How can I help? I’m just one person. How can I make a difference? I know for certain we’re all feeling that way as the magnitude of the devastation in Haiti mounts daily.
I’ve given this a lot of thought over the last several days and identified a couple of things I’d like to do. One of those things is highlight what other sewists, quilters and crafters are doing in our amazingly generous community.
Social networking is having an unprecedented role in fundraising for the relief efforts. I want to fully exploit whatever reach I have in that arena. Please leave a comment telling me about you’re doing so I can write about it in this space.
Craft Hope for Haiti is an Etsy shop established by Jade Sims of Craft Hope and her amazing line up of volunteers. All proceeds are being donated to Doctors Without Borders. You can be involved by both donating goods to the shop and buying items listed there. Jade announced on the blog today that In just 24 hours, the Craft Hope for Haiti Etsy shop had 162 sales and raised just around $4,000. Amazing!
I’m so glad you’re using your large readership to help in such a wonderful way! I donated a wallhanging to Craft Hope that sold and it’s awesome to know that I’ve made a contribution! I’m working on a handmade toy drive – Handmade Hope to Haiti – and I’m updating my blog as I make progress. Thanks for spreading the word!
Thanks for spreading the word!! I donated yesterday and today items to the craft hope cause. As that was not enough so I started a findraiser goal with partners in health by donation 5.00 of every sale in my etsy shop this weekend.
Lets spread the word like wildfire!!
Thanks for the mention, Kathy! As of tonight, we have had nearly 300 sales for $7000. Amazing! We feel very fortunate to be part of the crafting community.
What a beautiful idea! I just sent out a link to your blog to my Facebook and Twitter friends. Hope you raise a TON more money.
What a wonderful, giving person you are! I hope I am not taking advantage of your generous invitation to tell you what I’m doing for Haiti relief but I’ve been searching quilting blogs for just such an opportunity. I read many quilt blogs but do not have one of my own.
My daughter is a physician who is board-certified in pediatric medicine and is a little over a year away from completing a fellowship in pediatric emergency medicine. She speaks Kreyole (local dialect in Haiti) and has made more than a dozen trips there, including almost a year serving in a hospital and clinic. She has been working for a Children’s Hospital and they gave her time off to serve in Haiti. With the help of Providence Ministries, she found her way there last Saturday with about 400 pounds of supplies and quickly went to work in a makeshift neighborhood “clinic” in Port-au-Prince treating many traumatic injuries (please forgive this graphic statement but yesterday they had to perform an amputation with a reciprocating saw). So many have already given so generously to many reputable organizations and I applaud those contributions. What I would like to request is that anyone looking for a reputable organization to donate to would consider any of these: Worldwide Village, Heartline Ministries or Providence Ministries. They are so small they’re almost invisible to the larger world but they were all on-the-ground doing good stuff in Haiti when the earthquake struck, which facilitated their ability to get medical assistance up and running so quickly. Now, they need help getting their plea for donations out beyond their core group of supporters. There were so many unmet needs in Haiti before and so many more now. I’ve personally donated money and now am trying to get their message to a wider audience to support their fund-raising efforts. You can read some of their incredible post-earthquake stories here:
- providenceinhaiti.blogspot.com/
- sleepydoctor.blogspot.com/ (my daughter’s blog)
- jmchoul.spaces.live.com/ (Warning: graphic medical pictures)
- livesayhaiti.blogspot.com/
- http://www.heartlineministries.org/
- http://www.worldwidevillage.org/
To donate, please check out each ministries’ web site and do your own due diligence. There’s a link on each to make your donation. Please also forward this info to anyone you know who might be interested. Most of all, please continue to pray for this small team serving in Haiti and everyone affected by this apocalyptic tragedy.
With my most gracious thanks for any consideration,
Connie Halverson
Please remove my posting if it is at all offensive.
Sorry…here’s a correction to my link addressess:
- sleepydoctor.blogspot.com/ (my daughter’s blog – she has a link to the graphic pictures from the clinic’s first day of operaton in the 1/19/2010 post )
> – jmchoul.spaces.live.com/ (this is Heartline Ministries blog)