Sail Aid to Haiti – Delivering relief supplies on sailboats.
OceansWatch.org members and sailing vessels from Florida, Eastern US and the Caribbean are working together to establish a network of boats delivering aid to Haiti. We call it Sail Aid to Haiti.
SV Tranquility and Trans Marine will be leading the secound flotilla leaving from south Florida end of Feburary. We are concentrating on the organization of attain Aid and delivering to the coastal communities that need it.
One of the logistical challenges in helping the people of Haiti is that the three main ways of getting relief supplies of food and medicine into the country (by land, air and large ship), all create a bottleneck in Port au Prince, with much of the aid sitting in warehouses or under guard while people are starving. Also, the primary aid distribution centers are in and around Port au Prince, so not enough aid is being delivered to small islands and remote villages, where many refugees have fled to get away from the awful mess in the city. They are cut off and removed from aid and receive very little if any at all. They are hungry and lacking the basic necessities of life: food, shelter and medical care.
Another serious issue is that corruption and inefficiency mean that somewhere between 50 to 90% of every dollar collected for aid to Haiti is wasted and never reaches the people in need. Even from the most honest, established and trusted organizations, overhead, administrative expenses, salaries, marketing, promotion, advertising and shipping eat up a huge percentage of every dollar donated. Greed, corruption, bribery and outright theft by gangs in Haiti siphon off a huge amount more. Food is scarce, medical supplies are scarce, gasoline is selling for $125 a gallon on the black market, and bottled water is selling for $10 a gallon, even if it was donated or purchased with money donated for relief to Haiti.
What can be done? Deliver aid directly to the people in need on sail powered boats. OceansWatch is an all volunteer organization with no salaries, overhead, or administrative costs, all donations we receive go directly on sailboats with volunteer crews delivered to the small islands and coastal fishing villages in Haiti.
Donate to OceansWatch and we promise that every dollar you give will be used to purchase food, medicine and supplies delivered by an all volunteer crew on a wind powered sailboat directly to the people in need on the coast of Haiti.
Please go to www.OceansWatch.org to donate by PayPal or credit card.