Posted on January 14, 2010, 5:16pm by Admin

Schools for Haiti

Dear Parents:

The majority of Haiti’s 8 million residents live on less than $1 per day. Unemployment is close to 80 percent, and more than half the population is under 21 years old. Haiti is the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere. Estimates are that as many as three million people may be affected by the catastrophic earthquake that hit Haiti Tuesday with upwards to a half million wounded or dead. New York City and its schools include the largest Haitian population in the United States. We ask that our two million plus public school parents marshal an effort to:

Help Provide Relief to Haiti Right Now!

By making a monetary donation to an organization prioritizing relief efforts to Haiti and that has demonstrated that a substantial majority of its donations will go directly to those they solicit on behalf of. There are others, however, three such organizations have been highlighted for your convenience.

1. Yéle Haiti is a grassroots movement that builds global awareness for Haiti while helping transform the country through programs in environment, food distribution, emergency relief, education, sports, and the arts. Grammy-Award winning musician, humanitarian and Goodwill Ambassador to Haiti Wyclef Jean founded Yéle Haiti in 2005. Please text “Yele” to 501501 and $5 will be donated to “Yele Haiti” and billed to your mobile phone or you can go directly to yele.org to donate as much as possible.
2. Doctors Without Borders is an international medical humanitarian organization created by doctors and journalists in France in 1971 providing aid in nearly 60 countries to people whose survival is threatened by violence, neglect, or catastrophe, primarily due to armed conflict, epidemics, malnutrition, exclusion from health care, or natural disasters. You can make a donation at doctorswithoutborders.org or by calling toll free 1-888-392-0392, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
3. Oxfam is an international development & relief agency founded in 1995, focused on worldwide chronic hunger and food security affecting over a billion women, men, and children. You can make a donation at oxfam.org or by calling their toll free number (800)776-9326.

In addition, we are organizing to send relief supplies by creating a list of priority items that will be communicated to you and by identifying organizations that will transport them. Our next post will include this information along with a list of organizations looking for volunteers with/without particular expertise to travel to Haiti. Please feel free to join us in the mornings at the Haiti Relief table set up in the cafeteria.

TNS PTA Haiti Relief Committee
For more info or to help contact
Ayo at ayoharrington@aol.com or Cathy at cathy@nesri.org