Help for Haiti

 I've decided to join some of my fellow knitwear designers (click on each word in the preceding phrase and you will be linked to one of these designers' websites), and donate a portion of my pattern sales to aid the survivors of the recent earthquake in Haiti.  Until Feb. 15th and retroactive to Jan. 15th, I will donate 50% of all Knititude pattern sales proceeds to Partners in Health.  

I didn't know much about this Boston-based organization until last week, when they contacted my husband, and asked him to help arrange private airplanes to fly 30 of their doctors, support personnel and supplies from FL to Haiti (they were unable to get commercial flights).  After two days on the phone, and in spite of several plane owners changing their minds at the last minute, he succeeded in getting everyone into Port-au-Prince (and very soon after, as I understand it, into field clinics and operating rooms).  

In the meantime, I did a little research.  From the Partners in Health website:

 Partners In Health (PIH) works to bring modern medical care to poor communities in nine countries around the world. The work of PIH has three goals: to care for our patients, to alleviate the root causes of disease in their communities, and to share lessons learned around the world. 

Based in Boston, PIH employs more than 11,000 people worldwide, including doctors, nurses and community health workers. The vast majority of PIH staff are local nationals based in the communities we serve.  PIH has been working on the ground in Haiti for over 20 years.

The bestselling book Mountains Beyond Mountains is about one of PIH's founders, Paul Farmer.

Had I not felt a bit of a local and personal (albeit secondhand) connection to PIH, and felt that their presence in Haiti since 1985 put them in a unique position to help, I'm sure I would have donated to Doctors Without Borders / Medecins Sans Frontieres, which has long been one of my favorite charities.  Anyway, according to their website they've been in Haiti since 1991, and I will continue to support them.  They are both great organizations!