I’m sure everybody knows about the major earthquake that has devastated Haiti, killing thousands of people. Over the last week I have seen support coming from all angles, from mainstream sites like Facebook, BBC, CNN, celebrities like Ben Stiller donating through their charities, to major non-profits in the area like Yele Haiti and the Red Cross.  It is great to see so many different companies and organizations contributing to help the cause.  Although the earthquake was major, it was only a little bigger than earthquakes in the US, but caused an expontentially higher amount of damange and casualties.  I think this earthquake opened peoples’ eyes about the impact that natural disasters can have on developing countries.  Similar to the Tsunami in Thailand earlier this decade, people have joined from all over to help donate money.  Although a lot of the rebuilding will be coming from the donations that people will be making, one of the next steps will be for people in Haiti to help themselves rebuild.  I think there will be a big microfinance push as things start to get cleared up in Haiti.  With all of the relief organizations helping out, it’s only a matter of time that microfinance will take over.  In the last week alone, there have been a lot of microfinance organizations that have been helping the cause.  I decided that I would share some of the ones I have heard about.

-Alex Counts from the Grameen Foundation talks about the next step to help Haiti rebuild:

-Kiva’s field partner Esperanza wrote an update:

On Wednesday,20 January, at 6:00AM a 6.1 magnitude aftershock struck Haiti (with an epicenter approximately 35 miles north of the capital, Port-au-Prince). This is the largest aftershock yet and it comes just eight days after the tragic 7.1 magnitude earthquake hit the capital. As a result of the aftershock, many unstable buildings collapsed; however, we are fortunate they were empty as many survivors of the original quake have been sleeping on the streets. We ask for continued prayers and support for the people of Haiti.
In light of this disaster, Esperanza is partnering with various doctors and medical volunteers in the towns of Elias Pina and Jimani, located on the border with Haiti. Loads of water, food, personal hygiene items and medicines have been shipped to these areas. We are also working with our already established network of pastors and church leaders who are currently preparing sites in Port-au-Prince to receive aid directly into the country.
As the situation in Haiti becomes dire, we are still in need of cash donations from our partners abroad. Monetary gifts of $40 to Esperanza´s Disaster Relief initiatives will provide a family with its basic necessities (food, bottled water, healthcare kits, etc.). For more information on how to help, please contact the Esperanza Disaster Response Group at disasterresponse@esperanza.org

-Fonkoze, an MFI in Haiti, has an Earthquake News and Updates page that they are updating with information from the ground as well as some photos that their staff have taken.  Whole Foods has donated 1 million dollars to Fonkoze to help out the microfinance effort on the ground.

-In addition to MFIs and other non-profits helping the efforts, there are also local microfinance networks such as SeaMO, Seattle Greendrinks, Global Washington and Re-Vision Labs who are putting on an event here in Seattle to help raise funds and awareness about what is going on in Haiti.
You can RSVP for Washington for Haiti: A benefit to aid the relief efforts of Fonkoze on their facebook event page

I recently came across a new website from Grameen Bank called StopPovertyNow.org.  StopPovertyNow was start back in October as part of the World Poverty Day, with hopes of helping spread support of ending poverty.  Although the website came out more than two months ago, I never really heard much about it and I think that it is a cool concept.  I think that microfinance has always had a hard time finding ways of breaking into the mainstream media, so I think that websites like StopPovertyNow help break through, if even just a little.  The concept behind StopPovertyNow is that each individual who donates $10 to the cause gets to choose a square on a big mosaic picture, on which you can write a personal message. Each contributor is then encouraged to email the link to 10 other people to help spread awareness.  Although it follows a similar path to chain letters, which we all hated back in the 90s, I think that it can be very effective because it gives a visual representation of peoples’ contributions.  I encourage everyone to check out the website on their own.