This post will stay at the top of the page all day today. Scroll down for the usual blog updates as I'll be posting them below this post.
You've seen the pictures, you've read the stories, and you can't
help but be heartbroken for the hundreds of thousands of people in
Haiti who have suffered tremendous loss this week. Loss we cannot even comprehend as we sit in our heated homes on our comfortable sofas with plenty of food to eat, a roof over our heads, and luxuries like access to the internet at our fingertips.
We all want to do something to help these people, but it can be a little overwhelming to even know where to start. There are hundreds of thousands of people in dire need.
However, while each of us likely don't
have the resources to feed, clothe, and provide medical services to
hundreds of thousands of people, if we all do something, we can and will make a difference.
So, today, I'm calling you to action. And here's what I'm asking you to do:
1) Pray–Pray
for these destitute people to have the provision they need. Pray for
the mothers and fathers who are left childless. Pray for the children
who are left motherless and fatherless. The heartache
and suffering they are experiencing is unimaginable to us.They need miracles; they need hope;
they need our prayers.
2) Give–There are so many different ways you can give and no matter your financial situation, there is something you do. Even if it seems like it's a drop in the bucket, remember that a bucket of water is made up of that–drops!
Here are three ways I would encourage you to give:
::Give to Compassion International, an organization dedicated to help children who are living in poverty. Our family has supported Compassion for quite some time and we feel they are truly wisely stewarding their resources to the best of their abilities.
All funds raised in response to the Haiti
earthquake will be used immediately to provide for Compassion-assisted
children and families affected by this crisis. Any funds raised in
excess will be stewarded by Compassion for additional and future
disaster relief efforts.
::Give to Numana, Inc., an organization dedicated to giving food to the starving. One of my friends works closely with Numana and I also believe this to be an organization worthy of your donations. They are currently providing thousands of meals to the people of Haiti. For only $0.30, you can donate one meal to a starving person in Haiti.
::Give to the Red Cross. You can donate online here or you can text “Haiti” to 90999 to send a $10 donation to the Red Cross relief efforts in Haiti.
Some of my readers have told me they are eating from the pantry
this month and donating the extra to Haiti. One of my readers, who is
on a very limited budget, told me they donated their small amount of
"fun money" to help those in Haiti.
No matter the size of your budget, you can likely spare $1 or $2–which can go quite far in Haiti! Even if you can't afford to give money, you can likely come up with something you can do. Which is where point number 3 comes in…
3) Blog–Today I want to encourage you to blog about what you've done to help those in Haiti. I want to
hear your stories of how you are helping–even on a small budget. Get creative,
think outside the box, there's something everyone can do. And every
little bit helps!
Plus, for every person who blogs about what you specifically did to help
those in Haiti and leaves your link below by January 21, 2010, my
husband and I will personally donate $10 to Compassion's outreach in
Haiti.
If you don't have a blog, you can leave a comment on this post or email
me with details on what you specifically did to help. For every person
who comments or emails telling me what they did to help, my husband and
I will donate $0.30 to Numana to provide one meal for a starving person.
But wait, there's more–and this is the really exciting part!
Yesterday, I put a call out for other bloggers to team up with me in this "Help For Haiti" Project. I expected a few might come forward, but I was blown away at the response!
Are you ready for this? Every single one of the following bloggers have committed to donate to Haiti in some way, shape, or form to each person who stops by their blog and leaves a link or a comment:
The Simple Life of the Boreings
This is so incredible, folks! What are you waiting for? Do something and blog about it and then come back here and link up on this post and visit all the other bloggers above to link up as well.
THANK YOU for being a part of this exciting opportunity! Together, we can make a major impact in the lives of people who desperately need our help!
———————-
Want to join in the "Help for Haiti" Project? Please leave your link below to your post (click here to do so if you're reading via feed or email) on what you have specifically done to help those in Haiti. My husband and I will personally donate $10 to Compassion for every link left below which meets this criteria. Don't have a blog? Leave a comment (click here to do so) telling us what you have done to help those in Haiti. My husband and I will also donate $0.30 to Numana for every comment left on this post which meets that criteria.
