Similar to many other people, I've been following the events in Haiti over the past two weeks and had the desire to do something to help. As a student, with plenty of time on my hands but little cash to give, my first thought was to "go and help." As I started looking at what exactly that might entail, I discovered that flying there, now or in six months, is probably one of the worst things that I could do. In this excellent post from "Good Intentions Are Not Enough" the big reasons for staying away are touched on.
Convinced that I'm better off staying here, I'm still left wanting to contribute - and I mean doing more than simply hitting "donate" on itunes (which you should still do if you haven't yet). While I haven't found something to sink my teeth into, there are a few projects I wanted to share for those of you with language skills or technical skills:
- A group is working on translating a book about earthquake safe construction methods
- There is also a "open plan for reconstruction" outlining what can be done over the next 5 years to help rebuild
- Improvised 911 service via SMS has been setup
- Crisis Commons continue to run events applying technical knowledge to assist aid agencies which are now trying to scale quickly, as well as the Haiti GPS map update
