Ways you can help Haitian victims

Photo by UNICEF

Instead of joining useless groups on Facebook such as “If 1,000,000 people join my family will donate $100,000 to Haiti!” or “For every person that joins, I will donate 1 cent to Haiti,” teens out there can make a difference in various ways.

All over the world, people have listened to reports about aid workers deployed to help out the survivors of the earthquake and in an effort to help, small donations and actions make a large impact to helping Haitian victims.

Choose a reputable organization and create a plan to raise funds to donate to the organization. Immediate choices to come to mind are The Red Cross and Doctors Without Borders, which directly give immediate relief efforts. There are many agencies helping with relief efforts in Haiti and it keeps growing, so do the research in choosing a nonprofit organization that you would want to donate. Teens might want their money donated to an organization that will put women and mothers as a priority.

There are many ways to get involved and raise money to help. Here are some ideas:

1. Create or take part in a fundraiser(s) at school or locally in the community. Maybe your school will be one of the hundreds of thousands of American teens will go hungry in an effort to help Haiti-quake survivors and fight global hunger through World Vision’s “30-Hour Famine.”

Taylor Swift at the Hope for Haiti Now event. Photo by Jeff Kravitz/MTV

2. Attend local events that will donate proceeds to Haiti. Some events around your area might have relief workers that have returned from Haiti where you can learn and get involved with organizations that are making a difference. There, you can learn first hand about local organizations working in Haiti and get involved. You can enjoy the entertainment put out by artists, musicians and performers in their performances and other activities.

3. Buy from online stores that will donate their profits to Haiti. TOMS Shoes has donated shoes to Haiti. They were founded on a simple premise: With every pair you purchase, TOMS will give a pair of new shoes to a child in need. One for One. Threadless, the popular online graphic t-shirts website has up a tee designed by Thomas De Santis and Ivan Tarrazo Sanchez called “Many Hands Make the Load Lighter” for only $10. Better yet, all proceeds from the sale of this tee are donated to the American Red Cross Haiti Relief and Development Fund!

4. You don’t have to donate money, donate essentials and resources such as used clothing, books, toys, etc.

5. Be creative! Organizing a bake sale or hold a benefit concert; there are endless possibilities of ideas. All over people have donated either their time, resources, money, and talent to help Haiti.

Teens can contribute to the outpouring of resources and compassion shows our profound connections and capacity for love, even when the horror of devastation experienced by the most vulnerable confounds our understanding of the ways of the world.

Please remember that if you are donating your money, donate it to large organizations and do not fall for small independent ones. At a time like this, many are likely to take advantage of the opportunity and make money for themselves. Well known charities are: CARE, UNICEF, The Red Cross, and George Clooney’s “Hope for Haiti.”