The crisis in Haiti is top of mind for millions of people around the globe, and it’s no different for us in the St. Louis region. This is a tremendous disaster that has touched all of our hearts.
On Friday morning, we convened at the United Way a group of 10 area agencies that are helping with the Haiti recovery through local, national and international organizations and affiliates. While these 10 agencies represent only a portion of the many organizations that are helping, it gave us a starting point for talking about what is likely to be a decade long recovery process. We talked about what is being done now, what we can expect in the coming months and what will be needed to continue to respond to the Haiti crisis.
Major Randall Polsley, general secretary for The Salvation Army in St. Louis, described the meeting of the agencies as similar to “stone soup” for the community – when we all come together and do our part, great things can happen.
This thought of us all doing our part leads me to what may be on your mind: “How can you help?”
Right now, the best way to help is through monetary donations – the situation is in too much flux for volunteers not trained in disaster relief and it is more cost effective, in most cases, to source in-kind materials nearer Haiti than to ship them from here. If you do choose to make a contribution, be sure to give to a reputable organization with a history of helping in crisis situations. If you don’t know where to give and aren’t comfortable making that decision, you can send a donation to United Way of Greater St. Louis – Haiti Relief and we will direct your gift to trusted agencies that we know are skilled in disaster response.
You can also call United Way 2-1-1 (2-1-1 is a 24/7 give-and-get help line you dial just like 911 or 411) to get specifics on some of the organization that are accepting monetary donations, specific gifts-in-kind (such as baby and hygiene kits) and eventually volunteers. The best way to keep up to date on the changing ways we can help is to watch our website and those of major disaster response organizations. The ones in the meeting with us on Friday included:
- American Red Cross, St. Louis Chapter
- Catholic Charities of St. Louis
- Church World Service
- Habitat for Humanity – St. Louis
- International Institute
- Jewish Federation of St. Louis
- Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod – World Relief and Human Care
- Presbyterian Disaster Association
- The Salvation Army
- United Way 2-1-1
Our region is extremely generous. This message, along with an enormous amount of gratitude, was echoed throughout the group on Friday. When we all come together, we make good things happen. Thank you for caring for the people of Haiti and for doing what you can to help people in need.