So a few days ago (June 3, 2018), the Volcán de Fuego erupted in Guatemala. So far, as of today (June 6) at least 82 people are confirmed dead, 300 are injured, 192 are missing, and thousands have had to evacuate. The towns of El Rodeo, San Miguel, Los Lotes, and Alotenango have been buried in volcanic material. The volcano is still in eruptive phase, and even more people could be affected. x x x
If you haven’t heard about this, that’s probably because the news (at least in the United States) has barely been covering it at all. In all honesty, I only learned about it today from a Tumblr post. Even on here, though, I haven’t seen many posts telling people outside of Guatemala how they can help, so I thought I’d compile a list.
Organizations Accepting Online Donations
- Helps International – 3 stars on Charity Navigator
- GlobalGiving Guatemala volcano relief fund – 4 stars on Charity Navigator
- B Strong (write “GUATEMALA” in the “additional comment” field if you want to allocate your donation for Guatemala, but you can also make a general donation) – Not yet on Charity Navigator
- International Relief Teams – 4 stars on Charity Navigator
- WorldVision – 4 stars on Charity Navigator
- Children’s Hunger Fund – 4 stars on Charity Navigator
- Catholic Relief Services – 4 stars on Charity Navigator
Other Ways to Help
- GoFundMe has a list of verified volcano relief efforts
- Banking information for international donation to Cruz Roja Guatemalteca (the Guatemalan Red Cross division) and Rotary Clubs of Guatemala)
- This photographer is selling photographs and donating all proceeds to those affected by the eruptions
If you know of any other ways people can help, please feel free to add them!
Tag: ways to help
In the light of the SESTA/FOSTA vote in the US, it’s absolutely vital that we as a community do our very best to support sex workers in the face of growing marginalization. As such, here are a few sex worker-led initiatives that need your money now more than ever:
– STROLL, a Portland-based organization spearheaded by the formidable @workingitinportland, currently raising funds on YouCaring for their weekly outreach and meal program. They provide sex workers with meals and health kits containing (among other things) condoms, heating pads, energy bars, tampons, water bottles, deodorant, mouthwash and wipes. They also offer a weekly support group, and many other valuable services to Portland sex workers. Donate here.
– Women With A Vision in New Orleans, created by and for women of colour to address various issues such as sex worker rights, drug policy reform, advocacy for HIV+ women, and reproductive justice outreach. They have existed since 1989 and offer so many services that I couldn’t possibly list them all here, but you can find details on their website. Donate here.
– Lysistrata is a mutual care collective focusing, among other things, on providing financial assistance to sex workers in case of illness, injury, homelessness, wrongful arrest or incarceration, unstable or abusive working conditions, domestic violence, discrimination, or any other factors that might put sex workers in peril. They are currently receiving more requests for help than donations. Donate to the emergency fund here. (If you need financial help email lysistratamccf@gmail.com)
– CUSP is an organization working in Alaska. They currently need money for lobbying efforts to support HB 112/SB 73, which would expand sexual assault laws to make it illegal for police officers to have any form of sexual contact with those they are investigating. This would help protect sex workers from exploitation by police in Alaska. Donate here.
– The Black Sex Worker Collective seeks to address the issues specifically facing Black sex workers, and provides education, legal assistance, and healthcare resources. They also offer affordable housing referrals. Donate here (your donation is tax-deductible).
– Here is the Amazon wishlist of the Coyote RI outreach program for street-based workers, including products such as first-aid kits, gloves, toothbrushes, hand sanitizer, socks, underwear, or razors.
All these resources are courtesy of Tits and Sass, which I’m sure will publish new ones over the next days. If you’re a sex worker and can recommend other organizations, add them in the notes! If you have a personal fundraiser going on, add it in the notes! It’s our responsibility as allies to do whatever we can to support members of our community who are currently facing inhumane laws leading to abject violence and dehumanizing working conditions. We cannot stay silent and we cannot keep our wallets shut. Show up for sex workers. Please donate and share.
of every stripper that follows me bought one item off a wishlist these would be all bought out, $20 is nothing for us compared to how much people are struggling right now, please donate
‘English Collective of Prostitues’ and ‘Sex Worker Advocacy and Resistance Movement’ (SWARM collective) are really good in the UK too!!
Regarding Hurricane Donations:
I’m going to provide some links to get you started in terms of donation resources that are available at this time for regions affected by the hurricanes that have passed through or will be coming soon. Feel free to add on.
