Please read this post, the latest update from Compassion's medical team in Haiti. It just hurts.
Imagine the college or university nearest you. Imagine that your nation is so poor that an earthquake would flatten all of the buildings, killing 90%--that's not a typo--of the students, along with many professors.
Imagine that your country is so poor that it does not have the heavy equipment needed to move the chunks of buildings that trap people in the rubble; so poor that concrete is not reinforced with steel rebar.
Imagine that going to college had been an impossible dream for you or your children, were it not for an organization like Compassion, who made it possible; were it not for people who would help with their financial support, as well as with their love and encouragement through letters. And imagine that that dream appears to have died in the recent disaster.
Now, imagine that you live in a country that is filthy rich, by world standards, and that you have the means to help, even a little. It might take a sacrifice, on your part--putting aside $1.25 a day, buying one less St*bucks a week, putting off buying those DVDs you've been wanting, or whatever small adjustment you could make in order to give something.
Giving to Compassion's Help Haiti fund (see widget, right, or go here) is one way to help. Sponsoring a child in another of the countries where Compassion serves is another way. You may want to sponsor a child in Haiti, but right now, that means letting someone like me know to put your name on a waiting list, for when Compassion knows for sure which children are available...and which ones died.
But please...don't let the fickle news media and the superficiality of our culture cause you to forget the needs of those in desperate poverty in areas where there are no food stamps, no WIC, no government-based resources of any kind for them. Forgetting and moving on, as if everything that could be done, had been done--that is the greater tragedy, and we will all be held accountable for it.
