What we would’ve said last week…
“People [are] stepping up — the world is compassionate. Despite what many may think, the hearts of men and women are warm. Sometimes I think that we are distracted by so much war that we forget that we are loving people, and this [event] is a great example of that.”
- Wyclef Jean
“Whoops.” So yes, we noticed that there was no post last week. The adjustment after coming back from the holidays has been a little harder for some of us than others. Sorry about that!
The past two weeks have been pretty eventful, though: Last week, a 7.0 earthquake hit Haiti, devastating Port-au-Prince (its capital city) and the surroundings, leaving over 100,000 dead and millions homeless. While it’s not always obvious to know what to say when faced with this kind of disaster, there has been an outpouring of generosity from the rest of the world in order to help the relief effort. The Government of Canada is going match dollar-for-dollar all individual donations to registered charities helping with earthquake relief (until February 12th, 2010), up to $50 million.
The death toll has already surpassed that of the 2008 earthquake in Sichuan province and the 2005 Kashmir earthquake, and since some estimates of the final count are closer to 200k, it’s likely to approach the magnitude of the tsunami in Asia in 2004.
As you may have seen in the news, 27 teens from B.C. were trapped in Haiti during the earthquake and ended up ponying up their own money to buy rice for the village where they were staying. They got home this week, courtesy of the Canadian military, and we hope that any of you with friends or family in Haiti now see them safe through the coming weeks.
Posted by Youth In BC at January 23rd, 2010 under Blog.
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