This article is from my Church headquarters:

"We express our sympathy and prayers on behalf of the citizens of Haiti following the recent devastating earthquake. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is immediately shipping humanitarian relief, including personal hygiene kits and supplies for newborns. Efforts are underway to determine further humanitarian response in coordination with government and disaster relief organizations. Donations for relief efforts can be made at http://give.lds.org/emergencyresponse.";

This is why I sew and make all those little shirts and dresses. Sometimes we put together hygiene kits and ship them to Church headquarters where they are waiting as events like this occur. The Church is always early to respond because everything is ready and waiting. Sewing is just my small way of making a difference....to someone.

Carol, I have used this website to order the thread cards I use for my sewing kits that I make up. They were a huge blessing to the project. They saved me much time, money and effort :)

I/we put together 900 kits this year. Unfortunately our medical mission was supposed to leave Saturday but has had to be postponed.

Lisa

Here is a link that might be useful: Mandalay International

Lisa,

I've been waiting to hear from you all day and have been so concerned about the group you work with. You could update us on how we can help them too. (hint hint) I don't think that organization should be excluded from our efforts just because you are too nice to ask for help for an organization that you support. It's not like you personally will profit from any assistance given to that group.

Please know that I am holding your organization, its' members and all the children y'all help in my heart and in my prayers.

Carol,

I thought of your sewing project this morning as I watched the news and saw so many people wandering the streets seemingly dazed and in shock, many of them undoubtedly wearing the only clothing they have left after so many homes were damaged and destroyed. Thank you for all you do to help those in need. It is great to see that your church is able to mobilize and respond to disaster so quickly.

OK, all you gardeners out there, let's open up our hearts and do whatever we can to help the people of Haiti, please!There is great suffering in Haiti and I hope all of us are able to find a way to help, not just this week or this month, but for years to come. Haiti is one of our closest neighbors--only 700 miles or so from Florida, and the suffering there even in good times is hard for us to comprehend. I cannot imagine what it is like to be there right now.

Garden chat seems kind of trivial on a day like today, doesn't it?
Dawn

Dawn, thank you, I will be happy to pass on their website. They are taking donations :) Our group was actually scheduled to hold medical clinics for all 800 children next week, they were to leave on Saturday. The trip has been canceled/postponed. In fact, American Airlines has canceled all flights for the time being. The kids at the orphanage are all okay (about 50), but the others all live with their families and I am expecting to hear of great loss of life and definitely homes. We sponsor a number of children in Cite Soleil which is a horrible slum.

Another orphanage we know of in the city lost a 15 year old when a wall fell on him.

I also follow a blog by the Livesays (http://livesayhaiti.blogspot.com/). You might have seen them quoted on CNN and MSN. They are missionaries living in PAP. Their organization, Heartline, does great work too.

Here is a link that might be useful: Hope For Haiti's Children Ministries

Hi Lisa,

Thanks for posting the info. I'm glad to hear they're taking donations.

I suppose we should be grateful that the folks from your group were not already there on their medical mission when this happened--for their sake and for the sake of their loved ones. I hope they will be able to reschedule their mission at a future time once air travel is possible again.

I heard about AA's flight cancellations early this a.m. since DH and DS work at D-FW Airport and suspect that it will be a while before normal air travel will be resumed. They say the air traffic control tower crumbled and it is hard to land jumbo jets using visual flight rules. DS was explaining all about how the U.S. (and other nations) can fly in military air traffic control personnel who are trained to quickly set up and operate anywhere under almost any conditions, so hopefully they'll be able to keep the airports in the Port-au-Prince area operating as normally as possible so humanitarian relief planes can land.

Thanks for posting the Livesays blog. I think I have seen them or at least heard them talking today and I am going to go check out their blog in a few minutes.

