NGO & Religious Aid Roundup

Updated 17 Jan 23:21 CST with video interviews with KONPAY and AIDG staff.
Updated 15 Jan 00:52 CST with links to Floresta and KONPAY.

Slowly, but surely and determinedly, help is making its way into Haiti. Having made recommendations of several organizations worth donating to in my last post, I thought it’d be useful to give a rundown of how those organizations (plus a few more) are faring thus far.

You can keep up on most of these organizations by following the Twitter list I’m maintaining, @krbullock/haiti-ngos.

Meeting the immediate needs

Partners in Health has moved staff and supplies into Port-au-Prince, and is quickly setting up mobile clinics there. They have “a large, highly skilled group of about 2000 community health workers, 500 nurses, and 120 doctors“, almost entirely Haitian—that’s how they work, and it’s why I have so much respect for them. If you still aren’t sure where to donate, give to Partners in Health. More about their work.

To assist Partners in Health’s work, charity: water has turned their NYC headquarters into a drop-off point for supplies to be flown to Haiti on Tuesday. Details are on their site.

Episcopal Relief & Development has already released funds to the Diocese of Haiti (the largest Diocese in the Episcopal Church), which has set up a camp in Port-au-Prince for survivors (including Bishop Duracin!) and is working to get them supplies. They are preparing to bring provisions in through the Dominican Republic, and working with the Diocese of the Dominican Republic to receive Haitians coming across the border. More about ERD’s efforts.

Other religious relief organizations are also mobilizing to respond. The most active ones (with the most established presence in Haiti) seem to be the United Methodist Committee On Relief, Catholic Relief Services, and Presbyterian Disaster Assistance.

Oxfam is preparing to set up two tanks in Port-au-Prince to provide clean water to 1,000–2,000 people.

Doctors Without Borders seems to be struggling, but working doggedly. Their Twitter feed provides hourly updates on their progress. As for all the health organizations working with the injured, supplies seem to be their bottleneck. They’re flying them in from their stocks in other parts of the world, along with more staff.

The Red Cross, among other things, is deploying “family linking specialists”, which I can only assume will be helping family members find each other amid the turmoil.

Preparing to rebuild

AIDG is already requesting the assistance of French-speaking structural engineers to help with long-term rebuilding work. (For short-term assistance, they’re directing people to donate to Partners in Health.)

Episcopal Relief & Development will also be doing long-term redevelopment, continuing the work they were already doing especially in the areas of nutrition and education.

Fonkoze will need what sounds like significant financial help to rebuild and continue their microlending program. Their facilities have been largely destroyed and they can’t yet reliably communicate with their staff in Haiti. More on Fonkoze’s situation.

Organizations such as Floresta and KONPAY, who assist Haitians in doing reforestation and other environmental work, will also need funding to help in long-term recovery.

Update: Melinda Miles of KONPAY and Catherine Lainé of AIDG were both interviewed about their work. The boingboing interview with Catherine Lainé is here, while the CUNY TV interview with Melinda Miles is posted here as part of the Brian Lehrer Live podcast.

And of course, all the organizations listed above doing immediate relief will also be working long-term. All of them are in Haiti for the long haul—I wouldn’t recommend them if they didn’t already have a strong presence there.