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Support Haitian Earthquake Relief and Recovery Efforts
The United Nations has described the Haiti earthquake as the worst humanitarian disaster in decades. Please give generously to provide immediate relief and long term recovery.
Our staff experts in disaster planning and response, healthcare, and education, and our donors, who contributed advice and first-hand knowledge, vetted these four organizations that we are recommending to you for support. They provide critical food, water, shelter, and medical care to the hundreds of thousands of Haitians now in need.
Oxfam is an international relief and development organization with over three decades of experience in Haiti and 200 staff on the ground there - including a team of 15 emergency response experts. Additional Oxfam teams from around the region are being brought in as needed to help provide clean water, shelter, and sanitation. Oxfam is working with Haitian officials, the UN, and other local and international organizations to respond as quickly and efficiently as possible. Staff is assessing the scale of the disaster across the different parts of Port-au-Prince. Some areas have been more severely affected than others. There is an Oxfam warehouse in Haiti and emergency supplies in Panama are ready for deployment.
Partners in Health has been on the ground in Haiti since 1985. Its mission and principles strongly align with those of The San Francisco Foundation and we endorse its approach to public health, poverty alleviation, and strengthening communities. Founded by Harvard physician Dr. Paul Farmer, its facilities are strategically placed two hours outside of Port-au-Prince and will accommodate patients fleeing the city. Your support will help quickly procure emergency medical supplies, basic living necessities, and transportation and logistics support for the tens of thousands of people that will be seeking care at mobile field hospitals in the capital city. Partners in Health brings the benefits of modern medical science to those most in need and works to alleviate the crushing economic and social burdens of poverty that exacerbate disease. By partnering with poor communities to combat disease and poverty, it cares for its patients, gets at the root causes of disease in their communities, and shares lessons learned around the world.
Save the Children has worked in Haiti for 25 years with about 100 staff on the ground, primarily in the capital city of Port-au-Prince and the Central Plateau region, providing vulnerable children with health, education, protection, and food security programs. The agency, with offices in Port-au-Prince, is sending teams out this morning by motorbike in Port-au-Prince and is flying in additional staff to help support the emergency response. As it has done in recent disasters in Haiti, Save the Children is preparing to provide immediate lifesaving assistance, such as food, water, shelter, and child-friendly spaces.
CARE USA is one of the world's largest private humanitarian organizations and has been on the ground in Haiti for more than 55 years. Alongside its 11 CARE international partners, the organization is committed to helping communities in the developing world achieve lasting victories over poverty. CARE immediately responded to the earthquake in Port-au-Prince and three neighboring towns with food, clean drinking water, temporary shelter, and nonfood items including hygiene and kitchen kits. Your support will help CARE continue to reach out to 60,000 people in the next few months and initiate long term efforts to strengthen existing health programming in rural areas, provide economic opportunities to the most vulnerable, supply temporary or transitional shelter, distribute school kits and furniture, and promote awareness and prevention of gender-based violence.
Update on Doctors Without Borders
The situation in Haiti is dynamic and continues to change every day, and our disaster response experts have been monitoring and analyzing the relief efforts. Our recommendation to support Doctors Without Borders and your immediate response is helping them to respond, on the ground, immediately and effectively. Doctors Without Borders is now requesting donations be directed to its Emergency Relief Fund, which supports disaster relief around the world rather than solely in response to Haiti’s recent earthquake. As such, we have removed Doctors Without Borders from our website recommendation list for Haiti relief. We respect and support Doctors Without Borders’ principled position and timely response regarding where and how its funds will be deployed most effectively to deliver effective relief to the people of Haiti, and throughout the world. We continue to support Doctors Without Borders and its important work in Haiti and throughout the world.
Standards for Evaluation
Many significant lessons were learned from recent major disasters and responses, including the importance of consistent standards by which to evaluate nonprofits. We share with you a version of standards that we believe defines organizations that have the integrity, quality, and effectiveness that set them apart from myriad others. Click here to read these standards created by InterAction, the largest coalition of U.S.-based international nongovernmental organizations focused on the world’s poor and most vulnerable people.