H2OPE FOR HAITI

From Sunday, February 21 to Sunday, February 28th, BloggerAid Changing the Face of Famine (BA-CFF) will be launching H2Ope for Haiti, an online raffle to raise funds for Concern Worldwide's relief effort in Haiti.

According to Tom Arnold, CEO of Concern Worldwide:
“The destruction is profound, you see the devastation everywhere, but you see the depth of this tragedy most in the eyes of the people you meet as they struggle to survive, to respond and to grieve. The task ahead is huge.”

Concern Worldwide estimates that its initial response to the emergency will last at least six months. In the coming weeks, Concern Worldwide’s priorities are to: Initiate a cash-for-work cleanup campaign to help victims of the earthquake earn a basic living - Build temporary latrines for 15,000 people - Provide temporary shelter (tents and plastic sheeting) for 25,000 people - Set up 7 outreach nutrition centres in camps for displaced persons, especially children under the age of one.

What can you do to help in some small way to finance Haiti’s recovery process?

1) Go to the Justgiving donation page at www.justgiving.com/h2ope4haiti and follow the instructions on how to win. You will find the list of great raffle prizes donated such as an I-Pod Shuffle, artwork, autographed cookbooks and so much more!!! You can also see the list of prizes on Cooksister at www.cooksister.com/2010/02/h2ope-for-haiti-the-prizes.html.

2) Choose which prize you would love to win!

An injured child at a Hotel in Port-au-Prince, Haiti Photograph: Ivanoh Demers/AP

The money raised by this raffle will be paid directly into a Justgiving page (http://www.justgiving.com/), meaning that nobody at BA-CFF will have any money their possession - the money gets paid directly into the charity's account, to be applied exclusively to the Haiti relief effort. This is the most secure and least controversial way to do it, even if it attracts a 7.5% fee. The other benefit of Justgiving is that they accept credit cards, debit cards and Paypal as payment methods, making it as easy as possible for people all over the world to donate and participate.

3) You can also donate a prize for the raffle.

Bloggeraid is trying to make this raffle as international as possible, so they would like to confine the prizes to things that could be shipped anywhere with ease (books, original art or photographs, art, vouchers for online stores) – please, no food parcels or restaurant vouchers that are difficult to post or confined to one city. They also ask that the value of the prize you donate be at least $30 (£25), and that you take responsibility for paying for and arranging shipping to the winner at the end of the raffle.

Final deadline for prize donations is Friday 19 February – please contact Jeanne at emailcooksister (AT)googlemail (DOT) com, or Val and Giz at blogs4famine(AT)gmail(DOT)com if you can help.