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Haiti Resources
Locating Family Members
The State Department Operations Center has set up the following number for Americans seeking information about family members in Haiti: 1-888-407-4747.
Monetary Donations
There are relief organizations accepting contributions for this effort. For those interesting in helping immediately, simply text "HAITI" to "90999" and a donation of $10 will be given automatically to the Red Cross to help with relief efforts, charged to your cell phone bill.
Or you can go online to identify some relief organizations accepting donations for the disaster relief efforts. You may also prefer to work with a trusted relief organization associated with your faith tradition or your community. Monetary donations are the most effective form of assistance because they allow humanitarian organizations to purchase (often within the affected region itself) the exact type and quantity of items needed by those affected by the crisis. Read about the advantages of monetary donations.
Commodity Contributions
While monetary donations are preferred to commodity contributions, there may be rare instances when a commodity contribution would be of value to relief operations.
- See a list of conditions which are necessary to ensure that a commodity contribution is appropriate.
- Read about handling appropriate commodity contributions.
- If a commodity collection has already been made, but there are problems identifying a need in the affected region for the commodities or an organization to accept them, read about some alternate ideas.
Volunteering
Volunteer opportunities in disaster settings are extremely rare, and are usually limited to people with prior disaster experience and technical skills (such as health, engineering, etc).
To register your skills and experience for a possible volunteer opportunity, go to the Center for International Disaster Information's registration page. For opportunities to volunteer overseas in non-disaster settings, visit Serve.gov. Or read about Volunteers for Prosperity, a volunteer program managed by USAID.