Hope for Haiti and Planting for Peace

Unless you're specifically trying not to see and hear the stories, you've probably heard of brokenhearted family members still searching through rubble in Haiti and seen images of the many amputees, motherless children, and exhausted rescuers. You've probably read of volunteers, like Gary Garner, who said upon his departure, that he would "go home and cry."

The images don't seem to fit in a place reachable from Florida by two hours on a plane. Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere and life there was already tragic before this earthquake. One young man, who was nominated for the CNN Hero award in 2007, has been invested deeply in Haiti for years. He operates his organization, Planting for Peace, while paying little attention to his own needs. It's been widely reported that he lives in squalor, while giving all he can to his various efforts--providing medication to de-worm Haitians and operating orphanages among them. If CNN can get behind him, I can, too. The donation page is here. You can send money or goods.

Another way (and there are plenty more) to contribute is to buy the album from Friday's Hope for Haiti Now. It's available on iTunes and all profits are donated to Clinton Bush Haiti Fund, Oxfam America, Partners in Health, Red Cross, UNICEF, and the United Nations World Food Programme.