Help the People of Haiti!

Many of us who want to help the Haitian people in their time of crisis are wondering which organizations to support and which ones will most reliably and efficiently help the Haitian populace.

From several days and many hours researching on the web and our collective memory, we are basing our choices on what we have learned from relief work and volunteer experience in West Africa: the most effective nonprofit and nongovernmental organizations are those committed to grassroots action in urban and rural communities, with experience working with the people on the ground, all the while giving respect to the people and upholding human rights.

African Family Film Foundation and African Family Children’s Fund continue to be engaged in relief and recovery efforts in West Africa following the recent deluge, which was for millions of West Africans the greatest flood in living memory.

For more information on our relief efforts and work in Africa, see text at bottom.

How you can assist and stand in solidarity with the Haitian people in their struggle for survival and respect following the January 12, 2010 earthquake:

AFRICAN FAMILY FILM FOUNDATION recommends you support the following nonprofit and nongovernmental organizations during this crisis in Haiti and beyond. These NPO’s/NGO’s have a direct connection with the people of Haiti. They have experience of helping people on the ground in Haiti, and simultaneously respecting human rights in Haiti.

Partners In Health

20 years experience, Partners in Health, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, is on the ground in Haiti, doing tremendous work. Dr. Paul Farmer, co-founder, is a true inspiration. We recommend you watch Amy Goodman interview with Dr. Paul Farmer on Democracy Now, May 28, 2008.
http://www.democracynow.org/2008/5/28/dr_paul_farmer_challenges_profit_driven

The Zanmi Lasante/ Partners in Health medical center is located in the Central Plateau of Haiti and delivers health care through a network of clinics in that region of the country. It also trains Haitians as doctors and health professionals. The health center survived the earthquake and is moving to deliver aid to the disaster zone. This medical center has become the provider of the best health care in Haiti and primarily serves the poorest Haitians!

Update: Partners in Health is now running Haiti’s public hospital in Port-au-Prince. PIH has also released a statement calling for organizations to offer aid that respects human rights in Haiti. The statement was released in conjunction with groups such as Mario Joseph and Brian Concannon’s Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti (also recommended, see below).

http://www.standwithhaiti.org/haiti
http://www.pih.org

By mail, send check with “Haiti Earthquake Relief” in the memo line to:
Partners In Health
P.O. Box 845578
Boston, MA 02284-5578

Haiti Emergency Relief Fund

Grassroots nonprofit organization, supported by Haiti Action Committee, with 19 years experience of standing up for the people of Haiti. Haiti Action has supported Haiti’s struggle for democracy since 1991.

Pierre Labossiere, Haitian, Board Member and co-founder of Haiti Action, and his colleagues are totally dedicated to helping the Haitian people.

Pierre Labossiere and Kevin Pina, independent investigative journalist who has stood up for the Haitian people for years, introduced Father Gerard Jean-Juste (1946-2009) to the San Francisco Bay Area community.

Father Gerard Jean-Juste preached liberation of the poor, release of prisoners, human rights for all, and a fair distribution of wealth. He constantly challenged both the powers of Haiti and the US to stop killing, starving and imprisoning the poor. He slept on the floor of his church, St. Claire, which provided meals to thousands of hungry children and adults every week. Father Gerry will be missed but not forgotten by the Haitian people, and by all who embrace true democracy and justice throughout the world.

In 2004, on the 200th anniversary of the slave uprising and founding of Haiti, the first independent Black Nation in modern history, Haiti Action Committee was founded, following the 2004 coup d’etat that forced the elected president of Haiti, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, from office and imposed a two-year regime of human rights violations whose consequence continues today.

