MORE ON HOW TO HELP HAITI

This is my new profile picture:

I just received this e-mail from the Facebook group, Sikh Sewa:

Subject:  HAITI Needs YOU: Please Volunteer or Donate for the UNITED SIKHS Haiti Quake Relief Appeal


UNITED SIKHS FACEBOOK GROUP:
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/group.php?gid=252615071581&ref=ts


HAITI Needs YOU: Please Volunteer or Donate for the UNITED SIKHS Haiti Quake Relief Appeal

Poster on: http://www.facebook.com/l/f68de;sikhseva.blogspot.com/2010/01/haiti-needs-you.html

You have seen the devastation of Haiti on TV. Now please switch on to their needs. The UNITED SIKHS team , headed by Lt Col Gurbachan Singh and 4 volunteers including doctors, has arrived in Haiti through the neighbouring islands. They have found that looting and devastation is painful to describe. They have set up a base camp and and wish to set up a langgar service (hot community meal) and distribute food and medical supplies urgently.

See the UNITED SIKHS appeal poster attached . Please put it up an your local Gurdwara or community centre.
We need your help.

If you can volunteer in Haiti please Join UNITED SIKHS at http://www.facebook.com/l/f68de;www.untedsikhs.org/join and you will receive an automatic email acknowledgment with a link to a health history form and a volunteer application form for field projects. Kindly fill both forms and email them to volunteer@unitedsikhs.org asap.

If you would like to donate , you may do so online at http://www.facebook.com/l/f68de;www.unitedsikhs.org/join

, or post a cheque, payable to UNITED SIKHS, to us at PO BOX 43799 8SS


We also urge you to put up the attached poster at your workplace and gurdwara and help in fundraising this Sunday . Take the initiative to collect the donations and post them to us with the donors details so we may issue a receipt.
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To reply to this message, follow the link below:
http://www.facebook.com/n/?inbox%2Freadmessage.php&t=1311657788220&mid=1bd7e78G2ae25711G3c4adf4G0

(Mai again.  Maybe it's just my tired, old eyes, but I can't read the poster.  Click on this one for a larger version, not as pretty, but at least I can read it.)

HELP THE PEOPLE OF HAITI

By this time, we have all heard about the horrible results of the earthquake in Haiti.  Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere.   To add to the usual tragedy of a large earthquake, in this case most of the country's top doctors have been trapped and are possibly dead in a collapsed hospital.  On top of that, there are many fires burning.  A prison collapsed and many prisoners died;  others escaped to terrorise the already traumatized citizens.  Soon, untended wounds will become infected, disease will start spreading because of lack of basic hygiene and clean water - and the doctors and medicine have been destroyed.  Only help from outside - from us - can save these people. 

This is just one picture.  To see more, please go to The Daily Mail.

The Sikh spirit of sewa in each of us wants to do something.  Few of us can actually go there, but most of us can contribute a few dollars or rupees or pounds or euros.  It is important to contribute wisely.  Already there are many scams on the Internet.  Please do not give to any organisation or group not known to you.

I have not yet found any Sikh organisations, so I will post two known to all of us as reputable international agencies.

First is the International Committee of the Red Cross.  Go here to donate to them.

Another possibility is UNICEF.  To donate to UNICEF, go here.

Both of these are worldwide;  you can donate from anywhere.

For a list of reputable organisations in the USA, please go to Sikh Philosophy Network

We Sikhs belief in helping all people in distress.  Let us show that we do more than lip-service to this.