Obviously the story of the moment is the devastating earthquake in Haiti and I can't add any suitable words to the very many that have already been written and spoken by others. Like I guess a good many other people my knowledge of this state is fairly hazy but click here to read an informative summary about Haiti with some clues as to why it is so impoverished. Thanks to 'The First Post' for this information by the way - it certainly enlightened me.
Speed is of the essence of course in bringing relief and hopefully saving some lives. I want to draw attention to two fantastic organisations from the south west right in the forefront in helping the situation. The first of these is the now well known charity 'Shelterbox' who I believe are already familiar with Haiti following earlier hurricane damage. I've written about them before so I'll just remind folk that they are based down west in Helston and are well geared up to move very fast. Their website is here.
The other one to mention is 'RAPID-UK'. Perhaps not so much in the public consciousness as Shelterbox. As they say on their website here :
"RAPID-UK exists to provide experienced disaster response personnel anywhere in the world when required and to facilitate sustainable training and mitigation programmes in disaster prone countries."
R.A.P.I.D is an acronym for Rescue and Preparedness in Disasters. I understand that it is based at Jacobstowe in West Devon. As with Shelterbox they are already there in Haiti, trying to do what they can. I think that both Shelterbox and RAPID-UK are absolutely brilliant; there may well be some aspects of life in my country that one should be embarrassed about but when it comes to disaster relief I can honestly state that "I'm proud to be British"
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