Haitians were affected Saturday after a 7.2 magnitude earthquake took nearly 1,500 lives, decimating homes, schools, offices and churches across the country and leaving hospitals overwhelmed with thousands more injured.
Meanwhile, Grace lashed Haiti as a tropical depression on Monday, dumping up to 10 inches of rain before regaining tropical storm status early Tuesday. The heavy rains pelted people huddling in fields and searching for survivors.
To make matters worse, Haiti is also struggling with the coronavirus pandemic, recovery from other disasters, and the assassination last month of President Jovenal Moise.
Political leaders, volunteers and residents from across the globe have raised support and offered help for Haiti. Even more have asked how they can help. But nonprofit groups and experts say such factors will make fundraising for the nation even tougher.
And aid to Haiti has been probed for years and scrutiny compounded in 2015 when an investigation from ProPublica and NPR questioned where $500 million raised by the American Red Cross was spent. Their investigation found that the Red Cross had grossly overstated how many houses the organization built in the years after the 2010 Haitian earthquake, using portions of the money to cover overhead and management.
The American Red Cross said in an emailed statement to the Associated Press that it is not seeking donations for Haiti relief at this time, but will work with its partners — including the Haitian Red Cross and the Red Crescent — to respond to the earthquake. It also disputed the ProPublica-NPR findings.
How to help Haiti: List of organizations
Those that want to help the people of Haiti can check out the following organizations:
Partners in Health employs more than 6,300 staff, including 2,500 community health workers, to provide primary care, maternal and child health care, HIV and tuberculosis services, and more advanced secondary and tertiary care. They’re working to muster up hospital beds and outreach teams. Donate here.
SOIL has been working in some of the poorest areas in Haiti to facilitate the community-identified priority of ecological sanitation since before the 2010 earthquake. They have worked to “take emergency supplies to the areas affected and assess the need,” the organization wrote on their donation page. Donate here.
Locally Haiti has been working to secure requested items for medical workers, for families and for the school they founded in 1989. Donate here.
World Central Kitchen founder José Andrés said on Twitter that the organization that supplies meals to countries in need is ready to help. The organization later tweeted that “we have activated our culinary school kitchen in Port-au-Prince & also have a team in Jeremie working to get food in & distributed before the storm hits.” Donate here.
Hope for Haiti is working on the ground with relief efforts in Haiti. The Florida-based organization now gearing up to distribute $60 million worth of first aid supplies and medical equipment to help those affected. Donate here and tag your donation.
If you’re looking at another organization to donate to, use the web to find if an organization is legitimate. An easy way to test is by going to charitynavigator.org. It’s better to donate to local organizations, experts say, or organizations with Haitians on their staff and on the ground.
Haiti’s death toll from earthquake soars to 1,400 as Tropical Depression Grace dumps ‘torrential rains’
‘Losses will be high’:How Haiti’s earthquake compares with its 2010 quake in size, devastation
Contributing: Gabriela Miranda, USA TODAY; Associated Press
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