Haiti

I was going to write about how if you want to donate to Haiti, you should go directly to a known nonprofit's website (American Red Cross, etc.) and donate there to avoid scams, but it seems everyone probably knows this already. (I don't have TV, and miss major trends and stories.)

However, I thought this was a good time to introduce the nonprofit Doctors Without Borders, an organization that began 40 or so years ago in France that now reaches out to impoverished countries worldwide. The organization concentrates on providing quality medical services during times of crisis--war and natural disasters, and ongoing problems--epidemics, malnutrition, and medical exclusion. They rely heavily on the talents of highly trained doctors, nurses, logisticians, water-and-sanitation experts and administrators to do their work, meaning that those working in such situations as the Haiti earthquake are prepared to hit the ground running. The link I provided is an article generated by Doctors Without Borders which will give you an idea of how bad things are in Haiti. The nonprofit had three permanent hospitals in Haiti, all of which have been so badly damaged by the quake that doctors are doing all their work in tents.

If you are thinking of donating to the Haiti earthquake, this is a good website to consider.

Who Likes Coffee?

I like coffee! And so do most adult Americans. While the purist devotees of social responsibility drink only intensely scrutinized fair trade, most of us find ourselves at Starbuck's at least a couple of times a month. (I think they do have some fair trade options, but not all their coffee is fair trade.)

Which is why, if you find yourself at the little green oasis any time soon, you should invest in a RED card. Sold alongside the rest of the merchandise, it is a red credit card-looking thing that you can load up with whatever amount you want, and then every time you use it to buy a drink, five cents is donated to support AIDS-fighting measures in Africa. Your drink doesn't cost anything extra, and the card itself doesn't cost anything. And you can reload it as many times as you want. The project has already "generated contributions equaling more than 7,000,000 days of medicine," according to its website. I don't know how many people that is, but that's a lot of medicine.

You might be one of those people that has a guilty feeling that you should be doing volunteer work in Africa instead of watching game shows, or you might think "gee, I really should have signed that petition." That's a lot of us. This is a simple, fairly effortless way to enjoy what money can buy while doing something for others.