Haiti Earthquake Relief: How You Can Help

Sandra Bullock gives $1 million to Haiti relief
AP, Jan 15, 2010 11:03 pm PST
Sandra Bullock said Friday she donated $1 million toward Haitian earthquake relief, and Madonna announced she gave $250,000 toward the effort as celebrity aid continued to pour into the devestated country.

Bullock’s contribution went to Doctors Without Borders’ emergency operations in Port-Au-Prince, where three of the organization’s existing facilities were damaged by the magnitude 7.0 quake.

“I wanted to ensure that my donation would be used immediately to meet the needs of the Haitian people affected by this catastrophic event,” said Bullock in a statement.

Madonna’s gift was to Partners In Health, a longtime medical provider in Haiti.

“I urge all of my friends and fans around the world to join me collectively to match my contribution or give in any way you can,” she said. “We must act now.”

Earlier Friday, Not On Our Watch, an advocacy and grantmaking group founded by George Clooney, Brad Pitt and others, donated $1 million to Partners in Health.

The international Red Cross estimates 45,000 to 50,000 people were killed in the earthquake, which devastated the Caribbean nation on Tuesday.

If you play Halo 3 or Halo 3: ODST Bungie has made a commitment to donate a maximum of $77 000 dollars, $100 dollars per player who changes their game emblem and armor colors to the specifics on this page and play atleast one online game on wednesday or thursday. VERY easy way to donate "free" cash if you feel that you can’t spend your own cash: "Be a Hero" . Check it out!

I decided to copy the text to here aswell if you don’t want to click the link.

We are rallying our fan community to show their support by playing Halo 3 or ODST online next Wednesday or Thursday while wearing a special emblem signifying your commitment to the cause. For every thousand heroes that participate, we will make a $100 donation on behalf of Bungie and our fan community to the Red Cross for Haiti relief efforts, up to a maximum of $77,000. All you have to do is don a special emblem and play a game online and know that you’ve done a small part to help those in need.

Please mark your calendars and help spread the word!

Here are the specifics:

1. Round up all of your friends and hop online with Halo 3 or ODST any time next from 00:01AM PST Wednesday, 1/20, through 23:59PM PST Thursday 1/21.

2. Edit your appearance settings so your character is wearing the RED HEART emblem.

a. Press START
b. Select “SETTINGS” / “APPEARANCE”
c. Select “EMBLEM”
d. Select “Hearts” ICON, “Circle” BACKGROUND
e. Back out to the APPEARANCES menu and select “COLORS”
f. Set “EMBLEM PRIMARY” to RED (or MAROON / BRICK / ROSE depending on which game you’re playing!)
g. Set “EMBLEM SECONDARY” to WHITE

3. Once your emblem is set, play! This can be a custom game or a matchmaking game, just make sure it’s played online, on Xbox LIVE, or we can’t track it.

If you keep playing more games through midnight on Thursday, KEEP THE HEART EMBLEM ENABLED or you may not get counted.

Obama, Bush, Clinton stand ‘united’ for Haiti
AFP

Obama, Bush, Clinton stand ‘united’ for Haiti AFP – From L: Former US President George W. Bush and Bill Clinton stand as US President Barack Obama speaks …

1 hr 14 mins ago

WASHINGTON (AFP) – President Barack Obama on Saturday brought together his White House predecessors, Republican George W. Bush and Democrat Bill Clinton, for a joint appeal for victims of Haiti’s devastating earthquake.

"By coming together in this way, these two leaders send an unmistakable message to the people of Haiti and to the people of the world," Obama said in the Rose Garden, flanked by the two former leaders.

"In these difficult hours, America stands united. We stand united with the people of Haiti who have shown such incredible resilience, and we will help them to recover and to rebuild."

The United States was launching "one of the largest relief efforts in our history" to bring aid to Haiti following Tuesday’s devastating 7.0-magnitude earthquake that struck the heart of the poorest nation in the Americas.

Bush, who congratulated Obama for his "swift and timely response to the disaster," said he was pleased to work with Clinton "to mobilize the compassion of the American people."

The challenges in Haiti "are immense, but there’s a lot of devoted people leading the relief effort," he said.

"The most effective way for Americans to help the people of Haiti is to contribute money. That money will go to organizations on the ground who will be able to effectively spend it.

"I know a lot of people want to send blankets or water. Just send your cash," added Bush.

Clinton, the United Nations special envoy for Haiti, said the priority for now to ship food, medicine and water to Haiti.

"But when we start the rebuilding effort… we want there to be a place where people can know their money will be well spent, where we will ensure the ongoing integrity of the process. And we want to stay with this over the long run," he said.

Obama and the ex-presidents directed people to the website https://www.cli … shhaitifund.org to make donations.

Good find Bro:)

Very nice thread Dino.

Brian Williams, NBC

We see some awful things in our line of work. And then we come home to our comfortable lives in America. As long as I live, I don’t think I’ll ever be able to square the two lives we lead. After all the suffering we witnessed, I arrived home with no way to explain it, no desire to go into detail, and no explanation for why some children are born into poverty and struggle only to die young and in great pain—while my children lead such fortunate lives. I’ve come home from multiple trips to Iraq, Afghanistan, Indonesia, New Orleans and now Haiti asking the same thing. I stood in line this afternoon at the supermarket and listened to two insanely entitled teenagers—wearing the logo clothing of a prominent New England prep school—complaining about obscene topics like how "tight" their mother was with her credit card, and how taxing the task of shopping had been for them. It took everything I had to remain silent and not remind them that people are suffering. I am hoping they have parents for that—maybe they are the ones who should be reminded. But it was something my wife said last night that focused and brightened my thinking somewhat: "What if there were no United States? Have we stopped to think how much worse off the Haitian people would be?" She’s right, as she so often is.

There were several things we should have pointed out, as part of our coverage while in Haiti, but could not or did not because of the crush of air time or just plain weariness. We should have listed the aircraft we saw arrive from various countries, including the prop plane from Cuba, the two giant 777s from El Al in Israel, the incredible Belgians and their crack rescue squad, the Russians, the seemingly unending stream of rescue workers from New York, California and Virginia—I happily noted their exploits were highlighted during our weekend coverage.
Link