<p>[Photos</a>, texts begin to tell of destruction in Haiti - CNN.com](<a href=“http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/americas/01/13/haiti.color/index.html]Photos”>Photos, texts begin to tell of destruction in Haiti - CNN.com)</p>
<p>Saw this on the news tonight when I was at the gym. My first thought was, we’re not going to know the severity of the destruction, devastation and casualties for many days and perhaps weeks yet. So very, very sad.</p>
<p>I’m anxiously awaiting word from two of our church’s mission projects. One is Grace Children’s Hospital in Port au Prince and the other is the Brad Reddick School and orphanage near Le Cayes, in the SW part of the country, about 60 miles from the epicenter. Anderson Cooper talked to someone in the northern part of the country last night and they had no damage. They have struggled with so many hurricanes in recent years and now this!</p>
<p>CNN is reporting this morning that Port au Prince is destroyed. Our prayers are with all in the area.</p>
<p>I have been getting tweets from Anderson Cooper. They tried to fly in to Port-au-Prince, but the airport is shut down/devastated and they had to reroute to Dominican Republic.</p>
<p>Between widespread poverty, political upheavals, the hurricanes and now an earthquake…the suffering that this country has endured over the years is mind-boggling. My thoughts and prayers go out to the Haitian people.</p>
<p>Terrible.</p>
<p>Thanks for posting this and the link, bluealien.</p>
<p>The Haitians did not need this.</p>
<p>Many, many of my students are from Haiti. I know they all have family there (since we’re on break, some may even be there themselves.) I feel terrible for them. Our program has a Facebook page we use to keep in touch, so I have read how scared and worried they are for their families.</p>
<p>Toledo–there was an article from today’s paper about a church group from NJ down at Grace Children’s–is that yours?</p>
<p>For past three days have been reading Tracy Kidder’s Mountains Beyond Mountains, about Paul Farmer, Jim Kim’s work in Haiti.</p>
<p>This is just devastating- here is link to Partners in Health Website, if anyone would like to donate.
[Partners</a> In Health (PIH), Health Care for the Poor](<a href=“http://www.pih.org/home.html]Partners”>http://www.pih.org/home.html)</p>
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<p>No. We had two people down in November, but they were at the school/orphanage. Did you hear anything about the condition of Grace Children’s Hospital?</p>
<p>No, according to the article, that group’s church hasn’t been able to get word from them yet (they were staying outside the city, so they hope that they are away from the worst destruction, just unable to get calls through.)</p>
<p>While the Port-au-Prince airport not functioning, getting aid from airports in the Dominican Republic to Haiti will be problematic as there are very rugged mountains between the nations and the roads in that part of Haiti are not thoroughly modern.</p>
<p>SouthJerseyChessMom, I read Mountains Beyond Mountains several years ago, and gave the book to S1 for Christmas last month. Paul Farmer’s organization is the place where I went this morning to donate. There are a number of organizations accepting donations listed on DailyKos, in the top recommended diary on the right.</p>
<p>From what I’ve read, the relief efforts are stalled right now because the airport is unusable, the roads are impassible, etc. This is so hard to fathom. I heard on MSNBC this morning that even before this earthquake, less than half the population had access to clean water!</p>
<p>^^^Paul Farmer’s organization is the place where I went this morning to donate.</p>
<p>My first thought when I saw this horror yesterday, was that Jim Kim (now President of Dartmouth), Paul Farmer, and PIH (Partners in Health) will move faster than all.
Thank you for DailyKos mention.</p>
<p>I didn’t realize till you just said that that the Dartmouth Jim Kim is the one from PIH!</p>
<p>This is devastating news! Thoughts and prayers are with all Haitians and their families and friends.</p>
<p>I also donated through PIH. They are already there on the ground with medical equipment/personnel, and can get a lot down quickly.</p>
<p>Jim Kim= amazing man! </p>
<p>[Jim</a> Yong Kim - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Yong_Kim]Jim”>Jim Yong Kim - Wikipedia)
Born in Seoul, Korea in 1959, Jim Yong Kim moved with his family to the U.S. at the age of five and grew up in Muscatine, Iowa. His father, a dentist, also taught at the University of Iowa, where his mother received her Ph.D. in philosophy. Kim attended Muscatine High School, where he was valedictorian and president of his class, and played both quarterback for the football team and point guard on the basketball team. He graduated magna cum laude with an A.B. from Brown University in 1982. He was awarded an M.D. from Harvard Medical School in 1991, and a Ph.D. from Harvard University, Department of Anthropology, in 1993. He was part of Harvard’s experimental MD/PhD program in the social sciences, which was new when he was enrolled in its first batch. He is actively involved in a variety of sports, including basketball, volleyball, tennis, and golf. Kim, who is married to Younsook Lim, a pediatrician at Children’s Hospital Boston, has two children, a son, Thomas, who was born in 2000, and a second son who was born on February 27, 2009, a few days before the announcement of Kim’s presidency at Dartmouth College.</p>
<p>There is also a way to donate via cell phone texting, through the State Dept. Text “HAITI” to 90999, and a $10 donation to relief efforts will be charged to your cellphone bill.</p>
<p>I gave to UNICEFusa because the CEO, Caryl (something) was heard on Rachel Maddow’s show last night talking about their priority being taking care of the children. I always check on Charity Navigator to make sure a charity gets a 4 star rating before it gets my donation.</p>