I'm assuming you've heard about the earthquake that has devastated Haiti. (although last night when I posted, "praying for Haiti" as my facebook status one of our youth responded with "what happened")
It's just horrific the images that are be shown on t.v. The first thing that came to mind was Compassion International because we have heard and seen success stories from Compassion kids from Haiti. Not long after that thought "tweets" started coming through on Twitter from Compassion. Below is an email that I received from Compassion this morning.
This message was originally sent out to the generous network of Compassion Bloggers. To join that Compassion blogging network and be the first to act in future times of need, visit http://compassionbloggers.com/get-involved
PLEASE DO NOT SKIM. URGENT REQUEST.
ASSIGNMENT:
Use your on-line voice to generate prayers and donations to rebuild the lives of Haitian children and their families affected by recent earthquake.
SYNOPSIS:
The catastrophic earthquake that hit Haiti on January 12 has resulted in unfathomable chaos and devastation for hundreds of thousands of children and families.
Compassion sponsors and donors serve more than 65,000 children in Haiti. At least a third of them live in the areas that were hardest hit.
I am asking you to please send a generous gift today to help precious children and their families, and to encourage others to give to Compassion International through your blog, Facebook and Myspace pages, Twitter account and e-mail. Please utilize every on-line tool you have access to. The people of Haiti desperately need our help and hope.
Compassion International is working rapidly to assess the situation and determine the full extent of damage:
- Sadly, we anticipate there will be many deaths.
- We anticipate thousands of children and families will have lost everything.
- We anticipate many of our church-based child development centers will have been destroyed.
Without a doubt, the children we serve in Haiti are in shock and face immediate needs for food, water, medical care, shelter and counseling. We have teams prepared to respond, and we are deeply committed to helping each child.
We need your help immediately. Please reach out in the name of Jesus to bring relief, comfort, love and restoration to precious children and families whose lives have been devastated by this crisis.
Below I have compiled information and tools to help you help Haiti on-line. If you need anything else from Compassion please get in touch with me at shaun@compassionbloggers.com or 1-888-435-3336.
Please do not distribute any information about this crisis, especially as it pertains to the safety of our children and staff, unless that information comes from me or an official Compassion International information channel such as Compassion’s blog, Twitter and Facebook accounts.
WHY GIVE TO COMPASSION INTERNATIONAL:
FINANCIAL INTEGRITY: The FBI is warning of several Haiti charity scams that have popped up in the wake of this earthquake. http://www.cnn.com/2010/LIVING/wayoflife/01/13/haiti.charity.scams/
They are suggesting that donations only be made to organizations monitored and rated by CharityNavigator.org and The American Institute of Philanthropy. Both organizations have given Compassion International their highest approval ranking. Compassion International is the only non-profit in it’s category to receive eight consecutive years of four star rating from CharityNavigator.org.
Links regarding Compassion International’s financial integrity:
- http://www.compassion.com/about/financial/default.htm
- http://www.compassion.com/press/currentnews/charity-navigator-awards-compassion-highest-rating-8th-year-in-row.htm
FIRST RESPONDER: In this disaster it is crucial that first responders receive support quickly. Because Compassion International ministers through local churches to meet the needs of that church’s neighbors, and because these church partners are respected aid workers in their communities, Compassion is uniquely positioned to assess and meet the needs of it’s sponsored children quickly. This is an advantage of our church-based model in practice for more than 50 years.
IN JESUS’ NAME: Compassion International does not accept government funds which could at times restrict our ability to meet the physical and spiritual needs of children in Jesus’ name. Because of this Compassion International’s primary financial support comes from individual donors.
WHERE TO GIVE:
Please ONLY use one of the following URLs when linking to Compassion’s Haiti Earthquake Disaster Relief donation page. This will allow us to track how much is given by you and your fellow bloggers and report that back to you at a later date.
https://www.compassion.com/contribution/giving/haitiearthquake.htm?referer=105120SocialSponsorshipBlitz
OR
http://bit.ly/HelpHaitiCI
HOW DONATIONS WILL BE USED:
All funds raised in response to the Haiti earthquake will be used immediately to provide for Compassion-assisted children and families affected by this crisis. Any funds raised in excess will be stewarded by Compassion for additional and future disaster relief efforts.
You can provide immediate relief today.
- $35 helps provide a relief pack filled with enough food and water to sustain a family for one week.
- $70 gift helps care for their needs for two weeks.
- $105 helps provide relief packs filled with enough food and water to sustain two families for two weeks.
- $210 gift helps care for two families’ needs.
- $525 helps provide relief packs filled with enough food and water to sustain 10 families for two weeks.
- $1,050 gift helps care for 10 families’ needs.
- $1,500 helps rebuild a home.
- $2,100 helps supply 20 families with the basics for three weeks.
Due to the high number of responses it may take longer than normal to process your transaction.
IMPORTANT SPECIAL REQUEST:
In order to help people find Compassion International more easily when searching for “Haiti earthquake”, please link the words “Haiti earthquake” to Compassion’s donation page somewhere in your post if at all possible. This will help Compassion’s donation page climb to the top of search results on Google quickly and generate thousands more donations.
Here’s that donation page link again:
https://www.compassion.com/contribution/giving/haitiearthquake.htm?referer=105120SocialSponsorshipBlitz
OR
http://bit.ly/HelpHaitiCI
Thank you for helping Compassion International help Haiti.
Shaun Groves
Blogger Manager
CompassionBloggers.com
Compassion.com
1-888-435-3336
Updates can be found at the following
- Updates from Twitter: http://twitter.com/compassion
- Compassion blog: http://blog.compassion.org
- Compassion on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/compassionintl
- Crisis Update Page: http://www.compassion.com/sponsordonor/crisisupdates/crisis-advisory-earthquake-hits-haiti.htm
