*Lightly cleaned up version of cyclone's post*
GLA is a legit orphanage. I am the one who gave Aeneas the email he posted earlier.
I adopted twins from Haiti and we stayed at GLA while there. Any donations to GLA are used for care of the children and support of their medical and adoption services. Years ago, Dixie and John were in Haiti helping out another agency when a local brought their sick premee baby to Dixie because she was a nurse and they could not get any medical help elsewhere. John built an incubator from scratch on the spot and they tried to nurse this child to health. Sadly it passed away, but it was then that they knew where they are needed. They went back to the States, quit their jobs and secured funding, then moved permanently to Petionville.
More than a decade later, they have helped hundreds of children that would have otherwise died, and hundreds of children find homes and a better life. My twins came from there, my friend's daughter came from there, our other friend's have adopted three times from there. The people of Petionville (one of the hardest hit areas) know Dixie has medical knowledge and can get supplies. Given the current situation, I would not be surprised if they began getting a flood of people bringing children to them in the aftermath. You can certainly support Canadian Red Cross or Doctor's Without Borders and your money will be put to good use. If you want to help an orphanage, this is one I can personally vouch for.
I had a few people asking me about Haiti and why this earthquake could potentially be so deadly there when a similar magnitude earthquake in other nations might kill 100 people, maybe 1000. Here is what I know: Remember that this is the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere, with more than 80% living below the poverty line. They were once one of the most resource rich nations in the world, but occupation from the Spaniards and then the French stripped them of everything of value. Haiti's biggest contributor to their gross domestic product? International aid.
When I went to Haiti to adopt my twins, I flew in to Port-Au-Prince. As you approach the airport from the air, you first see what looks like a massive garbage dump. As you descend, you realize that it is a shanty town, cube after cube of homes built with parts from abandoned cars, leftovers from construction sites, pulled down from billboards, etc. Row upon row of 8' by 8' shacks housing a family in each. It is so densely packed that you would likely need to walk for an hour to get to the center of it. Driving through Port-Au-Prince, almost every building is made of concrete. Something like 2 million people live in the city, which is about a tenth the size of Calgary. It was originally designed to be a small town.
Driving up the hill to Petionville, you see that homes are built leaning onto one another because it is easier to build three walls instead of four (so you share a wall with your neighbor). And the area is so mountainous that people build on the side of hills and mountains frequently because that is the only space available. They only had electricity half the time. When fuel for the generators ran out, the electricity went off and you had to wait for them to have enough for the power to come back on. Fortunately the place I stayed had a generator so they always had power.
Streets are not named, houses are not numbered, and typically the only places with phones were businesses. All of your food either came from tiny grocery stores or roadside food stands. And the government barely exists. The country borders on lawlessness at the best of times, hospitals are ill-equipped and undermanned. Police forces are outnumbered by organized crime groups and ill-equipped.
In my opinion, Haiti is the worst place in the world to have an earthquake. Those buildings are built like dominoes, so if one goes down, they all go down. They are built without being structurally sound and with massive amounts of concrete, which will just pancake in an earthquake. Homes in less densely packed places will likely tumble into ravines. Communications go from bad to nonexistent. If the food stores are gone, people have no place to get food. I believe the estimates that 100,000 people may have already died. But the worst is yet to come as lawlessness, disease and starvation begin.
Unless there is a sizable international aid and security mobilization, I would not be surprised to see the number top a million. Imagine if everyone in Calgary came into downtown and we invited everyone in Edmonton to join us. Most of the buildings downtown were damaged or destroyed. Dead bodies decaying in the streets everywhere you go. People needing medical help can only find the occasional EMT or nurse who are dealing with 100+ injuries at a time and had no supplies or medicine. All grocery stores were either destroyed or looted. The most hardened criminals were all on the loose as the prison collapsed...and your government had no one coming to help you.
Fortunately it looks like world leaders are taking it seriously. I just pray they know how serious this one might get. Areas hit by the big tsunami had better infrastructure to deal with the disaster, money, supplies, etc. Haitian people are the most resilient and hardworking people I've ever seen. They take pride in appearing their best while living in terrible conditions. But they can't come out of this one without a massive amount of help.
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