Helping Haiti

Child’s shoes, Haiti, 2002


Following yesterday’s catastrophic earthquake in Haiti, many people in the Caribbean are keen to help with relief efforts. The MEP blog has posted a list of links to international agencies which are accepting money donations online, as well as information on groups based in Trinidad organising donation drives, including:

= Foodstuffs, blankets and clothing can be dropped off (please label all bags) to the COP (Congress of the People) Flagship Office on the corner of Tragarete Road and Broome Street in Port of Spain between 9am and 3pm

= ITNAC (Is There Not A Cause) is collecting non-perishable food items, clothing, bedding, temporary building supplies, medical supplies, and toiletries. For details, contact Avonelle Hector-Joseph (firstsamuel1729@yahoo.com) or Mellissa Lezama (868-714-5610/396-3330)

We urge all friends of Alice Yard to make a donation of some kind. Recovery from this disaster will be long, painful, and very expensive. It’s still unclear how many thousands of people have been injured or killed, and damage to Haiti’s infrastructure seems immense.

For ongoing coverage, see the Haiti Earthquake 2010 special coverage page at Global Voices.

UPDATES: Silicon Caribe has posted information on where to make donations of food, clothes, etc. in Jamaica.

Another list of relief links from Miami-based Jamaican writer Geoffrey Philp.

Other international NGOs who have launched appeals:

Partners in Health: community-based health services in Haiti
Architecture for Humanity: supporting infrastructure reconstruction, including earthquake-resistant housing

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The photo above was posted online by Christopher Cozier in 2008. He wrote:

“This was the only photo from my entire time while in Haiti. On my last visit [in 2002], I just could not take pictures. I had to ask a colleague (Karole Gizolme) to take this image for me. I noticed the shoes on the ground near to where I was sitting. Something about the way that the shoes had become so worn out struck me. I kept thinking that no one growing child could have worn that shoe long enough for it to become so worn down. The shoes were just on the ground in a yard in the Capital.”