I was reading a blog at Wunderground yesterday when the quake happened and first learned of the quake there....a long time before it finally hit Yahoo and the U.S. news channels. It is amazing how quickly all the 'new media' like bloggers, Twitter followers, Facebook, websites like Liveleak, etc. can share news and images nowadays.

Oh, and one more thing....the U.S. Coast Guard is already very involved in assessing the scene and helping. It is amazing how quickly they have responded. Kudos to the Coast Guard.

Dawn

I am a member of the Mormon Church too, but I don't expect too much money will be sent as they are completing City Creek Center in downtown Salt Lake, an upscale shopping center and quarter of a million to million dollar condos. So far they have had to spend 5 Billion and it could cost as much as 8 Billion. I understand why so much is being spent...Salt Lake City really needed a new upscale center to keep it vibrant and alive. But I know all the members will be making relief items and even donations to help, and i am always so impressed with the members! But maybe the church will put some of the work on hold and send a large amount of aid...at least I hope they do.

I caught an interesting statistic in a story today. There are 40,000-45,000 Americans in Haiti. I knew there was a lot, but that amount is rather staggering.

Lisa,

It is a staggering number. I had no idea so many were there, and it sounds like many of them are there on aid missions. I'm sure their families and friends here in the USA are very concerned about their well-being.

By the way, I did see the Livesay family members quoted quite a bit on the news yesterday.

The world appears to be sending a lot of aid their way, but timing is of the essence and it worries me that the aid will arrive too late to save those who need it most.

We need someone prominent in the entertainment music world to put together something like "We Are The World" or "Live Aid" to do serious fundraising for Haitian relief. I wonder if anyone will step up and do it?

This entire century has been cruel to Haiti....hurricanes, tropical storms, constant flooding, and now this. I am stunned by how one event after another continues to pound this nation and its people.

When the tsunami hit in 2004, I thought it would be "the" world's major disaster for this century. I believe that Haiti's earthquake will supersede it in terms of damage and maybe in terms of lives lost. This is an event that is just so staggering in its magnitude.

Dawn

Just giving my little $10 to the Red Cross somehow makes me feel a little bit better. Just think if 100,000,000 Americans each gave $10 (out of our 350,000,000 people) what a difference that could make.

It is inappropriate to be discussing this right now as it is an on going human disaster, but perhaps Haiti can get the huge help and attention from the world it has needed for so long because of this tragedy.

I certainly don't discount all the help many organizations have given for so many years, but there are 9,000,000 persons on that little island. How could they sustain a decent life. I am no expert, just hoping life can get better for all those who have survived this terrible event.

It seems like something Bono might do, Dawn, since he is really into relief efforts of all kind. Too bad we don't have Michael with us any longer, because I'm sure he would step up to the plate.

Speaking of Americans in Haiti, I head a story on the news this morning about a father whose 13-year old son went on a scuba diving trip to Haiti and he does not know anything yet. I can't imagine the horror of a child being lost.

Haiti is a very, very poor country anyway, and they truly did not need anything of this magnitude to happen. I have heard that evangelist, Pat Robertson, stated that Haiti had "...made a pact with the devil". What an absoltely awful thing to say!

I also heard that one of our aircraft carriers made it to Haiti this morning with food and goods for the people. So hopefully this is just a beginning of the flood of humanitarian effort.

Susan

momfryhover - The building project won't stand in the way of humanitarian aid. The hygiene kits have already been trucked in from the Dominican Republic and now the planes are on the way. If it is like normal, they will send semi loads to the coast and load them on freighters as soon as it is possible to do so.

I have been feeling guilty for not sewing as much this year and about 10 days ago, it was freezing cold here but as I got out of the warm car, and was dressed in warm clothing, I thought how thankful I was to have those things. My next thought was that I needed to be making clothing for others that weren't so lucky. I told my husband that I needed to set aside a week and just do nothing but sew.....but I didn't.

Last night I couldn't sleep, so I got up in the middle of the night and made four pajama tops. I guess it takes a crisis to get me in gear. I have noticed that I am not the only one that responds to immediate need more than long term needs tho. People become much more charitable after a crisis.

