Hopefully (semi) helpful Haiti update....

Regarding the earthquake in Haiti, I have been inundated with places to donate - where to help, etc. For example, I posted something about the Pittsburgh woman who has the orphanages in Haiti that were destroyed, and I think we all saw the PPG article on her; however, while the article was rich in info., I didn't give a lot of help regarding how to help - specifically. It's not that people are being negligent - it just appears that there is some holdup - particularly when it involves removing people from the area or reacting when not all info. is in (people located, not all relief money and supplies flowing yet....).

Now... back to my original statement that there are many places to donate, and... there are. Ask where, and you get conflicting (well-intentioned - don't get me wrong) opinions on where is best. Unicef is a good place to start (forgive me - I need to gather here - have a couple of donation options / pages / links) as are other groups that have a ground presence already established (our church / my kids' school has cited Catholic Relief as one of those). Anyway... I have received some recommendations from others and will post, as I said, ASAP. I figure you all checked out the first wave of recommendations - I will be part of the second :-), which.... as we learned with Hurricane Katrina - the aid needs to be ongoing (I mean - for that - we were sending school supplies in back packs well after the actual disaster - much to my daughter's chagrin - she wanted them to go out RIGHT AWAY, but... we had to wait). I'm listing this as "community" because, as we know, it is all part of our WORLD COMMUNITY, isn't it?

Thanks, all. I'm distracted but trying to help a bit.... Hope I sound helpful (even just lucid ;-).