Monday, January 18, 2010

Credenda's Response to Haiti

It has been at least a month since I submitted a blog entry and it's time to do it. Especially in light of what has recently happened in Haiti. I don't know about you, but I watch the news with horror. I can't imagine the terror people felt watching their worlds come crashing down around them. Children left without parents. Schools and hospitals destroyed. The pictures over the news show tremendous devastation.

Many of us enjoy the luxuries of life in Canada. We have shelter and food. When the H1N1 virus hit, the government made the vaccine available to every citizen that wanted it. Granted there were some glitches, but in the end, we didn't end up on the streets sleep with the dead. I'm not trying to be morbid, but we need to be aware and face some of these harsh realities. But facing them is not enough if we are not moved to action.

As a virtual school and college, we want to do something. We talk about character with our students all the time. It's time to do something. The Canadian government has agreed to match dollar for dollar to the money that is donated to the Haiti Relief, if donated between January 12 and February 12, 2010. That has spurred us to do something similar with our students. We want to encourage our eStudents and faculty from both the high school and college to consider donating money to provide some relief to Haiti. We've agreed to match whatever our eStudents or faculty give from Credenda as well. So not only will a Credenda staff or student's financial donation be double by the federal government, Credenda will match it as well.

We are researching the best way to collect the funds from the staff and students. Some suggestions have been made about using PayPal, but more details will come out as we find out the best way to do this. There are a few sites I want you to check out that provide stories of hope.

The first site is a blog from Tom Vanderwell, at the orphanage called God's Littlest Angels. Tom is keeping the information current each day as new information comes out. I heard recently, that there are over 50,000 orphans in Haiti. Since this earthquake we don't know the numbers of orphans there are now. Some governments are considering passing bills that would allow for adoptions to be fast tracked.

Another site that is keeping the world informed and collecting money for Haiti is World Vision. World Vision has been around for a long time and has a great reputation for being accountable. We've worked with them in the past, and we will work with them during this crisis. We want to think of ways that we can do something to address the educational needs of the children. Since we are a virtual school, is there something we can do to assist in the delivery of education to children without schools. if you have any ideas, let us know. We are open to all kinds of suggestions.

Here's a video to watch:



We need to do something. Now is the time to act. Remember our motto this year is "Be the change you want to see."