The Mercy Corps Blog ›
A daily look into the work, thoughts and ideas of our team around the world.
Blog Post: Posted January 13, 2010, 12:46 pm by Roger Burks
How you can best help Haiti's earthquake survivors
Country: Haiti
Topics: Emergencies
We want to thank everyone for the incredible outpouring of support and offers to deploy and help out with the emergency relief effort. We appreciate your willingness to lend a hand!
Unfortunately Mercy Corps does not send volunteers to our programs overseas, even in emergencies. Our staff is made up of paid professionals, and we hire people locally.
We also don't accept donations of disaster-relief items from the general public.
There are many good reasons for these policies, most of which can be found on the FAQ page of the Center for International Disaster Information, under the "Volunteering" and "Donations - In-kind" sections. It also explains at the top why cash donations are the most helpful way to help — how they allow relief supplies to be purchased locally, giving a "triple advantage ... of stimulating local economies, ensuring that supplies arrive as quickly as possible and reducing transport and storage costs."
If you'd like to do more than simply make a donation, please consider setting up your own fundraising page here on our site, spreading the word via Facebook, Twitter or your email list, holding a fundraiser in your community, or post one of our banners on your website.
Thank you!
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Text CORPS 
Humanitarian veteran Jenny Vaughan prepares to depart for Haiti
Scrambling to help Haiti
On Wednesday, January 13, 2010 (3:00 pm), Emmanuel wrote:
thanks for everbody over the world wanna help Haiti, in the name of my nations i thanks everyone, god bless u.
On Thursday, January 14, 2010 (10:00 am), Richard Podriznik wrote:
De Rien, M. Emmanuel,
Il est très urgent que les Haïtiens qui souffrent savent que la compassion de l'homme des Américains unis collectivement avec la compassion de l'homme des personnes dans toutes les nations se soigner et même d'élever les gens d'Haïti vers le bonheur et la prospérité de corps et d'esprit.
Also, my French is not so good, but it is just reported that many corporations are matching employee donations to Haiti's reflief--so that twice as much aid will come from those sources here in America through great humaitarian organizations like Mercy Corps.
Sincerely,
Richard Podriznik
Seattle, USA
On Thursday, January 14, 2010 (2:00 pm), Karen Jones wrote:
For people who want to lend their skills, I saw a post on another blog by Partners in Health, which is trying to vet and organize appropriately skilled volunteers: http://www.thehealthcareblog.com/the_health_care_blog/2010/01/wanted-sur...
Please donate funds to Mercy Corps to further their experienced staff in assisting the people of Haiti.
Karen
On Thursday, January 28, 2010 (4:08 pm), Morgan Wienberg wrote:
Thank you so much for this comment, it's very helpful!
And I definitely agree; it's so important for us to recognize our priviledged position & give to those in Haiti who need our help so desperately.
On Tuesday, February 23, 2010 (1:00 pm), Barbara wrote:
I 'm in Haiti and I'd love to volunteer. Where should I go? Thank you for helping my country!
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