Yéle – A Cry for Freedom

The term “Yéle” was coined in a song by Wyclef Jean, a native of Haiti and a successful Grammy award winning singer/producer; it is also the name of his grassroots movement to rebuild Haiti. However, the cry has never sounded as loud and as desperate as the last few days in the aftermath of the massive 7.0 magnitude earthquake that hit this already oppressed country.

Read Wyclef’s statement as he describes Haiti:
“Haiti is my native country, one I know as the first black nation to gain independence in 1804. Most other people seem to know Haiti only by the statistics about how bad things are there. The majority of its 8 million residents live on less than $1 per day. Unemployment is close to 80 percent, and more than half the population is under 21 years old. Haiti is the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere.”

Reading this before the earthquake would have broken my heart but in the aftermath of the devastation it is twice so. I am not here to preach, I am just here to ask you to reconsider.
If so far you have ignored the coverage and been disenchanted, reconsider. If you have dismissed it as just “another” disaster, reconsider. If you are saying, “what about when Hurricane Katrina happened why didn’t people help then like they want us to do now”, reconsider. The fact is we don’t know why this happened and I doubt we will get that answer but for now, let us do what is good -not what we think is right but what is good! God bless you.

Here are some ways you can help:

If you live in Cincinnati, The National Underground Railroad Freedom Center will be collecting clothing and personal care items for the children of Haiti on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day (Monday January 18th from 11 a.m - 5 p.m). Any items of children’s clothing (newborns to teenagers), toothpaste, a pillow or blanket –think anything that a homeless and perhaps orphaned child on the street in Port-au-Prince could use. See http://www.freedomcenter.org/ for more information. And as always, admission to the freedom center is free on MLK day.

If you live elsewhere in the United States, here are a few suggestions:
Text 'YELE' to 501501 and $5 is automatically added to your phone bill and donated to Wyclef's Yéle organization.
OR/And Text Haiti to 90999 and $10 will be added to your phone bill to be donated to the Red Cross.

You can also check out www.CNN.com/Impact for more ways to help/donate.

Finally, spread the word!