. The group’s head quarters are based in Montreal.

Click here to donate

  • FTC Canada

This Christian organization tackles hunger around the world, and has operations in Haiti, where it offers food and education to children.

Click here to donate

  • United Nations World Food Programme

While not a Canadian organization, the UN WFP is a major international agency devoted to fighting hunger around the world, and is voluntarily funded. It’s currently mobilizing all available resources to Haiti.

Click here to donate


A COUNTRY DEVASTATED:
The earthquake hit at a time when Haiti –devastated by hurricanes in 2008 and long plagued by poor governance, violence, and poverty — had seemingly turned a corner. With a U.N. peacekeeping mission, a new democratic government, and a growing economy, Haiti’s future appeared bright. Reuben Brigety and Natalie Ondiak of the Center for American Progress noted in a September report that Haiti was “currently experiencing one of the best combinations of open political space and physical security that the country has seen in decades.” Following the earthquake, U.N. Dispatch’s Mark Leon Goldberg lamented, “Haiti just can’t catch a break. For nearly five years, the small island nation has made slow but steady progress toward economic development and political stability. But it seems that just as the country is poised to turn a corner, an act of God, like yesterday’s devastating earthquake, sends Haiti reeling back. Preval called the death toll “unimaginable” and said he had no idea where he would sleep. The Miami Herald reported that “politicians and police struggled to keep the nation from descending into chaos.” To make matters worse, the headquarters of the U.N. mission, which had critically brought a semblance of order and stability to the country, was destroyed. Officials feared that many U.N. peacekeepers and employees are dead, including the head of the U.N. mission, who remains missing. This will likely be the deadliest tragedy in the agency’s history. Furthermore, aid groups in Haiti are not only “tallying their own casualties,” but those preparing to depart for the country are finding it exceptionally challenging to get on the ground as airports and ports have been damaged. But time is of the essence, as Alanna Shaikh of U.N. Dispatch, notes, because “Haitians now face a daunting set of health challenges, including typhoid, dengue fever, malaria, and getting treatment for serious injuries.

A SWIFT RESPONSE: The response from the United States, as well as the international community, has been swift. President Obama “moved quickly to send help to Haiti, pledging Wednesday that the Haitians and their devastated island nation would have the ‘unwavering support’ of the United States.” Politico’s Mike Allen reported that upon learning of the earthquake Tuesday night, the President convened his national security team “in the White House Situation Room at 10 p.m….with senior representatives from State, USAID, USUN, DOD, SOUTHCOM, JCS, DHS, Coast Guard and National Security and White House Staff to coordinate the government wide response, per the president’s request.” Obama explained, “Military overflights have assessed the damage, and by early afternoon our civilian disaster assistance teams are beginning to arrive.” Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has cut her trip to Asia short and is returning to Washington today to oversee the State Department’s response. Rajiv Shah, the new head of USAID, said the immediate goal of the relief effort over the next three days is to save lives. Gen. Douglas Fraser, commander of the U.S. Southern Command, said an aircraft carrier equipped with helicopters vital for ferrying supplies to the island will arrive shortly along with an amphibious ship and an expeditionary unit of 2,000 Marines. The Coast Guard has also sent vessels to help with the effort. Additionally, “search and rescue squads from Miami and Virginia, and cell phone repair engineers are making their way to Haiti.” The Pentagon is reportedly mulling sending thousands of additional troops to help with the relief efforts and to maintain order. The Obama administration has also announced that it will temporarily halt the deportations of undocumented Haitians. But “there was no immediate indication that the federal government would grant Haitian nationals Temporary Protected Status.”

