As we all know, there is a MASSIVE crisis in Haiti right now. As a social worker (and a person in general), I immediately wanted to fly to Haiti and help out in any way I could. However, the Center for International Disaster Information has put out the following statement:
"Volunteers without prior disaster relief experience are generally not selected for relief assignments. Candidates with the greatest chance of being selected have fluency in the language of the disaster-stricken area, prior disaster relief experience, and expertise in technical fields such as medicine, communications logistics, water/sanitation engineering. In many cases, these professionals are already available in-country. Most agencies will require at least ten years of experience, as well as several years of experience working overseas. "(Center for International Disaster Information)
This, of course, makes a lot of sense, and will probably filter out most of us from going to Haiti right now (because, my guess is that they don't have time to train unskilled volunteers). The best thing we can do is to make sure that the people who have the expertise to help have enough supplies, etc. to do their jobs.
InterAction has a helpful website listing agencies that are providing relief funds to Haiti. (AVOID SCAMS, CHECK OUT ALL AGENCIES BEFORE DONATING)
And, probably the easiest way to help is to text "HAITI" to "90999," which will donate $10 to the Red Cross, charged to your phone bill.
