As you may know, Haiti got hit with a magnitude 6+ aftershock today, so the bad news there continues. If you want to give money to help, here are some good charities:
I’m sure there are many more, but these are good places to give your money. We’ve seen a lot of truly awful groups using tragedies to do useless things, so please make sure the money you send goes directly to help the Haitians by assisting them with medical supplies and doctors.
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January 20th, 2010 at 4:02 pm
I am not a personal fan of the Red Cross, at least the American Red Cross, because of their discrimination against homosexuals.
January 20th, 2010 at 4:33 pm
@Jeremy It’s not the American Red Cross that’s discriminatory, it’s the FDA:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18827137/
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=10540971
(unless you’re talking about something other than the ban preventing homosexual men from donating blood)
January 20th, 2010 at 4:40 pm
I think that’s the Salvation Army you’re thinking of.
1st page of Google results for “American red cross homosexual” speaks for itself, pretty much being attacked from both sides. Make of that what you will.
No reports of damage from the last aftershock. (5.9, not 6+). Mostly since people are already sleeping outside for that very reason.
January 20th, 2010 at 4:52 pm
The U.S. Fund for UNICEF says it will absorb all related administrative costs so that all donations go directly to the relief effort. http://www.unicefusa.org/
January 20th, 2010 at 5:02 pm
Scientologists continue to amaze me with their mindless opportunism. The people of Haiti need food, water, and medicine — not whack jobs who want to help them discover their inner child or whatever it is these nuts believe in (cf: project clambake).
January 20th, 2010 at 5:14 pm
Thank you Phil.
January 20th, 2010 at 5:19 pm
The US Red Cross issue… is that not a law? Which would mean it’s not the RC’s fault.
Anyways, Doc’s without borders is always the best choice for international stuff IMO.
January 20th, 2010 at 6:13 pm
I’ve worked for both Doctors without Borders and UNICEF, they are non-partisan and very effective organizations. Also, UNICEF focuses mostly on children (and secondary being mothers/parents), and I can tell you from personal experience, there are many children needing help in Haiti- now more than ever.
Anyone in doubt of an organization’s intentions should check those two out.
January 20th, 2010 at 6:15 pm
Not sure how many millions Pat Robertson has socked away, but I think he should give at least half of his net worth to Haiti after that unbelievable comment he made regarding “why the earthquake happened.”
January 20th, 2010 at 8:27 pm
Thank you Dr.Phil for this.
January 20th, 2010 at 11:07 pm
think donations to the tsunami victimc….what ever happened to all the 100dreds of millions …..it all disappeared.
With all the able bodied people standing around, a few good D.I.’s could organize human lines to transfer all the supplies.
A TV crew showed a church group organize this. They collected their own money to go BUY food. It was cooking in a great pot on the church grounds.
If all the white people had more respect for others and not need to be seen as the great helpers people would be willing to help themselves. They just need a leader or leaders to give the example. They are all cought up with the idea of “helping”
January 21st, 2010 at 12:19 am
Those people could sure use a lot of help!
January 21st, 2010 at 2:51 am
I can’t believe people out there actually give aid based on religious belief .. or not, or if some aid organisation has a belief they don’t like or not. Isn’t all the money going to help quake victims?
I wonder if the quake victims give a f*ck where aid is coming from, as long as it gets there.
God this athiest/v/religion thing is petty.
January 21st, 2010 at 3:09 am
jest
I agree, and so should danny glover who made the ignorant comment blaming the earthquake on global warming.
January 21st, 2010 at 3:30 am
Wow – 6 is still pretty violent and would flatten many buildings in many parts of the world.
@quasidog: If you believe that all religious organizations put all that money into aid, you’d be so very very wrong. Some will put most of that money into helping out while others will put virtually none of that money into helping out. Others will even squander that money on useless things like bibles; in my younger years I’ve been in really remote areas helping out after disasters like this and there’s really no use for those bibles. It’s best to give to the organizations which won’t skim off so much; that way the Haitians get more out of it.
January 21st, 2010 at 4:38 am
14 – what you write is true of charitable organizations whether you include the word religious or not (with the exception of the bibles). Whether religious or not, some organizations use the money well, some not so well. See, e.g., Wyclef Jean’s non-religious organization that appears now to have been raising money primarily for Jean and his associates.
January 21st, 2010 at 5:24 am
To anyone who has asked the non-faith community why the Non-Believers Giving Aid is necessary and criticizing The (Truly) Amazing Randi, Richard Dawkins et al: This is the answer. This and probably a lot of other garbage-charities we’ll be hearing about in the near future. We wanted to donate as a community to charities who we know will give aid without the proselytizing for this sky-cake or that sky-baklava. If I could suggest a slogan for NBGA it would be “Forget souls, let’s save some lives!”
January 21st, 2010 at 5:53 am
oops, too late
January 21st, 2010 at 6:25 am
I have made a list secular charities helping the victims of the earthquake. If you can’t give at least tell other how to give and encourage others to give.
The scientologists are not the worse. There is one “charity” that is sending solar powered audible bibles. And probably worse out there that we are not aware of.
Its absolutely sickening.
January 21st, 2010 at 7:51 am
I suppose the solar powered bibles will read the story of Job to them? Yeah, that was intended to be snarky!
Medicine, water, food, shelter, those are the things they actually need. Look at each organization, and see what sort of overhead rates they have. I know that during all the CFC fundraisers, each charity had to disclose their overhead rates, and I always made sure to pick the ones that were the lowest (as well as secular). All too often, non-secular charities will sometimes attach strings to their offers of help (“Sure, you can have food and water, but you gotta go to our church too.” type of thing…)
January 21st, 2010 at 8:35 am
I was reading this morning that at this point it’s important to make sure your donations are NOT strictly earmarked for Haiti, because most of these charities have all the money they can use for now. They still need the donations, but they also need to be free to use it for other emergencies.
January 21st, 2010 at 3:20 pm
But don’t bibles save lives by stopping bullets? Didn’t Mythbusters test this one?
I remember them testing sheriff’s badges. Not very effective unless very thick and heavy. What about bullets ricocheting off of other bullets from a previous event?
Seriously, the Haitians need food, water, medicine (orthodox), shelter, clothing, etc. Please help!
January 21st, 2010 at 3:35 pm
I find the people are so irate on the homosexual blood donation ban to be barking up the wrong tree.
1) It’s not a Red Cross decision
&
2) The Red Cross generally has enough blood anyways. I can’t tell you the number of times the local blood bank turns me away because of all the excess blood they have…..and I’m O-negative.
Also, people who’ve had transfusions can’t donate as well so should we also get angry at the “transfusion recipient discrimination?”
January 23rd, 2010 at 11:34 am
I find that not much attention is being paid to the country’s future.
Several schools have been destroyed in the earthquake, and I think one thing people down there need to be paying attention to – is Engineers Without Borders there? – is the reconstruction of their educational system, especially, perhaps, the universities there. Reinforce everything. Help them become competitive in something. Reconstruct their educational system with a focus on funneling students into university with the best educations possible!