To better understand the politrix and outside meddling, we recommend you read January 17, 2010 article by Richard Roth, Board Member, Haiti Action Committee:http://www.haitisolidarity.net/article.php?id=368

PRESIDENT JEAN-BERTRAND ARISTIDE speaks from South Africa: http://www.haitisolidarity.net/article.php?id=372

Allow Aristide to Return to Haiti Now by Kevin Pina: http://www.haitiaction.net/News/HIP/1_13_10/1_13_10.html
http://www.HaitiSolidarity.net/

In association with the Haiti Action Committee of San Francisco Bay Area and the East Bay Sanctuary Covenant, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, Haiti Emergency Relief Fund delivers resources directly to grassroots organizations in Haiti.

http://www.haitiaction.net/About/HERF/HERF.html

By mail:
Haiti Emergency Relief Fund/EBSC
East Bay Sanctuary Covenant
2362 Bancroft Way Berkeley, CA 94704

What if? Foundation

10 years experience, What if? Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, founded in 2000, is on the ground in Haiti, making an impact with children at risk. Margaret Trost, founder, is another true inspiration.

Mission statement: to feed and educate impoverished children in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, providing hope and opportunity for a brighter future.

Earthquake relief: http://whatiffoundation.org/blog/earthquake-relief/
Goals: http://whatiffoundation.org/about/goals/

http://whatiffoundation.org/

By mail, please indicate “earthquake relief” in the memo of your check.
What If? Foundation
1563 Solano Ave., #192
Berkeley, CA 94707

Doctors Without Borders/ Médecins Sans Frontières

39 years experience, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is an international medical humanitarian organization created by doctors and journalists in France in 1971.

MSF is working in more than 60 countries to assist people whose survival is threatened by violence, neglect, or catastrophe, primarily due to armed conflict, epidemics, malnutrition, exclusion from health care, or natural disasters.

In 1999, MSF received the Nobel Peace Prize.

MSF teams are working to provide surgery and basic care to as many patients as possible in Haiti, but needs continue to outstrip available resources.http://doctorswithoutborders.org/news/article.cfm?id=4168&cat=field-news&ref=home-center-relatedlink

http://doctorswithoutborders.org/
http://www.msf.ca/news-media/news/2010/01/haiti-update/

Operation USA

31 years experience, Operation USA has been on the ground, engaged in relief work since 1979, helping people in need in 99 countries. Richard Walden, founder/president is another true inspiration.

Mission statement: Operation USA helps communities alleviate the effects of disasters, disease and endemic poverty throughout the world by providing privately-funded relief, reconstruction and development aid. We provide material and financial assistance to grassroots organizations that promote sustainable development, leadership and capacity building, income generating activities, provide education and health services, and advocate on behalf of vulnerable people.

Operation USA has a solid track record working in Haiti following the 2008 hurricane crisis. http://www.opusa.org/projects/haiti-feeding-program/

Operation USA is often the first or one of the first NGO’s to respond to a disaster with emergency supplies.

Co-recipient of the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize as part of “The International Campaign to Ban Landmines”

If you’re interested in volunteering in Haiti, read this: http://www.opusa.org/featured/haiti-response-update-resources-for-volunteer-opportunities-in-haiti/

We highly recommend you read Richard Walden’s article in Huffington Post: “Lessons for Haiti and You From Earthquakes and other Natural Disasters”:http://www.huffingtonpost.com/richard-walden/lessons-for-haiti-and-you_b_421089.html

http://www.opusa.org

By mail:
3617 Hayden Avenue, Suite A
Culver City, California 90232
Phone 310.838.3455
Toll free 800.678.7255

Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti

14 years experience, Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti (IJDH), a nongovernmental organization, has been working in Haiti since 1996.

Mission statement: To work with the people of Haiti in their non-violent struggle for the return and consolidation of constitutional democracy, justice and human rights, by distributing objective and accurate information on human rights conditions in Haiti, pursuing legal cases, and cooperating with human rights and solidarity groups in Haiti and abroad.

IJDH draws on its founders’ internationally-acclaimed success accompanying Haiti’s poor majority in the fields of law, medicine and social justice activism. We seek the restoration of the rule of law and democracy in the short term, and work for the long-term sustainable change necessary to avert Haiti’s next crisis.