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I’ve made contributions to the Red Cross and Doctors Without Borders. Here’s hoping many more people will make donations as well!
We are praying for Haiti.
Thank you, Crystal, for your post. We will be donating our grocery money (saved from the Eating from the Pantry Challenge) to the Red Cross.
Hi – My husband and myself have been watching the devastation in Haiti. It has touched the both of us so much. I am a stay at home mom, so we are getting by on one income but we still felt the need to give. We decided to donate money to the American Red Cross. We also challenged friends to do the same. We are not movie stars that can donate millions but every little bit helps and just think if everyone donated only $10 what that could add up to. Some people have said well this isn’t our country to help – I say we are all a part of planet Earth! This is not about who we are or wher we live.
I linked above but am afraid that my efforts won’t “count” yet, so I want to explain. Right now, “all” I’m doing is praying and pointing others to reputable organizations through which they can give. In the future though, our MOPS discussion group will be leading up an effort to help get a Compassion Child Survival Program Center back up and running, our small group is looking to collect funds to donate (and I’m hoping will do more than just that), and I’m working to mobilize people to donate supplies at a local church that World Vision will take to Haiti (collection doesn’t start until Sunday though, so I haven’t actually “done” anything personally yet).
Anyway, maybe “mobilizing others” counts. If not, then I’ll link again once I’ve actually “done” something.
I used $20 of my Discover Card CashBack bonus money to give to the Red Cross, which Discover is matching up to $1 million for folks who do this!
Thank you so much for your work in helping to raise money for those who so desperately need it. It truly is more blessed to give than to receive. Our family donated money to Compassion International’s disaster relief fund for Haiti. We sponsor a child through Compassion who lives in Honduras. We are praying for all those affected by this earthquake and thanking God for people like you who are motivating others to give!
donated $50 to Food for the Hungry through Klove.com ‘s website. God Bless you for your efforts in this!
I gave $5.00 to Compassion International.
My husband and I are giving through our church’s mission organization and we had a special offering and time of prayer last night at church for Haiti.
Thank you for doing this – every little bit will help! And it looks like there will be lots of “little bits” all over the internet the next several days.
My family donated the American Red Cross on Wednesday.
Thanks for all you do and making me aware of some very reputable places to donate. I will be donating to Compassion International.
I just donated $10, but will be donating futher later today. You have presented us all with some wonderful challenges to help, in whatever way possible. Thank you! Keep praying, everyone!
I plan to donate.
Thank you for doing this! I donated $25 through my daughter’s high school just this morning.
Thank you for being so generous with your donations. I’ve donated to Compassion, and I’ve blogged about our plans here:
http://superiorgirls.blogspot.com/2010/01/haiti.html
(I’m new to blogging, so I’m not quite sure if you were hoping to have people link up differently. If so, I apologize!)
I gave $10 through texting Compassion!
Thank you for doing this. The people of Haiti are in our prayers.
My mom and I are going to help pack meals with Numana this weekend. Something I have been wanting to do for awhile, but this has just pushed me over the edge!
while I don’t have a blog, I have a facebook account as the Coupon Gal. I linked your site to all of my friends. Thanks for all you do. I donated $20 to LDS church’s Humanitarian aid fund.
I donated through Food for the Poor, an organization that has been serving impoverished people throughout the Caribbean and Latin America since 1982. Over 96% of your donation goes toward programs to help the poor. Thankyou Crystal for your generous efforts to help the people of Haiti.
I don’t blog, but I wanted to let you know that my husband and I donated through http://www.samaritanspurse.org/. We also use Compassion for a lot of our donations. Both are very good charities!
Also, I read an article about donating with credit cards and how the credit card companies get richer off of disaster donations due to their “transaction fees”. Both the charities above use can donate with an electronic check instead, so ALL the money goes to those who need it.
