Yesterday, my parent's home country of Haiti was hit with a massive earthquake at the capital Port-Au-Prince. My parents are from a very nearby city called Pétionville which also got a lot of the damage.
By now, you're probably heard and seen a lot of the damage. And there is a good chance that you may even be sick of all the coverage. But just take a moment, if you haven't done so already, and just take a quick glance at all that is going on over there.
Hundreds of buildings are destroyed. Thousands are feared dead. It truly is a horrific tragedy.
My mother called me to tell me that she was able to get in contact with our immediate family over in Haiti, and miraculously, none of them were killed. But many of their friends and family are dead or still missing. My cousin's father is still MIA as of this writing.
I cannot imagine what is going through the minds of those who are in Haiti now. I've seen the pictures (via a mobile upload on Facebook), and I can tell you that they are not easy to look at. For my mom and dad, who are from that city, this is a painful time, especially because they are so far away. The only communication they have is phone, and the success rate as of now is shoddy at best.
For me personally, this has hit me much harder than I had expected it to. I have never had the privilege to go visit Haiti, but my connection to it is strong. I've received a lot of support from friends here, and I appreciate it all. But it's hard right now cause there are not may people I can turn to to relate how exactly I am feeling at this very moment.
I feel so lucky to have been able to meet my grandparents by having them come here to America. I would have never forgiven myself if this tragedy had occurred and I was never able to meet them. At the same time, now there are people in my family who I may never meet due to this. It's a hard thing for me to come to terms with.
There are many ways that people here and around the world can do to show their support during this time, and I'll have a short list of them at the end of this post. I'm not here to urge you to donate anything, because you are not required to. All I ask is that you take a moment and get up to speed about the events around the world that are happening. Not just with Haiti but with other events too (cause I have been a violator of that before, and recently, much prior to the earthquake, I've been striving to be better)
So:
If you want to make a donation via text, you can text "Haiti" to 90999 to make a $10 donation and text "Yele" to 501501 to make a $5 donation. The money comes out of your phone bill, and 100% goes to Red Cross for relief (Verified). If you'd rather do that online, go to RedCross.org (Verified).
If you have someone in Haiti that you are trying to locate, The State Department Operations Center has a hotline you can call. The number is 1-888-407-4747. Be advised that the volume of calls is tremendous, so you may be directed to a recording (Verified).
Two twitter users have created a website called www.koneksyon.com, where you can make a post about someone you are looking for, or if you have info on a person/people someone is looking for. There are hundreds of request on there, but if you have some time, feel free to take a look (Verified).
One more thing: Tell The Ones Whom You Love You Love Them Before They're Gone.
