Bay Area Lawyers for Haiti Relief
The Bay Area Lawyers for Haiti Relief needs your help in raising $1,000,000. Kazan, McClain, Lyons, Greenwood & Harley, and Morrison & Foerster have joined to launch the Bay Area Lawyers for Haiti Relief Fund to collect and pool the donations from the legal community in a show of support and concern for the people of Haiti. To this end, the Kazan McClain foundation will donate $50,000 to the fund and the Morrison and Foerster Foundation will match donations made by partners and employees of the law firm for a total donation which will exceed $50,000. Please join us.
The San Francisco Foundation has agreed to set up The Bay Area Lawyer’s Haiti Relief fund and receive and administer all donations for no fee.
Time is critical. Your support can literally save lives and alleviate suffering. Join us in supporting relief and recovery efforts in Haiti in response to Tuesday’s earthquake. The devastating 7.0 magnitude earthquake shook Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince, on January 12th. Support is needed for the organizations on the ground, both to provide immediate relief and also for long term recovery.
Dr. Sandra Hernandez, CEO and the San Francisco Foundation staff, experts in disaster planning and response, healthcare, and education, vetted four organizations they recommend for support. They chose organizations that have a stellar track record on the ground in Port-au-Prince, and will be able to mobilize massive relief resources effectively. They provide critical food, water, shelter, and medical care to the hundreds of thousands of Haitians now in need. This approach provides the advantage of addressing a range of critical needs across a spectrum of issues and constituencies rather than being limited to one issue or focus area. Your contribution to The Bay Area Lawyers for Haiti Relief Fund at The San Francisco Foundation will be consolidated with your peers to be distributed to the Fund comprising all four of the organizations listed below. Alternatively, you may specify a 501(c)3 humanitarian aid organization doing work in Haiti.
OxFam America
Oxfam is an international relief and development organization with over three decades of experience in Haiti and 200 staff on the ground there – including a team of 15 emergency response experts. Additional Oxfam teams from around the region are being brought in as needed to help provide clean water, shelter, and sanitation. Oxfam is working with Haitian officials, the UN, and other local and international organizations to respond as quickly and efficiently as possible. Staff is assessing the scale of the disaster across the different parts of Port-au-Prince. Some areas have been more severely affected than others. There is an Oxfam warehouse in Haiti and emergency supplies in Panama are ready for deployment.
Doctors Without Borders
Your support to Doctors Without Borders will provide emergency medical care for the men, women, and children affected by the earthquake in Haiti. Doctors Without Borders has already treated more than 1,000 people on the ground in Haiti following Tuesday’s earthquake, but the needs are huge. An inflatable hospital with operating theatres is expected to arrive in the next 24 hours. Doctors Without Borders is an international medical humanitarian organization providing aid in nearly 60 countries to people whose survival is threatened by violence, neglect, or catastrophe, primarily due to armed conflict, epidemics, malnutrition, exclusion from healthcare, or natural disasters.
Partners in Health
Partners in Health has been on the ground in Haiti since 1985. Its mission and principles strongly align with those of The San Francisco Foundation and we endorse its approach to public health, poverty alleviation, and strengthening communities. Founded by Harvard physician Dr. Paul Farmer, its facilities are strategically placed two hours outside of Port-au-Prince and will accommodate patients fleeing the city. Your support will help quickly procure emergency medical supplies, basic living necessities, and transportation and logistics support for the tens of thousands of people that will be seeking care at mobile field hospitals in the capital city. Partners in Health brings the benefits of modern medical science to those most in need and works to alleviate the crushing economic and social burdens of poverty that exacerbate disease. By partnering with poor communities to combat disease and poverty, it cares for its patients, gets at the root causes of disease in their communities, and shares lessons learned around the world.
Save the Children
Save the Children has worked in Haiti for 25 years with about 100 staff on the ground, primarily in the capital city of Port-au-Prince and the Central Plateau region, providing vulnerable children with health, education, protection, and food security programs. The agency, with offices in Port-au-Prince, is sending teams out this morning by motorbike in Port-au-Prince and is flying in additional staff to help support the emergency response. As it has done in recent disasters in Haiti, Save the Children is preparing to provide immediate lifesaving assistance, such as food, water, shelter, and child-friendly spaces.
HOW TO DONATE
We ask that our legal community combine its recourses and together raise at least a million dollars through this fund for this very needy Haitian community. All donations ($250 minimum) can be sent to Bay Area Lawyer’s Haiti Relief Fund c/o SF Foundation 225 Bush St. Suite 500, SF 94104. Each contributor will receive an acknowledgement letter from the SF Foundation and we will publicize the amount of the total contributions received and where the money has gone. For more information about The Lawyers for Haiti Relief Fund at The San Francisco Foundation, please contact Chris Nicholson at cmn@sff.org or 415.733.8521. Thank you for your generosity.
Sincerely yours,
David McClain
KAZAN, McCLAIN, LYONS, GREENWOOD & HARLEY
Paul T. Friedman
MORRISON & FOERSTER