PRIORITIZING DISASTER RESPONSE: Disaster response must be a critical foreign policy priority. When massive disasters strike around the world, the international community looks increasingly to the U.S. for help. Over this past decade, USAID, as well as the military — particularly the Navy and the Marines — have embraced this role and have been increasingly quick to respond, as their logistical capabilities make them the only ones able to get to devastated areas. CAP’s Lawrence J. Korb and Max Bergmann wrote in 2008, that while some claim these missions are a “distraction” from “hard” security concerns, “engaging in these operations promotes U.S. interests. … [S]uch missions act to maintain precious stability…improve the image of the U.S…and help cast our global military posture in a better light.” Nancy Soderberg and Brian Katulis noted in their recent book that “the previous administration’s finest foreign policy moments were the responses to the disaster relief.” Following the Indian Ocean Tsunami, earthquakes in Pakistan, and cyclones in Bangladesh, the U.S. military was deployed to help. As the Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Adm. Mike Mullen explained following the Indian Ocean Tsunami, “We literally built a city at sea for no other purpose than to serve the needs of other people.” This sort of response will be required in response to Haiti. However, there is more that the U.S. can do. Americans tend to believe that a vast amount of the federal budget is spent on foreign assistance when in reality less than 0.3 percent of the budget is spent on foreign aid. Haiti will need help not just over the next few weeks but over the coming months and years. With this in mind, a group of 14 senators have already requested additional spending for Haiti relief efforts and Obama has asked former Presidents Clinton and George W. Bush to help lead a bipartisan effort to get Haiti back on its feet.

MILITARY — ARMY PROSECUTES SINGLE MOTHER FOR REFUSING TO DEPLOY AND PUT HER SON IN FOSTER CARE: Specialist Alexis Hutchinson, a 21-year-old Army cook, refused to deploy to Afghanistan in November because she had no one to take care of her 10-month-old son. Hutchinson said that when she brought her situation to her superiors’ attention, they told her that she would have to deploy anyway and place the child in foster care. After skipping her unit’s flight out of Hunter Army Airfield in Savannah, GA, military police arrested her and confined her to the base while prosecutors decided how to proceed. Yesterday, the Army filed charges against her and, if convicted in a court-martial, she faces several years in prison and a dishonorable discharge. There are 70,500 single parents on active duty in the U.S. military, but cases like Hutchinson’s are “rare.” The Army requires all single-parent soldiers to submit a care plan for dependent children before they can deploy to a combat zone. Hutchinsonhad such a plan; her mother, who had agreed to care for the boy but became “overwhelmed” caring for three other relatives, decided she couldn’t keep the baby for a full year. An Army spokesman said the Army would not deploy a single parent with no one to care for his or her child.

A new U.N. survey has found that last year was the most lethal for Afghan civilians since 2001, with the Taliban causing a majority of noncombatant deaths. The report said 2,412 civilians were killed in 2009 — a 14 percent increase from the previous year. The number of civilians killed by NATO forces fell 28 percent.

President Obama and top Congressional Democrats held a marathon negotiating session” yesterday “in an effort to thrash out agreements on sweeping health care legislation.” Though no firm agreements were reached, Obama, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) said in a statement that they had made “significant progress in bridging the remaining gaps.”

Lloyd Blankfein, the chairman and chief executive of Goldman Sachs, admitted yesterday that the bank “engaged in ‘improper’ behavior in 2006 and 2007 when it made huge bets on a housing downturn while peddling as safe more than $40 billion in securities backed by risky U.S. home loans.” Blankfein’s acknowledgment came during the opening hearing of Congress’s Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission.

President Obama is expected to call today for “taxing about 50 big banks and major financial institutions for at least the next decade to recoup all taxpayer losses from the bailout of Wall Street.” The tax, if enacted, may raise nearly $90 billion.

A record 2.8 million households were threatened with foreclosure last year,” up 21 percent from 2008. “That number is expected to rise this year as more unemployed and cash-strapped homeowners fall behind on their mortgages.”

Lawyers for Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Adm. Mike Mullen “arerecommending a delay of at least a year in beginning the process to repeal the ban on openly gay military service.” However, other Pentagon advisers “argue that lifting the ban would not cause unmanageable problemsor divisions among the uniformed military.”

The Justice Department will announce today that it is “beginning a major campaign against banks and mortgage brokers suspected of discriminating against minority applicants in lending.” The new unit “willfocus exclusively on unfair lending practices.” The department “is hiring at least four lawyers and an economist for the new unit, while about half a dozen current staff members will transfer into it.”

And finally: While full body scanners at airports have been generating significant controversy, one group is throwing its full weight behind the devices. The American Association for Nude Recreation released a press release headlined, “Airport Scanning that ‘Takes It Off‘ is Good for America,” saying that the screenings are “completely worth it.”


Posted by on 01/14/2010. Filed under International. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry

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