Houston:
Flood Relief for Texas Children’s Hospital
Antigua and Barbuda:
Habitat for Humanity of Trinidad and Tobago (for Barbuda relief)
Antigua and Barbuda citizen Jessye Romeo is raising funds for Barbuda relief out of London, UK
St. Martin/St. Maarten:
St. Maarten youth living in France raise funds for relief of the island
St. Maarten Relief Fund on Youcaring
Hurricane Disaster Relief for St. Martin/ St. Maarten on Fundly
The French and Dutch Red Cross organizations are seeking donations at this time for their respective territories on then island (do research on any organization you are curious/ wary about before donating, as the Red Cross track record isn’t so hot)
Haiti:
Dominican Republic:
Puerto Rico:
Asociación Puertorriqueños en Marcha
US Virgin Islands:
Florida:
Coalition for the Homeless of Central Florida
Florida Keys Children’s Shelter
This is just a starting list. As said before, please feel free to add on.
It goes without saying but if you cannot afford to donate, share the information so someone who can afford to help has some options or a place to start looking if they’d like to help
Boosting
Guys, the first images of Irma’s level of devastation are coming out of Barbuda and it’s heartbreaking. The President of Barbuda says that 90% of the island is uninhabitable, upwards of 60% of the TOTAL population are now homeless because the hurricane destroyed virtually every building and home on the island, and that the estimated damage is valued at no less than $200 million dollars. That’s money a small island like that doesn’t have. They’re saying it’s going to take years to rebuild and Hurricane Jose is right behind Irma on the same path which means they could be hit twice. This is just one of the islands being affected.
Please, show up for the Caribbean like you did for Houston. There is no safety net for any of these islands including mine. They’ll rely entirely on foreign aid. Find local charities or global trustworthy charities
(NOT the Red Cross)and make a donation asking them to aid the Caribbean. There’s whole countries being turned into rubble with no financial means to repair their infrastructures. They’re going to need help.For the hundreds of people replying or in my inbox asking “Why not the Red Cross?!”:
- Google is free.
- Why The Red Cross Faces Backlash on Harvey Relief Efforts [Washington Post]
- Red Cross Built Exactly 6 Homes For Haiti With Nearly Half A Billion Dollars In Donations [Huffington Post]
- Red Cross Exec Doesn’t Know What Portion Of Donations Go To Harvey Relief [NPR]
- Report: Red Cross Spent 25 Percent Of Haiti Donations On Internal Expenses [NPR]
- Seriously, guess where I found all of those in two solid minutes of searching? Google. Even better, they didn’t charge me a penny for it.
Stop wanting things to be spoonfed to you. While you waited for someone to link you to sources, you could’ve done it yourself and already donated to people who desperately need it.
Because people are also asking where to donate instead of the Red Cross:
- MercyCorps [89% rating on Charity Navigator]
- Heart To Heart International [97% rating on Charity Navigator]
- Direct Relief [100% rating on Charity Navigator]
- Habitat For Humanity [83% rating on Charity Navigator // Because with islands like Barbuda 90% destroyed and French St. Martin said to be 95% destroyed then people are going to need homes built]
- Catholic Relief Services [90% rating on Charity Navigator // For those who would want to donate to a religious organization]
If there is a note or comments section on their donation page please do let them know that you would want your money to go to their Caribbean relief efforts. Houston and Florida have the US government backing them in whatever they will need but these islands will have very little except for these charities to fall back if they have any hope of rebuilding what seems to be entire countries in some cases. For the people who lost everything even a few bucks will go a long way.
For the most part I would suggest staying away from privately launched GoFundMes unless you know the person directly. Ultimately, you just never know where those funds are going to end up and if your money will be used wisely. Sure, the same can be said for charity organizations but at least there is a better shot at possibly helping through them. The five listed above are world known and have been studied by charity oversight organizations. It’s as close to perfect as we’re going to get.
hurricane irma fundraisers
here are some fundraisers i found to help people in countries who are going through hurricane irma (reply to the post if you know any other donation links i can add):
PLEASE HELP!!!!!
After Ike in 2008 I learned
Clothing is plentiful in the donation world, thank you. It is daunting for them at first, wait 3 weeks and send some then.
Hygiene items are needed ASAP
Often forgotten things
Diapers for adults, pad, tampons, lip balm, diaper rash cream, breast milk pumps, cream for breasts during breast feeding, Pedialite (there will be sick babies) Ensure for adults who need that kind of supplement (the elderly), pet food, poop bags for pet waste, tooth brushes, tooth paste, bars of soap, hand sanitizer, hand lotion.
Immediate clothing need – new unopened packs of socks and undies, every size you can think of.
Our particular shelter had a need for plus sized (big and tall) man’s clothing, luckily I knew a guy and we filled that one need, but these are the often forgotten clothing sizes. Look for churches that have an address and buy some of the inexpensive specialty size clothes on Amazon and have them ship direct.
This is a PSA from someone who is tired of being familiar with hurricane relief.
“In Nepal, 150 people have been killed and 90,000 homes have been destroyed in what the UN has called the worst flooding incident in the country in a decade.
