Plea for Haiti
15-Jan-10
Today my day began as many others have, I woke up in my comfortable bed, in my comfortable home. I had breakfast, showered, brushed my teeth, put on clean clothes and headed out the door to work. During the coarse of my day, I ordered lunch from a local restaurant, did some shopping for food and various household items, went to the gym, came home, showered and prepared dinner. My day also involved in varying increments, television, email and several trips to a clean, sanitary restroom. I am sure that, more or less, your day was about the same. Nothing overly remarkable, relatively routine. To our sisters and brothers in Haiti, what I just described as routine, would be considered nothing short of miraculous. Even before the 7.0 magnitude earthquake that devastated the capitol city of Port-au-Prince, the greater percentage of the population there would have given a body part to live a life many of us consider routine.
Eighty percent of the population of Haiti live below the poverty live, as a result of the earthquake, those who had little to begin with, have little more than the clothes on their back. Homes are destroyed, infrastructure decimated, there is no food, clean water, no sanitation whatsoever, no formal hospitals to treat the injured and no where to house or bury the dead. Relief efforts are underway but are slow in coming due to the logistical nightmare created by the earthquake. Time is certainly a luxury Haiti does not have. The death toll will undoubtedly rise as time slips by without basic necessities. This is just a brief description of the nightmare that Haiti is now living. The images and video presented by the media is nothing short of heart wrenching.
In the coming days, I will post a more in depth piece on the earthquake in Haiti, but for now, I wanted to post this small plea. Please, please, please, do whatever is in your power to assist. You can find a list of legitimate charities listed on CNN’s website at www.cnn.com/impact. In addition, you can use your cell phone to text “Haiti” to 90999 and a $10 donation to the Red Cross, will be added to your cell phone bill. I am certain most of us could manage $10. Whatever your situation, whatever life circumstance you are dealing with in this moment, it is most likely not as devastating as what is now being experienced in Haiti. I will explore, in my next post, how within this tragedy, lies the opportunity to not only transform Haiti, but our planet.
Thanks for stopping by, be well, be peace. Join the conversation.