Volunteering to help Haiti

Apparently lots of visitors to the i-volunteer site at the moment are coming via a search for 'volunteering to help in Haiti' following the catastrophic earthquake earlier this month.

There have been two previous i-volunteer posts:

• Volunteers and the Haiti crisis (a news round-up)
• Web volunteers aid Haiti relief (how American volunteers built a website to help Haitians find relatives)

However, if you are interested in going to Haiti to help the general advice is: thanks but no thanks.

A number of British-based aid agencies are working in Haiti at the moment (see the latest bulletin from the Disasters Emergency Committee) but volunteer effort is not being sought other than through existing programmes from people with relevant and specific skills. For example, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) says:

Many people have contacted MSF to inquire about volunteering to
join MSF's response to the earthquake in Haiti. We sincerely
appreciate this desire to help us assist the people who have
been affected by the catastrophe. While we appreciate this
generous response to the emergency, please understand that we
cannot immediately send new volunteers to Haiti.

They request that people apply to them in the normal way.

Some American websites do lists organisations that are apparently seeking volunteers to go to Haiti over the next 12 months, but as the comments on this article point out, such lists should be treated with caution.

What is most needed at the moment is money. See the DEC appeal below:

If you want to fundraise as well as (or instead of) donating, the best option is probably to contact one of the DEC members. Their web links below also have lots if information about what they're doing to help and how you can contribute:

• Save the Children
• British Red Cross
• Action Aid
• Cafod (Caritas)
• Help Age International
• Islamic Relief
• Merlin
• Oxfam
• Tearfund
• World Vision

Oxfam is also encouraging people to join the campaign urging world leaders to drop the requirement for Haiti to repay its foreign debt.

For news about any local fundraising or campaigning activity, you could try your local voluntary sector infrastructure agency or Volunteer Centre.