Mingei World Arts Helping Haiti
Decatur Metro | January 14, 2010Ellen and Ann at Mingei World Arts just sent out this alert…
On Thursday and Friday this week, Mingei will donate 10% of total sales to Partners in Health for earthquake relief. We will also be accepting cash and check donations which we will forward. This organization, founded by Paul Farmer and Ophelia Dahl, has been working in Haiti for many years. Please read about their work here.
With all the scams popping up out there, it makes sense to rely on your fellow residents with intimate knowledge and the right connections to make sure your donations are spent wisely.
If you know of other local businesses or organizations that are collecting funds to help the Haitians in Port-au-Prince, please post below.
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Here’s the link to Partners in Health: http://www.pih.org/home.html.
This very effective organization was also featured this morning in a NYT op ed piece by Tracy Kidder who wrote Mountains Beyond Mountains about Paul Framer and his work. Here’s the link: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/14/opinion/14kidder.html.
You can also donate directly from the Partners in Health website or send them a check. There’s an interesting article on how to donate effectively at http://www.smartmoney.com/Spending/Budgeting/Smart-Giving-for-Haiti-Earthquake-Aid/.
For those that want to donate directly, see the link to a CNN story below. There is information on how to donate to Wyclef Jean’s organization, and also how to text a donation through your wireless phone (I’m proud to work for a company that is donating money and actively participating in the text messaging efforts).
http://money.cnn.com/2010/01/13/technology/twitter_haiti_donations/index.htm?hpt=T2
Anybody knows an organization collecting food for Haiti?
I don’t know the answer to your question, but this article suggests that in-kind donations may actually be more harmful than helpful.
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/haiti/100113/haiti-earthquake-aid
NPR this morning said that it’s cash donations that are needed at this point. There’s no way to get anything else into the country and distribute it.
Kudos to Ellen and Ann for choosing such a fine organization to support. PIH has been in Haiti for over twenty years and really knows the lay of the land there. I made a donation to PIH earlier this evening and will stop by Mingei this week to support their efforts as well.