Thursday, January 14, 2010

Virtual Help for the Real Life Disaster in Haiti

Back in 2005, the Second Life community collectively rose up in support of the Katrina hurricane disaster and started grid wide fundraising and memorial events. This was prior to the amazing organizational efforts of the American Cancer Society's Relay for Life. The Katrina relief efforts started with only a handful of people and quickly spread.

The recent earthquake in Haiti is a devastating tragedy to a region that was already plagued by numerous hardships and extreme poverty. In the last two days I have been putting together a short resource list of informational and relief aid sites to go to for updates and to donate.



I also have included in some of the Second Life related efforts I know of. Please add any info and resources you might know of to the comments of this post. And, feel free to reach out to me if you are in need of space to hold a Haiti relief event in world.

Everyone is welcome to go to my historic cathedral in the center of the old-grid sim, Darkwood & light a candle with your thoughts and prayers. (SLurl: http://slurl.com/secondlife/darkwood/152/133/22/)

Hugs & be well - Rhiannon Chatnoir

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UPDATE:

Several of us from Jeska Linden's post thread, Katydid Something, Nevar Lobo, JoJo Dhara, and many others who have contacted each of us directly, have been chatting on trying to coordinate a collaborative, unified approach to SL Haiti Relief efforts.

We are planning a meeting, this Saturday, January 16 (tomorrow) to start collectively talking in world on coming up with a solution for maybe a unified donation kiosk/vendor, shared group calendar where people can list all related relief events, resources, etc.

If you are interested in also helping with this process, please join us. Details & SLurl are below.

Haiti Relief in SL planning meeting

Saturday, January 16, 2010

11 AM SLT - 1 PM SLT

in the Vesuvius sim @ http://slurl.com/secondlife/Vesuvius/98/176/25

Thanks guys - hope to see you there!

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INFO SITES:

The White House
The White Housere sponse, with resource links and the President's address on the Haiti disaster.

US State Department 2010 Earthquake in Haiti page
Phone # for families of Americans living in Haiti 888-407-4747
Contact embassy via email at ACSPaP@state.gov

Center for International Disaster Information
Includes links to information on the disaster along with various Aid websites.

Twitter
Twitter real-time results for "Help Haiti" or #Haiti

http://haiti.ushahidi.com/
live updating site to post/view incident reports, missing & injured in Haiti.
You can report an incidence by: sending a message to 447624802524, sending an email to haiti@ushahidi.com or tweeting with the hashtag/s #haiti or #haitiquake
Also has videos, photos & list of organizations on the ground.



RELIEF EFFORTS/DONATING:

InterAction
lists numerous relief agencies responding to Haiti disaster with info and donation links

UNICEF
For info on earthquake in Haiti & to donate.

Red Cross
For info on earthquake in Haiti & to donate.
http://twitter.com/RedCross
You can also donate to Red Cross relief efforts by texting "Haiti" to 90999 to donate $10 via cell phone.
And you can donate to the RedCross via iTunes.

Clinton Foundation
You can also donate to the Clinton Foundation by texting "HAITI" to 20222 to donate $10 via your cell phone bill.

Doctors Without Borders
Donate on their site or via phone 1-888-392-0392.

Global Giving

Donate to MercyCorps via Amazon

Yele.org
Which is run by Wyclef Jean, the Hatian-American musician.
You can also donate by texting "Yele" to 501501 to donate $5 via your cell to Haiti relief efforts through the Wyclef Foundation

World Society for the Protection of Animals
WSPA and IFAW are working together to help animals in Haiti, which are important to economic sustainability.


SL RELATED EFFORTS:

Jeska Linden posted to the LL blog on Haiti and if you are organizing any relief efforts/events you can also post about them in the comments there.

Wagner James Au posted a entry to New World Notes for people to post any relief efforts within Second Life as well.

Katydid Something, co-owner of Molasky's Pub in SL, is organizing a music & art relief benefit and has numerous SL musicians/artists signing up. Contact her if you would like to be involved.

Kali Idziak, one of the members of the Nonprofit Commons community, is planning an event to benefit the Haitian Sustainable Development Foundation. For more info, and to donate, go to their Facebook cause page: http://apps.facebook.com/causes/beneficiaries/53507/info

The start of a discussion on organizing relief efforts will be taking place during the open mic portion of TechSoup's weekly NonProfit Commons Friday meetings in SL. Meeting starts at 8:30 AM SLT, Open Mic should be about 9:20 AM SLT. SLurl: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Plush%20Nonprofit%20Commons/88/126/26

The Alliance Virtual Library on Info Island is supplying Haitian Charity links in Second Life. SLurl: http://bit.ly/6gJyY5

Also SL's own Ham Rambler, who owns the Dublin sim/pub and a pilot in real life, has been helping with relief efforts by flying specialist Search and Rescue teams from London to Haiti and the neighboring island of Santa Domingo.
You can read updates on this on his Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/ham.rambler

Darkwood Cathedral - where you can light a candle with your thoughts and prayers.
http://slurl.com/secondlife/darkwood/152/133/22/