HAITI

The earthquake that has battered Haiti is the worst natural disaster in this part of the world since the earthquake in Guatemala in 1976. Plenty is recommending that people donate to the smaller, less well-funded organizations that have people on the ground and pledge that 100% of your donation will go directly to their relief efforts. We are in touch with some of these groups and if you want to make your donation to them though Plenty, we will be pass along 100% of it to one or more of these groups. Meanwhile, Plenty has volunteers with emergency responder experience and medical skills standing by to go in whenever they can and you can designate your donation to support them when they are able to get there. Right now is the time for the heavy equipment and massive delivery of relief supplies that governments and the big relief agencies can manage. Soon the search and rescue phase will be over, but the emergency will not. Plenty is monitoring the situation closely. We were in Guatemala two weeks after the ’76 quake but stayed four years. We’re still in the Gulf four years after Katrina. The people of Haiti are going to need long-term commitments of basic support. While it has forever been the poorest country in the western hemisphere, it has also been the most neglected. Hopefully that period of neglect has ended.