According to the Red Cross, at least 7.1 million people have been affected in Bangladesh – more than the population of Scotland – and around 1.4 million people have been affected in Nepal.
International aid agencies said thousands of villages have been cut off by flooding with people being deprived of food and clean water for days.”
donate to:
islamic relief fund
save the children*
save the children – india**
oxfam – south asia flood*
oxfam – india*** these go into an emergency fund
** for residents of india. otherwise you have to input passport infoedit: updated links
please add any other ways to help
HOUSTON INFO
If you are in immediate need of evacuation due to flooding, DO NOT GO INTO YOUR ATTIC. YOU WILL DROWN. Get on your roof and tweet to the @USCoastGuard or call 281-464-4851. 911 is overloaded and cannot take any new calls.
DO. NOT. GO. INTO. YOUR. ATTIC.
If you’re outside of Houston, have a watercraft and want to help, call the coast guard at 281-464-4851. They’ll coordinate rescue efforts with you.
If you’re outside of Houston and want to help, PLEASE consider the 700K animals who died in Katrina and donate to the Humane Society or the SPCA.
Please consider the disabled, the elderly and special needs folks who are most likely unable to get somewhere due to financial or health reasons. PORTLIGHT.ORG is the BEST resource for rescue and assistance in the country.
I’ve been checking in with my Houston friends (and my Buddhist monks) and it’s terrifying. And the rain won’t stop until LABOR DAY.
Please. If you can, help. We’re on our f*cking own as a people. We need to help one another.
DO NOT WASTE TIME WITH THE RED CROSS. Focus on charities that DIRECTLY HELP HOUSTON/SURROUNDING AREAS.
- DirectRelief.org is the #1, most reputable charity. Again, PORTLIGHT.ORG is so f*cking crucial, I can’t even stress that enough.
- George Brown convention center
- is serving as a storm shelter.
- Consider donating blood to Carter Blood Care
- National Guard for evacuation/help: 713-578-3000
- What Houston SPECIFICALLY is asking for (how to help)
Do not underestimate the flooding in Texas right now.
Houston has had over 18" of rain fall over the past 24 hours and they’re expecting at least 2ft more in the next 24-36 hours. They are underwater. The rain isn’t going to relent until at least Wednesday.
There are still tornado watches going up, and with shelters and basements under water this will make things worse.
We need to rally together and donate to relief efforts. The Weather Channel has already said that this will be the worst flooding event in US history.
Donate to local crisis control resources. Please share any reliable links and numbers you have. A lot of peoples’ go-tos are The American Red Cross and The Salvation Army, but if you want to avoid those large groups it will be better to donate to local resources. You can also donate to Save the Children, Samaritan’s Purse, and Heart to Heart International.
Coalition for the Homeless runs the shelters in the city of Houston https://www.homelesshouston.org/take-action/donate/
Donate to Corpus Christi’s children’s hospital, which is directly in the path of the storm. http://www.driscollchildrens.org/
Texas Diaper Bank is making disaster relief kits, and you can donate at http://www.texasdiaperbank.org
Feeding Texas is a network of food banks that will need assistance https://donatenow.networkforgood.org/feeding-texas
Please share this and get the word out.
Texas is going through a crisis right now so if anyone wants to help, you can text HARVEY to 90999 and $10 will automatically be donated to the Red Cross
also I just want to clarify it’s okay if you can’t donate due to financial instability. you’re still providing help by spreading the word so that the people who CAN donate see it. thank you.
Guys, if you can, pls help. Houston is getting hit really bad atm, and so did corpus christi and all the towns in between. Some money to get the power and water running again, to help take care of those who got hurt in crashes and floods would be amazing. I have family in and around the area, so i would be so grateful if you can at least reblog to spread the word. Thank you so much and god bless.
I’ve found more ways to help:
Feeding Texas– a donation organization dedicated to feeding starving Texans. They’re gonna need it since many resources were lost.
Houston Food Bank- another donation organization dedicated to feeding the hungry, particularly in Houston where they were hit very hard.
Coalition for the Homeless– provides vital information about shelters that are open to the homeless, or people who lost their homes.
Port Aransas was completely devastated, it was recently reported that they have 100% devastation and no functional infrastructure
Rockport was completely wiped out and Aransas Pass took a large portion of the storm
Please keep Houston with its flooding and all the small coastal towns who took the brunt of Harvey in your mindsAlso www.texasdiaperbank.org needs donations they help to get displaced families the essentials they need
Please consider the SPCA, as well – http://www.houstonspca.org/programs-and-services/disaster-services.html
As a Houstonian, I have to tell you how devastating this will be for animals, domestic and wild. A lot of the rescues will take place over the next several days and week.
Urocyon's Jaunts 2.0 
You must be logged in to post a comment.