Thursday, January 14, 2010

Donate to Partners in Health to help Haitian Earthquake victims

Several people have asked for my recommendations for where to donate to help with the earthquake disaster in Haiti. There are many great orgs doing heroic work (Red Cross, UNICEF and Oxfam come to mind), yet because this happened in Haiti in particular, I ask you to consider making a generous donation to Partners in Health.

Partners in Health provides medical care and social services to people in extreme poverty, especially in Haiti which is their flagship project. For many years, they have had hospitals and highly trained medical staff in place there working with a highly successful community-based model. PIH is right now bring medical assistance to areas that have been hardest hit. Because of their position and relationships there, I believe they are extremely well qualified to provide immediate and quality assistance to Haiti. Their founder, Paul Farmer, is the author of Mountains Beyond Mountains and is a powerful advocate for Global Health.

Please donate to Partners in Health

Read on to see a message from their Executive Director:


A major earthquake centered just 10 miles from Port-au-Prince has devastated sections of the city and knocked out telephone communications throughout the country. Reached via email, Partners In Health staff at our facilities in the Central Plateau report that they experienced a strong shock but no major damage or injuries. We are still attempting to establish contact with other PIH facilities and to locate several staff members who were traveling in and around Port-au-Prince.

In an urgent email from Port-au-Prince, Louise Ivers, our clinical director in Haiti, appealed for assistance from her colleagues in the Central Plateau: "Port-au-Prince is devastated, lot of deaths. SOS. SOS... Temporary field hospital by us at UNDP needs supplies, pain meds, bandages. Please help us."

Donate now to support our earthquake relief efforts

The earthquake has destroyed much of the already fragile and overburdened infrastructure in the most densely populated part of the country. A massive and immediate international response is needed to provide food, water, shelter, and medical supplies for tens of thousands of people.

With our hospitals and our highly trained medical staff in place in Haiti, Partners In Health is already mobilizing resources and preparing plans to bring medical assistance and supplies to areas that have been hardest hit.

Both our teams in Boston and Haiti are already mobilizing to deliver resources as quickly as possible to the places where they are needed most.

Donate now to support our earthquake relief efforts

Thank you for your solidarity during this crisis,

Ophelia Dahl
Executive Director - Partners in Health

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