It is a catastrophe. If you want to help by making a donation, think of trying:
Medecins Sans Frontiers / Doctors without Borders (This link gives you a list of links for online donations from various countries; note the US link at the bottom of the page.)
The Red Cross (Note that donations here go to a general relief fund; if you want to specify Haiti, you’ll need to mail it in.)
It is hard to tell whether funds in some cases will go into a general fund or will be dedicated to Haitian relief efforts.
From the US State Department:
To help, text “HAITI” to “90999″ and a donation of $10 will be given automatically to the Red Cross to help with relief efforts, charged to your cell phone bill. Or visit Red Cross and Mercy Corps to contribute. Also call 1-888-407-4747
[...] “Thousands May Be Dead”: Donations To Help In Haiti « Feminist To help, text “HAITI” to “90999″ and a donation of $10 will be given automatically… [...]
This collection of links from the Huffington Post looks pretty comprehensive; it includes a link for Partners in Health, which (I am told in an e-mail from the h-med-anthro listserv) has been providing medical care in Haiti for quite some time now.
Thanks so much, lga.
Partners in Health is an amazing organization based in Cambridge/Boston and has done great work in Haiti empowering the people to develop health care solutions “based in solidarity, not just charity”. They work not only on immediate care, but political solutions as well:
http://www.pih.org/home.html
Paul Farmer was one of the founders:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Farmer
Thanks for putting this up!
You might also find this information useful when selecting what charity to donate to (thanks to a Facebook friend of mine who compiled that info from here):
CEO/ED salaries:
American Red Cross: $565,000;
CARE: $397,000;
Oxfam: $368,000;
Save the Children: $360,000;
American Jewish World Service: $250,000;
Doctors without Borders: $116,000;
MADRE: $87,000;
Partners in Health: $74,000;
The Lambi Fund of Haiti: $48,000