After years of slavery, abuse, and misfortune, Haitians are hit in the heart once again.
Many people surround me seem to link Haiti’s latest disaster to the countries voodoo practices. A lot of Christians I know think it is what they get for turning to voodoo men and women, instead of praying to a divine God.
Not only do I think it is absurd, there is no scientific proof to this accusation as well. If you ask me, I think it is the geographically state of the country.
Haiti is radically geographically disadvantaged. The tiny country must deal with the effects of being situated in an area of heavy hurricane activity. The country sits atop of two major fault lines, one of which was responsible for this series of earthquakes.
Add up the poor quality and unsafe buildings in Port-au-Prince. Even a minor magnitude -5.0 quake will have had a great impact. The accusation therefore to my knowledge is false and it is injected into the world by people such as Pat Robertson who puts ideology before facts.
But that is not important. More important would be the question “How can we help?”
After seeing the heart wrenching pictures on television, any person with good heart would like to help. But can you trust your money to the Funds? Is it safe to donate?
President Bush, standing in the middle of President Clinton and Obama said:
“I know a lot of Americans wants to send blankets and water. Just send cash”.
You have got to love his straight forwardness. Following that statement I read on my TV screen: Send cash to the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund. Are you kidding me? Both gentlemen as a head of state helped create this recession we are in now. I can’t trust my money to them.
To be frankly, I don’t trust any large organization with my money. Following the Tsunami and Katrina many generous and well meant people lost their money to fraudulent charities.
Normally I let these things pass me by. I am a field soldier. I would rather be on the scene and help out than trusting my money into the hands of people I have never met or who have yet to prove their sincerity to me. But I have changed my mind for a bit.
Let’s just say the great work of YDSS opened up my eyes and a good lady-friend pulled my leg about the fact I was generalizing all organizations.
Since I am made aware that there indeed are good, worth the try organizations out there, I really want to donate in order to help my Haitian people who are suffering and needs our help in this difficult time. I am familiar with a couple of organizations but since I don’t really pay them any to no mind, I had to Google all of them: American RedCross, UNICEF, Direct Relief International, Doctors Without Borders, Habitat for Humanity and so on. I saw a lot of good things done by these organizations according to their websites but I decided to go for a smaller but familiar organization.
For some years I’ve been following Wyclef’s Yéle Haiti organization and the good work they’ve been doing in Haiti. I got a friend who will vouch for it. Wyclef himself have written the following statement on the website;
“The objective of Yéle Haiti is to restore pride and a reason to hope, and for the whole country to regain the deep spirit and force that is part of our heritage.”
At this very moment these goals are more than ever needed.
Wyclef is a native of Haitian. I believe he has the people’s interest at heart. As a native and being a man with good character as I come to think of him, I would choose him any other day over the others. I have donated 50 Euros to Yéle Haiti Foundation. Take my word for it, because I am not going to print the receipt. If I was going to lie, I would have said 1000 Euros or more, don’t you think? Also don’t sweat me about the modest 50 Euros. I am independent plus I’ve got….you know what….mind your own business.
The Soul Rebel Movement and Apo-clipZ holds the people of Haiti in our prayers.
Check out the Yéle Haiti website and see how you can help: http://www.yele.org/
Kno’Ledge Cesare
The Soul Rebel Movement