What I am making now will not be to fill this need, but will go to help stock the warehouses so it is there for a future need.

I agree that anything that is given, be it $10 or $10,000, is helpful. It is nice when you can find a charity where the money goes to the victim's care and not for overhead of the organization, so choose carefully if you contribute.

We have noticed that there is a continuous need for new childrens clothing, school supplies, and warm blankets and quilts. I just choose to do clothing because I can do it fast, I get donated fabric from others who want to help, and when I recruit help maybe they learn a valuable skill for their own family. Not many people sew anymore. I don't like to quilt, but I can sew.

I have a friend that is not a member of my church, but believes in what we are doing. I am sure that she has made over one hundred dresses for my project since I started it. She brings them to me a dozen at a time and I know that she is blessed for her work. I tell everyone that helps, that when they finish a garment they need to hold it up and take one final look and imagine the child. It brings tears to your eyes and gives you the desire to start the next one.

Sometimes I make them bright and colorful and I can just visulize how sweet a little dark skinned child will be in that dress or shirt. My son lives in Nigeria and he says it is not uncommon to see a 5 or 6 year old child on the street that is totally nude. There are needs in so many countries, even under normal circumstances, and now we have this horrible crisis.

I really, really, need to sew because my sewing room is stacked with fabric waiting to be made up.

Here is a link that might be useful: Aid in route

Momfryhover, That is so true. Just imagine if every American gave only $1. It would add up to a tremendous amount. Every dollar counts and all those fives and tens and twenties add up fast. I always feel better after making a donation because it sure beats just sitting here and feeling helpless in terms of helping those folks.

I don't think it is inappropriate to hope that something good will come out of this tragedy and human crisis. If the current conditions in Haiti and the suffering of its people do not spur other nations to make a huge and sustained push to assist the people of Haiti now and in the long-term, then what will it take? And, I do not really want to comment on world politics, but I cannot help myself. The Haitian government needs to walk a straight and narrow path and put the Haitian people, and not the governing class, first in everything they do. If corrupt government employees steal aid money and supplies for themselves, I am afraid the nations of the world will turn their back on Haiti.

Susan, That's a good point about Bono and I was thinking the same thing about Michael Jackson---that if he was still here, he'd undoubtedly be at the forefront of organizing something like Live Aid or We Are The World.

There have been so many stories of children, college students and church members on mission trips, medical personnel on medical missions and missionaries all being 'out of touch'. I hope all of them can reach family members somehow to let them know they are still alive. It just seems to much worse when it is a minor child, though, doesn't it? The younger they are, they harder it is not to worry excessively.

When I saw video of the Pat Roberson statement, Susan, I swear my blood was boiling and steam was coming out of my ears. Why isn't he sowing seeds of kindness with his comments?

I've been glued to the TV watching the aid rolling in. Still, it will take days and days to reach everyone. With the entire area in disarray, there is little infrastructure remaining to facilitate rescues, medical care and evacuation, and distribution of supplies. They said it took 6 hours this morning to unload one aircraft from China that carried tons of supplies because there is no modern unloading equipment at the airport (conveyor belts and such). At that rate, distribution of supplies is going to take way too long.

At least it is their dry season and they aren't sitting there with a tropical storm or hurricane headed towards them.

Dawn

Here's another very interesting organization. Katy Couric profiled them a few months ago. They recycle hotel soap for Haiti. This will be a huge need.

Here is a link that might be useful: Clean the World

Lisa,
Do you mind if I link this discussion onto my parenting site I do? Might be a way to get more donations for your group!

Beth

No, go right ahead! My group is Hope For Haiti's Children Ministries, but the other groups do good work too.

Thank you!

