If you received the last DIY Fashion newsletter, you have already heard of one source of outreach for the survivors of the terrible quake in Haiti. Things are getting desperate over there, but it can feel so hard for us to help when we are so far away from the situation.
Donating money to a reputable organization is always the most direct way to help, but if your budget is set aside for other things, you can either craft for the people of Haiti, or purchase your regular handmade goods with a portion of the proceeds going to the effort. I've been researching a few more ways that you can put your love of handmade to work:
- Craft Hope for Haiti - All proceeds of the Craft Hope Etsy shop will benefit Doctors Without Borders in Haiti. All items have been generously donated by the crafting community. If you'd like to donate an item (or for shop updates) visit the Craft Hope website.
- Make a Blanket for Haiti - If you want to send something directly to Haiti...now is not the time. It's hard to get even food and water in at this point to the thousands of displaced citizens. What you can do it get started on something that will be taken there in March. Sarah at the "It's Quiet Now, What Do You Say" blog has a few friends scheduled to land in Haiti in a couple of months, where they will personally be handing out blankets to survivors. This gives you time to start stitching, and you can even post your progress at the new Flickr group she's created for the purpose.
- Haiti Relief Auction from Indie Fixx - Here, new items will be added each day in a silent auction style of format. Leave your bid along with your email in the comments section and keep an eye on it. At press time, we're currently on Day 2 of the auction.
- The Handmade Helps Haiti blog has been set up to showcase different sources of handmade goods that being sold with a percentage of the proceeds going to various organizations.
- Independent Etsy shops are setting up percentages to be donated to the relief effort. This forum post contains a list of shops which are participating, and what percentage of the sale will go to helping out, as well as the tag #etsy4haiti on Twitter.
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Comments
Excellent blog post, Rain. I agree that we can feel very helpless and your blog has raised some good ideas for how we can help with our handmade efforts. Kate
Wonderful post! I have been wondering about this same kind of thing: if there is anything I can do using crafting skills to help? This gave me a few outlets to consider for this!
I have designed casual, yet elegant, hand-crafted copper and silver teardrop hoop earrings specifically for disaster relief in Haiti. $10 of each sale will be donated:
http://suerunyondesigns.blogspot.com/2010/01/haiti-earthquake-relief-earrings.html
Thank you for mentioning my blog….HandmadeHelpsHaiti. I am honored to be part of this very giving Handmade Community!
Thanks for this post. I was also wondering whether one might be able to buy handmade items made *by* Haitians; it might not be immediately helpful, but it’s another way to show support. And I imagine there are some beautiful crafted items out there. Does anyone know of a website?
http://www.etsy.com/shop/HeartsforHaiti
This is a group effort shop on etsy that has raised over $13,000.00 for doctors without borders to help Haiti.
over $16,000.00 now
To help with relief efforts in Haiti, jack + jenn has partnered with MADRE to release a poster, in which 100% of proceeds will be donated.
The link for the jack + jenn poster is:
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=39295847
Over $22,000.00 donated to “Doctors Without Borders” from
http://www.etsy.com/shop/heartsforhaiti
WTG etsy peeps! ya’ll are awesome!
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