Thursday, January 14, 2010

Relief for Haiti: where to help

Update 6:30PM 1/18/2010: The allegations against Wyclef and his foundation have been proven false by several IRS tax experts who examined the documents for various media outlets. We've added Yele Haiti and its earthquake relief fund back to the list. 

Meanwhile, the Larry King special on CNN raised over $1 million dollars for the Red Cross and UNICEF in its first hour.
   
Update 1/18/2010: Some media reports are accusing Wyclef's foudnation, Yele Haiti, and its Hatian earthquke relief fund of imporoper use of funds. Wyclef strongly and adamently denies this. Until it's all sorted out, we have removed Yele Haiti and the Yele Haiti Earthquake Relief Fund from the list of charities below.

Meanwhile, tonight 1/18/2010 on CNN from 8-10P.M. EST Larry King is hosting a 2-hour special to raise funds for Haitian earthquake relief. Guests include Ryan Seacrest, Mick Jagger, Seal, Tea Leone, John Mayer, Susan Sarandon, Ben Stiller, Nicole Richie, Ashley Judd, Christina Aguillera, and more. 


Links and resources for Haiti Earthquake Relief

As always, we encourage you to check out any charities you may be interested in at http://www.charitynavigator.org/


CNN's website is loaded with the latest news and infomation about the quake and relief efforts. Must-see: Dr. Sanjay Gupta's reports. Gupta, a practicing neurosurgeon, is a CNN reporter who has been treating injured people in addition to filing excellent reports for CNN. At one point, fearing security concerns, a medical team in charge of a field hospital where Gupta and his crew reporting packed up and left, leaving Gupta to care for patients. Gupta trained his CNN crew to help, and all remained stable through the night.
http://www.cnn.com/
Twitter @Sanjayguptacnn


An extensive CNN web page list of charities and relief organizations can be found here: http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2007/impact/

President Obama has asked former Presidents Clinton and Bush2 to partner on Haitian earthquake relief as Presidents Clinton and Bush1 did successfully for tsunami relief. The organization's relief fund is here:
http://clintonbushhaitifund.org/


The William Jefferson Clinton Foundation website has information and resources, including phone numbers for family members to call to check on the status of loved ones, plus direct links to organizations accepting donations. Regardless of your political views, I recommend the Clinton Foundation because they have an established history of success working in poor areas to help alleviate diseases such as AIDS and Malaria. Because of this, the Clinton Foundation has resources and partners already in place which can be extended toward Haitian earthquake relief. Also, President Clinton is the UN Special Envoy to Haiti. http://www.clintonfoundation.org/haitiearthquake/

Doctors Without Borders was in Haiti before the earthquake and needs lots of help, as their own medical facilities, plus all the hospitals in Haiti were damaged or demolished by the earthquake:
http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/

The earthquake damaged / demolished UN relief facilities which had been in Haiti before the earthquake, and many UN personnel are injured or dead, so much help is needed. As Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, hunger is of particular concern:

UN World Food Programme
http://www.wfp.org/

Unicef
http://www.unicef.org/

American Red Cross has links to Haiti information / donations:
The
http://www.redcross.org/

Or, you can donate $10 to the Red Cross via text by texting HAITI to 90999. 100% of funds will go to Haiti earthquake relief.

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies is a partnership of all the Red Crosses and similar organizations:
http://www.ifrc.org/index.asp


Oxfam America is an affiliate of Oxfam International, which is an international relief and development organization that works with individuals and local groups in over 100 countries:
http://www.oxfamamerica.org/

MercyCorps is an organization dedicated to alleviating poverty and social injustice by helping people around the world build strong communities:
http://www.mercycorps.org/

Partners in Health partners with communities to bring healthcare and health information to impoverished areas:
http://www.pih.org/home.html

Celebrities working on Haiti earthquake relief projects 
Check their official websites or follow them on Twitter for information. Publicists / managers of celebrity clients feel free to email me a short blurb describing your client's Haiti earthquake relief involvement, along with publishable public contact information for the project (i.e., public website, verified public twitter or verified public Facebook) to muzbizadvc(at)aol(dot)com with "Client news Haiti" in the subject line. Please note that due to time constraints for this project, the client must be an already-established celebrity or well-established artist or band, and that the Haiti Celebrity List project is not a venue for promoting new talent. Because of the number of scams that are likely to arise from the Haiti tragedy, my policy is firm on this.

Larry King
is hosting a 2-hour special on CNN Monday 1/18/2010 for Haitian earthquake relief. Guest include Ryan Seacrest, Mick Jagger, Tea Leone, John Mayer, Susan Sarandon, Ben Stiller, Nicole Richie, Ashley Judd, Christina Aguillera, and more.

Slash (former Guns 'n' Roses guitarist), is organizing a charity concert and is looking for 12 artists [with a draw--RR] who want to help out:
Twitter @SlashHudson

Wyclef Jean
's foundationm Yele Haiti, has an earthquake relief fund. To donate $5.00 to earthquake relief, text YELE to 501501.
http://yele.org/
Twitter@Wyclef     


Alyssa Milano is challenging a corporation to come forward to match her $50,000 donation to Unicef's Haiti's earthquake relief fund:

Twitter @Alyssa_Milano

Lady Gaga
is donating all her ticket sales and merchandise revenue from her January 24 Monster Ball concert to Haitian earthquake relief. Also on the 24th, all merchandise sales from Ladygaga.com will go to Haitian earthquake relief. 
http://www.ladygaga.com


House's Olivia Wilde is on the advisory board of Artists For Peace and Justice, which has been active in Haiti for some time and is now raising money for quake relief. Additional advisory board members include Maria Bello, Josh Brolin, James FrancoJimmy Jean-Louis, Natasha Koifman, Diane Lane, Michael Stahl-David, Oliver Stone, Madeline Stowe, Charlize Theron, and Peter Tunney.
http://artistsforpeaceandjustice.org/
Twitter @oliviawilde

Ben Stiller
's foundation, the Stiller Strong Foundation, is an education foundation for Haiti's children. It was active in Haiti before the quake and is accepting donations for quake relief. Additionally, Ben Stiller took to the airwaves to rally donations for the Red Cross's $10 text donation program and is planning to run a 10K at the end of March to raise funds for Stiller Strong Foundation.
http://www.stillerstrong.org/
Twitter @redhourben

George Clooney
is organizing and hosting the Hope For Haitian earthquake relief telethon which will air on MTV networks, plus ABC, NBC, HBO, and CNN on January 22 at 8-10P.M. EST.

Oprah's Angel Network has donated $1 million to the Red Cross for Haitian earthquake relief.

http://www.oprah.com/angel_network.html 
http://www.oprah.com
Twitter@Oprah

Quincy Jones is reworking and organizing a new recording of the hit single "We Are the World" with proceeds to benefit Haitian earthquake relief.

Tiger Woods has donated 3 million dollars to earthquake relief.

Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie donated 1 million dollars to Doctors Without Borders. Their Jolie-Pitt Foundation helps with humanitarian causes throughout the world.

Craig Ferguson has publicly challenged Rush Limbaugh to make up for his insensitive remarks by "donating 1 million dollars of his own money to the Red Cross."