Andree in Bali shares that mutual friend Sundara (yoga teacher in London) Duplan's daughter's father, Joe Duplan, was in Jacmel at the time of the earthquake.  Joe Duplan is a co-founder of the charity, Reforest Haiti.  It was a long and sleepless night before they finally heard from Joe.  He reported from his car saying that he observed widespread devastation in the city.  He shared that they did know an earthquake was possible, but never dreamed it would be that catastrophic.  He said it was incredible that this disaster should come on the heels of Hurricane-Katrina-sized tragedies to hit his country in 2004 and 2008. Joe described the earthquake's devastation as "biblical."  He said fortunately they have learned from the relief efforts in 2008.  Here are the ways he suggests you can help:
* If you are interested in being part of the disaster response volunteer team, immediately contact Melinda Miles at Melinda@konpay.org. 
* Use your personal and professional networks to gather health and medical materials.  To help in this way, contact Elise, at Elise@konpay.org.
* Money is the most immediate and effective way to help.  Again, you can use our personal and professional networks to pool money for the purchase of distribution of life-saving food, medicine, and shelter in the current critical weeks. Joe's charity, KONPAY, pledges that every penny will go to the relief efforts.  Any amount is helpful.  For online donations, click here. Or send a check to KONPAY, 7  Wall Street, Gloucester, MA 01930.

Maggie in California shares that her church, Michael Beckwith's Agape, threw together a marathon concert on a moment's notice and raised over $30,000 for the Haiti Relief effort.  Performers included Chaka Kahn, Tina Marie, Brenda Russell (who wrote "Man in the Mirror" for Michael Jackson), and Agape's Ricki Harris (former back-up singer for Madonna).  Helping Haiti is not new to Agape Church members, who built an earth-quake proof hospital there in the 1990's which is by all reports still standing. Agape also manifested a PLANE which, immediately after the conclusion of the concert, headed straight for Haiti bringing supplies, volunteer surgeons and anesthesiologists.