Bloggers Day of Action – Help Haiti!

Please see below for a list of places you can donate to help in the Haiti Earthquake relief!

Before the 7.0 earthquake hit on Tuesday, January 12, 2010 Haiti was as much of a third world country as any place in the world. Even before the hurricanes that hit the small island nation in 2008 the country was extremely impoverished, with massive illiteracy rates, lack of food, clean water, supplies, medical facilities and doctors.

Now that this poor nation has been struck with the worst earthquake in its history, it is up to us to do what we can to provide relief to the survivors in hope that they will not need to live amongst the dead and destruction left by this massive disaster. We must do what we can for this country in hope that the future of this impecunious land will be brighter than the past or the present.

Please see below for a list of places you can donate to help in the Haiti Earthquake relief!

Because Haiti is such a poor country the architecture is limited, and in all truth the only architecture that really matters in this country are the homes, schools and hospitals that have been built by aid organizations in order to help the people of Haiti. The two leading organizations that have contributed to the architecture of this country are the World Architecture Community and Architecture for Humanity. Architecture for Humanity is collecting donations for the rebuild of Haiti, but right now water and medical supplies are needed most urgently, so take that into account before you make a donation (e.g. Architecture for Humanity might be a better place to donate to once the relief efforts have been completed).

Other Haiti Earthquake Relief Organizations

Here are some architectural projects that have been completed or were underway before the quake:

New Haiti School

Haiti School Build

Images provided by the World Architecture Community, WorldArchitecture.org.

“This project, currently under construction (as of January 2008) is a new high school building designed for 800 students built in Pignon, Haiti. It is a challenging project for many reasons – among them the lack of choice in available materials. The only locally available material is a type of concrete blocks, from which most parts of the building were fashioned, including the structural beams. We worked on this project in conjunction with the IIT Student Chapter of the organization Haiti Outreach. Their projects in Haiti are ongoing, and currently include a water distribution system for Pignon. However, as architecture students, ATM’s focus has been more so on the building. Future work includes a new bathroom facility and further design work for the high school’s second floor.”

Visit WorldArchitecture.org for more information.

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Visitation Hospital

Images provided by Open Architecture Network in conjunction with the Visitation Hospital organization, OpenArchitectureNetwork.org.

This hospital was created by Art Judy for the Visitation Hospital Foundation on November 10th, 2007.

“Visitation Hospital, a comprehensive-care facility in a rural part of the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere will serve the desperate medical needs of thousands, educating to prevent illness, saving lives. It is using solar panels for electricity and be naturally-ventilated. Most materials will be procured locally and the construction is employing many local workers.”

For more information visit OpenArchitectureNetwork.org

Thank you to everyone who donates to one of these organizations and make sure to scroll down to visit a number of other blogs that have donated their time to write about Haiti and join this effort to raise funds for aiding this massive disaster.