Read Brian Concannon’s: Half-Hour for Haiti: Responding to Haiti’s Devastation http://www.ijdh.org/pdf/alert1-14-10.pdf
http://www.ijdh.org/

By mail:
PO Box 745
Joseph OR 97846
541-432-0597

Yéle Haiti

5 years experience, Yéle Haiti Foundation, a 501(c)((3) nonprofit, created in 2005 by Wyclef Jean, Haitian singer (formerly with the Fugees), to help the people of Haiti.

In one appeal, Yéle Haiti is asking for specific items to send: energy bars, sheets & blankets (new with unopened wrapping/packages), mechanically cranked or solar powered flashlights, candles.

In recent days, Yéle Haiti has come under attack. We spent hours researching this and believe Wyclef Jean and Yéle Haiti have a track record for doing great work helping the Haitian people in education, the environment, sports and the arts. Please check out a video and articles that lay out the controversy and Yéle Haiti’s response:http://www.hiphopdx.com/index/news/id.10451/title.wyclefs-yele-called-in-to-question-set-to-host-hope-for-
http://www.cbc.ca/arts/media/story/2010/01/18/wyclef-yele-funds-presser.html
http://www.ballerstatus.com/2010/01/16/wyclef-jeans-yele-haiti-foundation-under-fiscal-scrutiny-charity-clef-responds/

Brothers and sisters, friends of Haiti and Africa, this is the time to stand tall. Yelé Haiti is more than a nongovernmental organization, it’s a movement and it’s connecting with the people, the youth, the disenfranchised, and now the suffering, the homeless, the dead and the dying. Could that possibly be why some want to dis it? When you look at what they’ve done in five years, what they have already accomplished, Yéle Haiti deserves our approbation and respect.

http://yele.org/mission-programs/

Wyclef is scheduled to co-host a telethon to raise money for the Earthquake survivors in Haiti alongside actor George Clooney and CNN’s Anderson Cooper. The two hour “Hope For Haiti” telethon will take place Friday, January 22 and air live, commercial free on MTV, ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, CNN, BET, the CW, HBO, VH1 and CMT. One hundred percent of the donations will go to Oxfam America, Partners in Health, Red Cross, UNICEF and Wyclef’s Yele Haiti Foundation.

http://yele.org/blog/2010/1/18/devastation-in-haiti-by-barack-obama.html
http://yele.org/

RN RN / RN Response Network & National Nurses United

RNRN, RN Response Network, project of California Nurses Foundation a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, have created “Send A Nurse” Disaster Relief Fund.

RNRN/NNU/California Nurses Foundation does not have a track record in Haiti, but we believe they could do tremendous work. Within one week after the earthquake in Haiti, more than 11,000 nurses from the US and 12 other countries have volunteered to go to Haiti!

http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_14213791
http://www.calnurses.org/media-center/press-releases/2010/january/nearly-7-500-rns-ready-to-deploy-to-haiti.html

ALERT! READ THIS and then get active: http://ga1.org/cna/notice-description.tcl?newsletter_id=26921977
http://www.sendanurse.org/

By mail:
Make checks payable to RNRN/NNU
c/o California Nurses Foundation
2000 Franklin St. Oakland, CA 94612

To better understand Haiti’s history and agony, we highly recommend you check out: •Amy Goodman interview with Randall Robinson, Founder of TransAfrica, on Democracy Now, Jan 15, 2010. http://www.democracynow.org/2010/1/15/bush_was_responsible_for_destroying_haitian

To learn about the U.S. Response, we recommend you check out:

 

Please give what you can and share this email. Please forward to family and friends.

We must stand in solidarity with the people of Haiti as we are standing with the people of West Africa following the greatest flood in living memory.

For more information on our relief efforts and work in Africa, please visit:

http://www.africanfamily.org

Feel free to contact us.

Thank you for your kind generosity and compassion.

Wend na kaoos a yamba! *

Bring Peace!

Taale Laafi Rosellini
Founder/Director
African Family Film Foundation
African Family Children’s Fund
http://www.africanfamily.org
friends@africanfamily.org

*may the Great Spirit prolong you!

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