How you can help | ARC Summit County

The residents of Northeast Ohio have responded to the suffering in Haiti with an overwhelming outpouring of donations and support – prompting the American Red Cross of Summit and Portage Counties to offer the following suggestions detailing how individuals can best support its relief efforts.

Donations

The best way that individuals can help the relief efforts in Haiti is by making a financial donation directly to the Red Cross International Relief Fund at www.redcross.org or by calling 1-800-REDCROSS (1-800-733-2767). Donors will have the option of making a contribution to the general Relief Fund or one specifically for Haiti.

Local residents can also make a donation in person at the Summit and Portage County Offices of the Red Cross, by mail or online:

Office locations and addresses

To donate online

The Red Cross is also receiving money through a third party mobile fundraising effort in which mobile donors can text "Haiti" to 90999 to send a $10 donation to the Red Cross. This mobile giving effort raised more than $4 million by Friday morning, and all money raised goes to support Red Cross relief efforts in Haiti.

Blood Donations

Blood donations are always needed. In fact, the Northeast Ohio area is currently experiencing a severe blood shortage. Individual wishing to make a blood donation can do so by calling 1-800-Give-Life to schedule an appointment or by visiting: www.redcrossblood.org.

Other Donations

In response to the earthquake in Haiti, the Red Cross has also received numerous offers of product donations (such as clothing, hygiene products, medicine and food) from local individuals, businesses and community groups. Although we know that people will always want to find ways to help, the American Red Cross is unfortunately unable to accept these types of donation. The cost of processing and transporting these types of donations often outweighs the cost of the donated items themselves. Plus, donations of collected goods require time, money and personnel to accept, clean, sort and distribute them. Though unsolicited offers of goods and services from individuals and community groups are well intentioned and certainly appreciated, the hidden costs involved pose a number of complications for our relief efforts.

Volunteers

The American Red Cross is deploying only experienced staff and volunteers trained in international relief to Haiti. Presently, we are not accepting volunteers to travel to Haiti.

Anyone wishing to provide personal assistance in Haiti should instead contact the Center for International Disaster Information. The Center, operated under a grant from the United States Agency for International Development's Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance and initial support from IBM, has become a valuable resource to the public, as well as US government agencies, foreign embassies and international corporations. CIDI has established a dedicated page to coordinate Haiti support at: www.cidi.org/incident/haiti-10a/.

Contacting Family Members in Haiti

Individuals should not contact the Red Cross for assistance in reaching friends or family members in Haiti. People trying to locate U.S. citizens living or traveling in Haiti should contact the U.S. Department of State, Office of Overseas Citizens Services, at 1-888-407-4747 or (202) 647-5225.

Because communications to the island have been sporadic, the International Committee of the Red Cross also launched a Family Links Website on Thursday which is aimed at enabling persons in Haiti and abroad to register the names of relatives with whom they are striving to restore contact. Persons seeking news from their loved ones can therefore register the name of the sought persons directly on the site at: http://www.icrc.org/familylinks. In the first twenty-four hours, more than 6,000 people have been registered.