I can’t imagine that there is anyone left in this world that hasn’t heard of the devastating recent events in Haiti. On January 12, the small Caribbean county was hit by a catastrophic 7.0 earthquake. By January 24, at least 52 aftershocks measuring 4.5 or greater had been recorded. As of February 12, an estimated three million people were affected by the quake. The Haitian Government reports that between 217,000 and 230,000 people have been identified as dead, an estimated 300,000 injured, and an estimated 1,000,000 are homeless. It is also estimated that 250,000 residences and 30,000 commercial buildings have collapsed or been severely damaged. As you can imagine, the current living conditions in Haiti are deplorable! In the aftermath, many countries have responded to appeals for humanitarian aid, pledging funds and dispatching rescue and medical teams, engineers and support personnel. In addition, numerous church groups, charitable organizations and private citizens have stepped in to help as well, including the food blogging community. Determined not to stand idly by, BloggerAid-Changing the Face of Famine has decided to run an online raffle to raise funds for the relief effort in Haiti. This relief effort is called H2Ope for Haiti.
H20pe for Haiti was devised as a way for BA-CFF to raise funds to supply much needed water to Haiti through Concern Worldwide. This non-governmental international humanitarian organization founded in 1968 works around the world to reduce suffering and work towards the ultimate elimination of extreme poverty in the world’s poorest countries. Concern Worldwide has been a presence in Haiti since 1994 and had over 100 staff members on the ground when the earthquake struck. Despite losing several team members in the tragedy, they have been quick to act with distribution of supplies, including 135,000 liters of water per day.
To implement this fundraiser, BA-CFF is running an online raffle, with prizes donated by participating food bloggers (like me). The money raised will be paid directly into a Justgiving page. Justgiving is the United Kingdom parent of Firstgiving, the site used in the Menu for Hope events. Every dollar raised gets paid directly into the charity’s account, to be applied exclusively to the Haiti relief effort as agreed by Concern Worldwide. Justgiving makes it really easy to donate in that that they accept credit cards, debit cards and Paypal as payment methods. read more >>
Filed Under: Asian, Blogging Events, Pork, Recipes
