An earthquake of magnitude 7.0 hit Haiti on January 12th claiming many thousands of lives, with numbers rising all the time. Its hard to imagine finding any survivors at this late stage, although rescuers continue to search.

I, like many, heard about this disaster in the comfort of my own home, sitting in front of the television set, eating my evening meal. As the pictures began to reveal themselves in front of my eyes, I could barely look. How can such a tragedy claim so many lives, and leave so many people without food or water, and with nowhere to live, or to get shelter from the sun?

Stories began emerging about how long it took to get aid to these suffering people, and I didn’t know what to make of it all. Were the rest of the world too slow to react? Could we have done more, a lot sooner?

I guess we cannot always be readily prepared for such an event, especially on this scale, and aid was sent as soon as it could have been. It costs a lot of money to transport aid to this part of the world, and we need money from donations and the Government to fund it all. I cant imagine the organisation of this terrible event being very easy at all, and I for one commend the efforts of those who have helped so far, as many more lives could have been lost. That said, there are still areas that need aid, and are not getting it. I guess we just simply don’t have the resources to go round to everyone, and it saddens me to think this is the case. I wish I could be there to help in some way.

I watched the evening news broadcast to witness people overwhelmed with joy for the prospect of getting a bottle of water. Such a small thing to give and to accept, yet the gratitude from those survivors who have nothing left, brought a tear to my eye.

With so many large-scale events happening all over the world in recent years, I begin to wonder if it is linked to global warming in some way. The changing weather systems, the changing planet, could all be a result of our assault on the planet, yet it would take a hard man to put the blame of this tragedy on our shoulders. It does make me wonder though.

I know I cant make any difference in Haiti, but I want to point people to a few websites where you can read about this disaster, and to donate where possible.

Google have an information page here: Google Information Page

You can also donate to charities here: Unicef and DEC

If anyone uses this page to help the victims, then I can consider it a help, albeit a very small one. Thank you to anyone who donates, or who has already donated. Your kindness will help somebody.

Tagged with: • • • • • •

Filed under: News

Like this post? Subscribe to my RSS feed and get loads more!