The Haiti Earthquake and its Global Response

The Haiti Earthquake and its Global ResponseWritten by: Haily | The entirely global response to the crisis that is the Haiti earthquake continues to grow. Please donate to disaster relief.

It's been about 2 and a half weeks now since the devastating 7.0 magnitude earthquake that struck in Haiti. This is truly a human crisis that cannot be ignored. The main reason why I haven't written about this earlier is because I fear that the importance of this issue will die down, just another passing media phase.

The massive earthquake took place in the poorest country of the Western Hemisphere. The lack of proper government construction codes led to unimaginable damage throughout the capital and its outskirts. The earthquake has led to a humanitarian crisis. Hospitals have collapsed, food, water, and medical supplies are scarce, and many of the doctors and nurses in Haiti have either been killed or are looking for their loved ones. There is no sure way to know exactly how many are dead and how many have died or will die due to the lack of proper medical care or lack of basic food and water.

The global response to the earthquake has been astounding. Governments around the world have sent search and rescue teams, money, aid, and supply, while people from all around the world have donated incredibly large amounts of aid money and resources for Haiti Relief. But at this point, efforts are shifting from immediate search and rescue to humanitarian help to providing aid to the hundreds of thousands of Haitians who no longer have access to food, water, and medical care.

Follow CNN's ongoing full coverage of the Haiti Earthquake.

To all those reading this, I strongly urge you to donate to Haiti relief. The relief effort in Haiti is not something that will end shortly--it will extend likely several months in the efforts to prevent more crises to stem from this and to rebuild the devastated areas and continue to account for the massive, widespread damage. Days after the earthquake, I posted the "Help for Haiti" banner on the homepage. It links to a page on the White House website with a list of different things you can do to help Haiti Relief. Click here to learn how you can help. Whether you yourself can donate or not, do not hesitate to get others to donate.

Member Comments

	Justin	January 29 2010, 9:02 pm PST - Karma: +3 - Quote - Link -
	I'm in a theater production this weekend called "Voices for Change." It's a collection of one acts written by students about serious issues in society. When we found out about this horrible earthquake, we decided to donate 100% of our proceeds to Haiti. It's nice to be able to help out by doing something I love (acting). I feel so bad for all these people and I offer my condolences to the families of those who lost their lives.
	Haily of icecaves.net	January 29 2010, 9:30 pm PST - Karma: 0 - Quote - Link -
	I would have included more info and specific examples if it wasn't for the graphic content. It's not a pleasing story, but it's not something we can choose to ignore. I'm however especially proud of the global response towards relief.
	Jenny of windymill.skyness...	January 30 2010, 6:28 am PST - Karma: +1 - Quote - Link -
	So that's what the shelter boxes our school raised money for looked like. I like to know what we're actually doing to help. I'm afraid too that Haiti will become a media phase like Madeleine McCann's disappearance or it may be broadcast into oblivion/irrelevance. That's what's happened to global warming- so over-hyped that now, no one cares to know. The media need to find a good way to put across to the world as well as possible how dire it is.
	Puffs of ipawd.net	January 30 2010, 8:01 am PST - Karma: +1 - Quote - Link -
	It's so sad to watch all the videos of the poor dying people in Haiti. I'd honestly love to go to Haiti and help, but I guess donating money is about the best I can do.
	eejit of autumnrainbow.net	January 30 2010, 10:51 am PST - Karma: +1 - Quote - Link -
	My school had a non-uniform day on Friday to raise money for Haiti(though I don't know specifically what the money was for). Everyone was meant to donate a pound, so we should have raised about £1200(about $1900). Don't know how much we raised exactly though. My physics teacher said he donated two hundred pounds as well(not through the school though XD). In his words 'I have lots of money, and they have none'.
	Icy of icecaves.net	January 30 2010, 11:10 am PST - Karma: +1 - Quote - Link -
	I hope this also won't become another passing media phase. Sure, we can FORGET about it, but they'll still need help.. they'll still be suffering. My school had a dance on Friday to raise money for Haiti. I didn't go , but I donated money
	jules of rabidish.org	January 30 2010, 8:18 pm PST - Karma: +1 - Quote - Link -
	It's really sad to watch what has happened to those in Haiti. Haiti was a poor country before the earthquake & needed help & now something worse has happened and they are noe in dire need of help. 1 day before the Australian Open started Roger Federer organised a charity match to donate money to Haiti. It was quite funny too. They raised around half a million dollars & they're auctioning their tennis rackets. It's good to see people who are on TV use their name to do something good & get others involved. My family has donated to the Haiti fund. I just went back to school on Friday so we haven't done anything for Haiti yet.
	Zaphiie	February 2 2010, 2:17 am PST - Karma: +2 - Quote - Link -
	This post is so beautiful (in a moral way, I mean) I think things like this, although tragic, bring the world together in a sense.
	Haily of icecaves.net	February 2 2010, 9:14 pm PST - Karma: +3 - Quote - Link -
	That is so true. It is truly amazing how people from all parts of the world are all doing what they can to help the victims of the Haitian earthquake. I was especially blown away by the Hope For Haiti Now telethon and another telethon that was very similar to it that ran on the Spanish-speaking network Univision the day after. I just hope that the world will decide that enough is enough for the extreme poverty in Haiti and in other places around the world and will do something about it. Too many people died from consequences of the vast poverty in Haiti, such as the lack of any real building regulations. So many people shouldn't have died because they lacked the technology or the economics needed to save their lives. And in 2010. This better be a wake-up call.
	Zaphiie	February 2 2010, 10:46 pm PST - Karma: 0 - Quote - Link -
	I agree. I found out this morning my school is raising money for Haiti at our swimming carnival. That's 900+ students Worthy cause this year.
	Catalina	February 2 2010, 10:56 pm PST - Karma: +1 - Quote - Link -
	They Are? Great! they always raise money for something good at the carnival, Its rally great that so many people are trying to help out where its needed most. Its just heartless that some people are setting up fake charities to take advantage of kind people in a crisis. Great that IceCaves is helping out too.
	Zaphiie	February 6 2010, 6:52 pm PST - Karma: +1 - Quote - Link -
	Yes Cati, they are, and you would know that if you ever listened at assembly People who make fake charities are losers. But it's really sad thinking of those people who might not have had much to give, but put aside money they really needed, only to find some greedy person was snapping it all up for themselves.
	Haily of icecaves.net	February 13 2010, 9:44 pm PST - Karma: +1 - Quote - Link -
	I don't know if I posted this somewhere yet or not, but some time after the earthquake in Haiti a large storm system passed over Phoenix with record rainfall in only a few days. There was one neighborhood in particular of mainly older citizens that was covered in mud when a nearby river overflowed. The people living there could only wait on help from the Red Cross. What hit me about this was that these people have not been affected by anything close to that in the past 20 or 40+ years that they have been living there. You think that you're safe, and you think that horrible things don't happen or don't affect you. And there are so many people out there that aren't compelled to donate to relief organizations out there like the Red Cross because they have no direct benefit from it. And then bam, suddenly one needs the help from such organizations. It's crazy how the world works...

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