Lisa

Carol, I am amazed at people who can take fabric and make dresses and clothes. It is such a useful and practical way to help. I'm not very talented that direction, I'd be better off giving them a length of cloth to wrap around themselves :) The pictures we get back from the trips to Haiti show beautiful little dresses that the girls wear, satiny, frilly, frou frou stuff. So cute!!!

Actually the story that came from one of those pictures is what started my sewing kits. The nurses came back telling me about one of the children who had been sewed into her dress because her mother obviously did not have buttons to put on the dress. That broke my heart, buttons are SO cheap. When I was a kid we used to cut them off clothes that were no longer usuable, and save them in our family "button box". I confess I don't always do that now, it is just so easy to go buy more.

Lisa

I haven't posted in a while, but I'd like to chime in on this thread with the link to the UMCOR (United Methodist Committee on Relief). They have an A+ rating on charity watch.org, which means--I hope--good money goes to people who can make it mean something.

Here's the link to UMCOR haiti: http://new.gbgm-umc.org/umcor/

However you might give, may it flower like a dahlia in bloom.

Maybe in Haiti it is different and they will make repairs, but we are told that it is very rare for a garment to be lengthened or mended. We normally just put a 2 inch hem. We try to use generous amounts of fabric in the skirts so they are good for playing because in some countries they don't let the girls wear shorts or pants. We do sometimes put lace and trims, and we use cute fabric sometimes, but mostly we strive to have sturdy, long lasting clothing, that can be washed easily and will last a long time.

I make sizes 2-12 shirts but I make them longer than what you buy in the store. Some of those kids are tall and skinny and may wear a small size for a long time, if it is long enough. Mostly they ask us to make short sleeve shirts, but if I have a heavy piece of knit, I make long sleeved shirts and they use them as pajama tops. That is what I am making at the moment and I think I have 6 or 8 more cut out and then I will be back to short sleeve shirts and I have some of them cut out as well.

My one friend that I mentioned earlier has never had children so she loves making these little dresses and she does a great job. I have another friend that sews a little, so I make a tee-shirt top for her and she adds a skirt. They like to get that type dress because it just pulls over the head and doesn't have buttons, snaps, or zippers to wear out. I mostly make very simple clothing. I have a picture of some we did year before last that will give you an idea. I did the shirts and two of the dresses and my friend did the ones that look like they have suspenders. These are not the cutest ones we have done.

Sometimes I have good fabric to work with and other times I squeeze a size 2 out of a remnant that I may have paid fifty cents for. Sometimes I have a big piece donated that I may get six or more shirts out of. It doesn't matter if they are alike since they go all over the world. At first I bought almost all of the fabric, or already had it, but then as people started to see what we could do with it, they started cleaning out their sewing rooms, or in some cases went to the store and purchased fabric that they liked. One time I found a really good piece of fabric at a Joplin Walmart on the $1 table (not common) and I think I bought 20 yards of it. It was about half a shopping basket full. LOL It has been a fun project, but sometimes I get tired of it and stop for awhile, then something happens somewhere in the world and it gets me going again. The first year I tried to keep track of what I made, but I lost count after 60 dresses. I don't keep records but I would guess that I personally have made 300 garments in the last four years.

I could donate money, but I think I can make the same amount of money go a lot further when I sew, and in addition I have all the donated things that I can also use. One day, a lady who quilts brought me all the things that she had bought and decided not to use in quilts. I think we got about 40 skirts out of that donation. My neighbor called me the other day and asked if she could give me some fabric. I think it was 36 yards total and I haven't even started on that yet. It isn't tee-shirt knit and is mostly solid colors, so I will have to come up with something new for it....but I will. I think some is flannel so it will probably become night gowns.

A lady that lives in Marietta donated some money to my friend in Blackwell who bought fabric with it and made dresses to bring to me. Now that is covering the State of Oklahoma from one border to the other. We have been amazed at the generousity.

Here is a link that might be useful:

Snowbishop, thanks for posting another alternative for those who want to and are able to give. An A+ rating is very impressive.

