Photo via Boston.com and(AP Photo/American Red Cross) I'm sure you, like me, have felt both helpless and horrified as you've seen the photos and video coming from Haiti.
Such suffering, on such an epic scale, can cause us to go nearly numb. How do we process what we see? And beyond that, what are we supposed to do?
We're thousands of miles away. Most of us have no crisis response training. We aren't skilled in disaster area medical services, trauma counseling, or emergency water and sanitation strategies.
We're in the middle of a recession and battling our own challenges--dwarfed though they may be by the losses faced by the people of Haiti--and yet, if you're like me, you want to do more than throw $20 at the problem and console yourself that you've done what you could.
If I could, I would be on the ground right this second. Doing anything, ANYTHING I could to relieve their suffering. And honestly, I'm still looking for ways to make that happen.
But until then, I thought a practical list of how to respond to this crisis from a distance might be helpful. For myself, and for anyone else who wants it.
GIVE MONEY- Obviously there's a huge need for finances in a situation like this. If you want to do more than send a few dollars to a random aid organization, here's what you can do:
Raise awareness for your aid organization of choice. Talk to your church, your child's school, your employer. See if they would like to be involved in raising funds for the organization and give as a group.
If you're looking for an aid organization, Dennis and I, and my company, PulsePoint Design, have partnered for many years with Medair. We know these people. They are honest, financially responsible, and incredibly savvy in their crisis response efforts. Their first crisis response team leaves for Haiti tomorrow, and they could sure use your support. Rally your online community to donate. Blog, post tweets, share links on Facebook to relevant information, and to your aid organization's donation page.
There are many scams going around to profit from people's desire to give. If your agency of choice is reputable, and you know that for sure, share that information.
Run a fundraiser. Do you have items you could auction? Things you could sell on eBay? Enough stuff for a yard sale? SELL THEM NOW!
People are dying as I type this. They're bleeding to death alone, trapped beneath piles of concrete, and those cold jagged blocks will be the last things they ever see because there's not enough gasoline for the bulldozers to get them out.
The finances we could raise through sales of our extra stuff might mean the difference between life and death for some of these people and the aid organizations trying so hard to help them.
GIVE TIME-
Support Haitians here. Do you have a Haitian community in your city? Many of these people are in agony, waiting to hear whether their loved ones are dead. Maybe you could take them a meal. Maybe you could sit and simply wait with them for news (No Pat Robertson-type comments, as you sit, please). Maybe they need some kind of logistical help--- childcare, transportation, help posting to forums about their missing loved ones.
Volunteer. If you have experience working overseas and skills in communication, medicine, logistics, construction, water and sanitation, or as a French Creole translator, you can register with the CIDI: http://www.cidi.org/reg_off.htm or contact your aid organization of choice to see if they need you.
If you're a member of the military, you can volunteer to deploy during the US military response.
You can also volunteer time at a local aid office branch (like the Red Cross, etc) to help them with administrative tasks of getting the word out about the crisis.
Adopt a Missionary. Does your church, or a church in your hometown have a missionary on the ground in Haiti? If so, what do they need? Can you send them e-mails or post comments of support and encouragement on their blog or Twitter account? (No Pat Robertson-type "encouragement", please) Can you help them do things they can't do right now because they lack phone and internet connections?
I don't know this missionary couple, but I've been following the Livesay's blog here: http://www.livesayhaiti.blogspot.com/ to understand what they're facing and what other missionaries on the ground are surely facing as well.
GIVE PRAYER- If you're a person of faith, you've got endless prayer opportunity with this crisis. Since I've worked in a third-world crisis area, I thought I'd focus on some ways to pray for the crisis response teams.
Pray for Safety. Haiti has always been a dangerous place- with gangs, drugs, murders and muggings common- these issues are obviously exacerbated now by desperation, anger, and fear.
People offering aid are often in danger of mobbing by victims desperate for help. Bases handling aid supplies face constant risk of armed robbery.
