Generosity Helps Heal Hearts Broken by Tragedy in Haiti

With open hearts and open hands,we gave what we could,and a little became a lot.

This first sentence of "Give a Little: How Your Small Donations Can Transform Our World" refers to the outpouring of charitable giving by Americans following the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.

American households gave $2.78 BILLION for rescue/relief/rebuilding in the months following the tsunami. This accounted for nearly HALF OF ALL GIVING by all governments, corporations, foundations and other bodies around the world. The median donation was $50; the average donation was $135.

We everyday citizens are the great philanthropists of our time! Following the tsunami, donations by wealthy celebrities and corporations made headlines. They are again in the wake of the earthquake in Haiti, but the overwhelming wave of giving coming in small gifts via text messages and compounded by messaging via twitter, facebook and bloggers has demanded the media attention it deserves.

With real-time images that are nearly unfathomable coming at us from our television screens, the magnitude and devastation from the earthquake in Haiti is so painful that many of us are compelled to share our mourning and misery where we can - on the internet.

Here's to social networking and innate generosity of everyday citizens.

Congratulations on another incredible wave of good will toward our brothers and sisters in Haiti.

Painfully slow rollout of rescue/relief in Haiti

So good to hear about the amazing generosity of donors and the influx of supplies and personnel to Haiti. Yet I am frustrated by the slow and chaotic distribution to the field. I know there are tremendous barriers due to the destruction and the lask of functional civic institutions and infrastructure in Haiti.

Still, for the future, I'd like to see the world's nations create a crisis response plan for these high-destruction, high-casualty crises that is nimble, quick and has machinery/personel that can transcend these obstacles - ie, more helicopters that can be quickly transported anywhere the world; personnel that can be helicoptered in and are equipped to manage crowds at distribution points, etc.

As for rescue equipment, that is more difficult. Still, good brains can imagine and create machinery that can be transported by helicopter in pieces and assembled on location, or those that can actually maneuver across earthquake-devastated terrain.

At least something to ponder, eh? So many brilliant minds out there creating appropriate technologies for developing countries could also create technologies for FAST disaster response.