I donated $50 at redcross.org and designated it as Haiti Relief.
Our family is planning to give. Our church ususally takes up an offering for disasters like this, so we plan to give through our church. They give the money to a missionary or organization they trust to help distribute the money. If our church doesn’t take up an offering, we plan to donate the money through Compassion Int. Thank you for your generous heart.
My family donated $25 to the American Red Cross.
Donation to Partners in Health (pih.org), a group that’s been providing health care in Haiti for a number of years. Thank you for your generosity.
I gave $10.00 to the Red Cross on their website.
Haiti is in my prayers…
Just sent my text to the Red Cross and posted your link on my facebook so that others can find a way to contribute as well. It is incredible to see so many coming together to help the people of Haiti. Crystal, thank you for putting this together
Your post brought tears to my eyes! One person CAN make a difference. Thanks for doing this, Crystal. It allows everyone to be a part of helping. I’m praying for the victims and their families!
Love Compassion! We have sponsored a little girl in Indonesia for almost a year now. I cannot say enough good things about them. God Bless
Great Idea Crystal. My husband and I decided to give to the Salvation Army’s relief fund for this disaster. What a good feeling it is to know that every little bit helps. God Bless.
Just sent $10 to Red Cross.
My husband and I donated twenty dollars to Doctors Without Borders, a great group that is really needed right now. They already have three clinics on the ground in Haiti, but all were damaged, and personnel are still missing. They’re flying in an inflatable surgical suite to help with the rescue efforts.
What an amazing thing you are doing. Your family has such a giving heart.
This is awesome! I have been praying for Haiti and plan to donate money…I think to Samaritan’s purse. My husband and I already agreed on an amount so I just need to make up my mind which organization to donate to. Thanks for doing this!
I just donated $35 to Compassion! Thank you so much for all you do and your generosity with this campaign
Thanks for giving and for this awesome post. I have donated to the Red Cross and UNICEF. If anyone needs any ideas of where to donate, Yahoo has a great post on their homepage saying how you can help. Thanks again!
I am giving at least $10 via text and more through the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints Philanthropies here: https://secure3.convio.net/ldsp/site/Donation2?df_id=1861&1861.donation=form1&s_src=14703. They do so much to help in disasters such as this. Good place to donate your money!
I gave $15 through Red Cross. My heart goes out to the people Haiti.
We’re donating $100 to the Humanitarian Fund of our church.
We’ve been collecting pop cans (refundable deposit) to donate $ to others–this is what we’ll be giving the money to! Our church (www.freemethodistchurch.org) denominationally has several missionaries in Haiti (three are still missing in the debris–please pray for their recovery!) and is able to give 100% of the donations to help the people!
Thanks for your work in this, too!
Yesterday we donated $200 to Samaritan’s Purse to help Haiti. As a single income teacher, this is somewhat significant for us, but since we are Eating out of the Pantry this month, I think we will save close to that amount.
I also want to encourage people who are considering adoption.
When things stabilize, there will be SO many children who need forever families. Holt Intl (the oldest international adoption agency in the world and is based in Oregon) already has an adoption program in Haiti. I’m sure that everything will be on hold for a while, but please, please begin to pray for the orphans in Haiti.
Very well done! congrats
I’ve donated $50 to CARE
we donated 100 dollars to msf/doctor’s without borders. the canadian government will match that donation. I don’t have a blog but would post it there if i did. i will pass this site and others on to all that i can. thanks.
Cyrstal, You can see my post on facebook about what we are doing through compassion.
We donated half our monthly grocery budget to Samaritan’s Purse.
THANK YOU for doing this!!
I made a donation to “Compassion”.
We donated $1 on ebay yesterday
What a great idea! You are so inspiring and generous! We’ve been praying for the people there. And trying to be an encouragement to some of our friends here whose family/friends are in Haiti. I’m sure we’ll be doing a financial donation at some point too, but that has yet to be determined.
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