Photos taken from previous trips to Haiti
People have been contacting us with questions about how IGN is going to respond to disaster in Haiti. Because we mobilize volunteers and have spent time in Haiti, most people assume that we will be taking a team to help take care of the hundreds of thousands of grieving, hurting people. This is a course of action that I would discourage anyone from taking right now unless they have formal disaster relief training or they are a medical professional of some kind. Here is the thought process behind this advice:
- There are no lack of volunteers: Remember hundreds of thousand of people lost their homes and are fully capable of helping each other.
- If you go, who's going to take care of you? It will be more of a burden having to feed you, provide potable water and a place to stay.
- Wouldn't the money you would spend on plane fare, food, water, housing, not to mention taking time off work be more efficiently used to buy food, clothes, water and basic necessities for people who are in terrible need.
- Consider the dignity of the people. How would you feel if people invaded your home after a natural disaster, helped you pick up a few things but took pictures and video of the wreckage and of you in your distress and angst and then left after a few days?
- There are a lot of fantastic organizations that are there doing the difficult work of restoring the broken lives of the Haitian people and have been there long before the earthquake ever took place. Consider supporting of them. Here are the ones that I would recommend:
- World Vision
- World Relief
- Food for the Hungry
- Del Camino Connection - A local, grass-roots ministry based in the Dominican Republic.
- And here is a link to the CHE Network in which we are a part of. Here you will find more specific ways to serve organizations working in Haiti.
