Just like 2005 with hurricane Katrina, the 2004 Tsunami and the attacks of 9/11, I knew American citizens would come through.  They always do.

I decided to write up an article to help get the message out and let people know that unlike the previous disasters, they could now just text in a donation of $10 with their telephone.

Giving Has Become Easier Than Ever

I wrote out instructions on exactly what would happen to make it easy for folks who would text in their donations.  I also provided many other sources where people could give to a more specific cause.

A Call to Help the Orphanages of Haiti

As it were, I received a call from a friend Sam Han who runs a Foundation to help orphaned children called the Han-Schneider International Children’s Foundation. Sam had received word through his contacts in Haiti that there were 30 children who needed rescuing from a particular orphanage whose building was destroyed in the earthquake along with all of the adoption papers.

Sam told me that he’d like to do something to get these children, ages 6 months to 5 years, over to the U.S. where his Foundation would help care for them.  The plan was to use his contacts to secure funding through donations and the expediting of this was necessary because the orphans had little water, food and were living under a tarp.

How Could One Help?

I decided to take things a little further than what my site could do to help and wrote up a little article and posted it on a site I frequently participate in with the hopes of generating more gifts for Sam’s Foundation.

At first the comments written in response to the article I wrote were in support of my effort.  One of the main people from the site even put the article on the front page to garner more attention from readers and passer by’s.

Being a libertarian site, there were those who disagreed with helping individuals in Haiti as their belief was the children in America were more important.  While these critics were few in numbers, there was one particular individual who made it his cause to disrupt my entire effort, breaking the rules of the site with abusive language, to the point where the owner of the site was called in to hopefully stop the disruption.

But instead of banning the one individual who was trying to shoot down my attempts of helping those who cannot help themselves, the children of Haiti, through the donations to the Foundation, his objective was to criticize the person who put my article on the front page of his site saying “it didn’t belong there.”  It was at that point he also stopped anymore replies being able to be posted.

I was rather shocked to see this kind of action taken but upon further review of other Libertarian sites, I came to the conclusion that there really was no compassion for those of need in Haiti.  How did I come to this conclusion?  I went back and checked for any articles written by the leading libertarian websites, lewrockwell.com, reason.com and cato.org.  Below you will see the time-line of their responses to the Haiti situation, but you won’t find any pleas of help from any of them for the people of Haiti.

Reason’s Article 6 days after earthquake struck:

Related posts:

1. Please Consider Giving $10 to the Haiti Relief Fund

Former Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush have come together in support of the earthquake recovery efforts in Haiti at the request of President Obama. Their immediate effort is to save lives.

They have set up a website http://www.clintonbushhaitifund.org/ where one can go and donate.

Please Help the Orphans of Haiti

Please consider the orphanages in Haiti have been leveled from the Earthquake but the children were not hurt.  There may be even more need for taking care of the new orphaned children and there is a Foundation that will directly deal with this.  I just spoke with Sam Han, Founder of the Han-Schneider International Children’s Foundation and they are going to be sending funds to the orphanages of Haiti.  They could use your financial help.  To donate to them directly, click here.

Mr. Han received the following correspondence from Haiti:

HEARTLINE

We are starting to see people on the streets with their mouth and nose covered with a cloth or a mask as the stench of death is beginning to hang in the air. In our particular area it is not as bad as some places where bodies are stacked on the side of the road and still buried in rubble. Today as I was on the road, I was passed by a police pickup truck that was stacked with dead bodies.

I will not post any pictures of this and I assure you that a photo can not communicate the pain and despair that so many are feeling as we are now entering the days of discovery. These are the days when people discover that their homes have been destroyed or some of their missing friends, neighbors, and family have been killed. And some discover the joy of having found loved ones.

Some of the comments I have had spoken to me today by people that we are involved with are:

* I have had many friends die.
* Most of the houses in my area have been destroyed.
* My house has been destroyed
* I have no place to live and sleep; I am on the street.
* I can’t find my…
* I can’t believe the widespread destruction.
* My area has the bad smell of death.
* I have lost everything

One of our security guards can’t even talk as he has lost his voice due to the shock of losing so many in his neighborhood.

My priority is the care of the children and the well being our other missionary families and of our workers.

The children are well and being cared for at the Buxman’s home, where they are basically living outside as the children’s homes are not yet secure. We are working to secure them but it is slow going as we can’t even remove the rubble as there are no trucks on the road to cart away the debris and we also are not able to get supplies such as sand, rock, cement, steel as there are no trucks to transport the materials here and we do not have the cash to pay for the supplies. We have money in the bank, but we have no access to it as the banks are closed.

We as well have a responsibility to our incredible workers who still are coming to care for our children, in spite of some having lost their homes, family members, friends and neighbors. Yet they come because they love the children.

As you can see, the children need your help.

Cell Phone Donations

An easy way to donate, if you have a cell phone, is to text certain numbers to various relief efforts:

Directions for texting your donation to Red Cross:

You can text “HAITI” to 90999 to donate $10 to American Red Cross relief for Haiti.  You’ll receive a text message that says;

“Free Msg: To confirm your $10 donation to Red Cross Haiti relief efforts reply with YES.  Reply HELP for help or visit redcross.org.”

Once you reply with the word “YES,” a confirmation message will come through saying;

“Free Msg: Thanks! $10 charged to your phone bill for Red Cross Haiti relief.  Reply HELP for help or Visit redcross.org Reply STOP to cancel.”

A third message from Red Cross will come through;

“Free Msg: Reply YES to receive the latest Red Cross news! Up to 4 msgs/mo. Info? Txt HELP, to end txt STOP.”

If you text “STOP” (I did) then you’ll receive the following message;

“Free Msg: You wil not receive addl msgs or further charges from Red Cross $10 donations.  Info? Visit mGive.com/a or contact 866-720-3350.”

The mGive Foundation “is a 501(c)(3) created to certify nonprofits wishing to participate in the mobile giving channel and facilitate the flow of funds from carriers directly to participating nonprofits.

The mission of the organization is to drive innovation and to assist other nonprofits in their efforts to raise money and communicate with donors more effectively through the mobile channel.”

Other places you can give to the Haiti relief efforts:

• Text the word “YELE” to 501501 to donate $5 to the Yele Haiti foundation.
• Text the word “HAITI” to 20222 to donate $10 to the Clinton Foundation Haiti Relief Fund.
• Text “HAITI” to 25383 to donate $5 to the International Rescue Committee.
• Text “HAITI” to 85944 to donate $10 to the International Medical Corps.

There is also an effort underway by George Clooney that will involve 11 television networks for a two hour telethon on January 22nd.

Nations helping nations….Thank you for caring…and giving…

Related posts:

1. Are Libertarians Compassionate?