Pray for Logistics. Transportation in the country is a nightmare right now. As of today, all civil air flights into Haiti have been banned because the airport cannot accomodate the planes and they have no fuel for return flights. Most of the roads are blocked or littered with bodies. The government doesn't have sufficient machinery (trucks, bulldozers, etc) to distribute the aid that's arriving. The infrastructure hasn't slowed to a crawl, it has collapsed.
Also, there are few safe accommodations available. After an earthquake like this, even buildings that are still standing are structurally unsound.
Water and food supplies, which were already limited in this suffering country, are now even more limited. So aid teams will face very difficult living conditions.
Pray for Physical Strength & Health. Disaster response teams often work endless hours, with little food and little time for sleep. Demands on their physical reserves are spectacular. They will be covered in dirt and blood daily. They will battle mosquitoes, heat, dangers of upper respiratory infections from all the debris in the air. Infectious diseases of all kinds will be a major danger as sanitation problems grow.
Pray for Emotional Strength. How would you handle it if a man ran up to you begging for help for his bleeding baby daughter whose mother died in the quake, and you had to send him away? How would you handle seeing trucks piled with dead bodies. People dragging along the roads with arms and legs crushed? People whose minds have literally snapped under the weight of the tragedy?
How would you handle the sheer volume of misery, death, and destruction if you couldn't look away to catch your breath?
These teams need so much prayer for what they will see and experience. Raw human suffering of any kind is devastating. Suffering of these levels will require emotions of steel within the hearts of the aid providers.
This isn't a conclusive list, by any means. There are so many creative people out there, and I know we can each think of creative ways to help during this crisis.
What we must NOT do is nothing. I beg you to act on behalf of your fellow man, not just for their sakes, but for your own.
If we see suffering like this and let our busy schedules, a sense of helplessness, or a lack of purposeful action eclipse us, we fail them and endanger ourselves. Failure to act makes us numb, passive, and increases our sense of helplessness when the next crisis strikes.
I refuse to let numbness and inaction dull me to the needs of this nation in ruin. Join me.
It's Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte season, and I, as a tea drinker, always get a little wistful when I see those gorgeous, (coffee-polluted ;) lattes showing up at the orders counter.
But! Fellow tea, drinkers, we shall be wistful no more!
I've modified a recipe from thekitchn.com (shout out to Holly Hoffman for that recipe) and created a Pumpkin Spice Chai Latte recipe!!
Here's the recipe:
Pumpkin Spice Chai Latte makes 1-2 servings
Ingredients: 2 cups milk 2 tablespoons canned pumpkin or 1 teaspoon of Torani Pumpkin Spice Syrup (your choice) 1 tablespoon white sugar 1 tablespoon brown sugar 2 tablespoons vanilla extract 1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice 1/2 cup of Oregon Chai concentrate
Directions: In a saucepan combine milk, pumpkin, Chai concentrate and sugar, and cook on medium heat, stirring, until steaming. Remove from heat, stir in vanilla and spice, transfer to a blender or whisk briskly with a wire whisk for 30 seconds.
Pour into a large mug or two mugs. Optional: Add whipped cream and pumpkin pie spice, nutmeg, or cinnamon on top.
Welcome to the deep thoughts of Kelli Standish- frequent adventurer, occasional poet, constant pilgrim.
About Me:
Name: Kelli Standish Home: Corpus Christi, Texas, United States About Me: Insatiable: reader,
Hopeless: visionary,
Idealist: still,
Irresistible: the color green, script fonts, French soap, tea, travel, languages, Rich Mullins music.
Joy: sand between toes, cats, Moroccan decor, Greek, African, East Indian, Hawaiian, and Mexican food. See my complete profile
"Where is God? Go to Him when your need is desperate, when all other help is vain, and what do you find? A door slammed in your face, and a sound of bolting and double-bolting on the inside. After that, silence." ~CS Lewis~
