As everybody should be aware of by now the country of Haiti on Tuesday suffered a 7.0 magnitude earthquake near the capital city of Port-au-Prince, which has devastated the area affecting millions of lives across the country. As quoted from Newsweek “Within the first 48 hours after the Jan. 12 disaster, the Haitian Red Cross estimated 45,000 to 50,000 deaths, with 3 million either injured or homeless.” It seems especially cruel considering the history of the country since its discovery by Europeans and it’s struggle to maintain its hard fought independence from colonial rule.

Haiti is one of the world’s most impoverished countries, afflicted with violence, and seemingly always beget with tragedy. But as evidenced by the massive attention the natural disaster has placed onto Haiti, efforts from around the globe have mobilized quickly to offer relief and aid to the Haitian people. To the credit of the United States current administration every respectable effort is being made to help Haiti in it’s greatest time of need, located just a few hundred miles south of Florida. U.S. President Barack Obama issued a public statement affirming the commitment of the U.S. to help Haitians both domestically and back in their homeland with the recovery efforts as well as delivering food and medical supplies to Haiti.

For a little background Fareed Zakaria of CNN gives a decent overview of Haiti’s history:

Haitian born singer Wyclef Jean, famous for being part of the hip-hop group The Fugees, has developed an earthquake fund through his organization called Yéle Haiti to help raise money for state of emergency and relief efforts in Haiti. However he has recently come under fire for alleged discrepancies regarding how he manages his NGO, in which the timing of this seems to be counterproductive at best. Below is a video of Wyclef directly addressing those concerns and laying to rest any doubts about his commitment to help his home country recover from the earthquake:

Ways to help:

The following organizations are accepting SMS donations in the US only:
• SMS text “HAITI” to 90999 to donate $10 to Red Cross relief efforts
• SMS text “YELE” to 501501 to Donate $5 to Yele Haiti’s Earthquake Relief efforts
• SMS text “GIVE10″ to 20222 to donate $10 to Direct Relief

Online Donations:

• CARE
• Doctors Without Borders
• Mercy Corps
• UNICEF

Haiti Earthquake Humanitarian Emergency information.

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