Carol, You and your "sewing circle" rock! You really and truly do.

ABC has a Haiti Special on right now (it started at 7 p.m.) CST.

One reporter was doing a live shot from the Little Haiti neighborhood in Miami, and all those family members were standing there holding photos of their missing loved ones. It is heart-wrenching to watch and reminded me very much of similar scenes in NYC after 9-11.

One young man had spoken to his sister (I think it was his sister) who is with 150 other nursing students and instructors who are trapped beneath the collapsed remains of their school building. Somehow she was able to reach him in Miami at 4:15 p.m. today with a phone call and she pleaded with him to get help sent ASAP to rescue her and her fellow students and teachers. Can you imagine? All 150 of them were "hanging on" she said, but she feared they would not last much longer. He was repeating the location of the school and saying "they need help now". Others merely held up photos and spoke of their efforts to contact their loved ones.

Try as I might, I cannot imagine what it is like to have no idea if your loved ones are alive or dead, hurting and needing help or what.

I know that we usually don't mention religion here on this forum very often (or politics!) because this is a gardening forum, but if you believe in prayer in any shape, form or fashion, please pray for Haiti and her people.

I am beginning to believe we are all on our own down here.......

Dawn, I do mine, my way, because I am a hermit and like to stay home. You and your family do SO MUCH more than I do and stay so involved in your community. Your work with the fire department and the fire victims is amazing. All of that is in addition to the service that you perform here for all of us.

My husband is involved in the local community, but I am not. I just do church things.

momfryhover - I assure you we are not alone. Sometimes the tests are just a little harder.

Soonergrandmom,
I can see you are a very kind, caring person from all you do. And I do not want you to take this as a personal comment ...but, yes, I think we are alone and on our own.

Carol

Sorry, but I do not buy into the theory you have that we do 'SO MUCH' more than you do. For what it is worth, I am a hermit too and I'd rather be at home, but the whole fire. dept. things drags me away from the house and off the property. Now that I am a grandmother, I am not so sure I'll go rushing off to fires as often. It's hard for me to leave the house to go somewhere else if she is here. : )

"I just do church things". Is there anything more important than that? To me, no one is keeping score and no one is saying "this" is more important than "that". It doesn't matter what we do....it is merely by doing it, whatever "it" is, and by serving others that we each do our part to make the world a better place.

Now and in the future, Haiti will need for many, many people to do their part (all of us!) to help the people who have suffered so much

Dawn

As a sidenote to the Haiti disaster, if you have a chance to visit some of the struggling countries in the middle of the Western hemisphere, don't hesitate. A trip there will not only enrich you as a lover of all things vegetation, but also as a lover of the people.

Through a well organized group in my church, I've been able to visit upper Nicaragua for 4 or 5 years. I still revel in spotting Birds of Paradise in the wild or in simply seeing sansavera security fences. Bromiliads, orchids, and fruit fun abound (One Mennonite family I know has a few poinsettia bushes--bushes!). But the people are the true flowers.

A trip or two to 3rd world countries will cross pollinate you to the world.

Carol, your efforts are phenomenal. Your clothes are so cute. I think we all have different gifts and talents. We can't all do the same thing, our different talents make the whole of our efforts greater.

I had to stop and think, I don't actually do anything outside of some connection to my congregation. Everything I do is somehow connected to that. I go to church with the nurses who go on the medical mission. I help with the shopping for the gifts because they have families and I don't. I have more time than they do. The girl I advocate for I've known from church since she was born. The other little girl that I helped "raise" for a few years was the granddaughter of a very good friend of mine from church. I had the time to step in when needed. I have learned to appreciate my singleness. I have time to do things that a wife and mom would not have.

Momfryhover, please don't feel like you are alone. My only purpose in starting this thread was to give people ideas. There are many, many great organizations and we need them all. No one organization can do it all, ESPECIALLY in Haiti.

Lisa