Wyclef Leads the Charge to Help Haiti

WikiCommons/Ali Dan-Bouzoua (Creative Commons)

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When the developed world all but gave up on Haiti six years ago after pouring billions into the desolately poor, still failed state, Grammy-winning hip-hop artist and Haitian native Wyclef Jean began lobbying Washington to change its mind. When violence between rival gangs in Port-au-Prince reached a fever-pitch four years ago, Wyclef stepped in to personally negotiate a truce between some of the warring factions. And after learning that his homeland had been struck by a deadly earthquake, Wyclef once again sprang into action to help his people, this time by calling on the public—through a flurry of tweets—to make $5 earthquake recovery donations by texting 501501. 

The charge from this philanthropic text will go straight to your cell phone bill, and the donations will go straight to earthquake relief efforts through Wyclef’s charity Yele, which he started in 2005 with a quarter million dollars of his own money, according to a 60 Minutes special which aired in January 2009 about Wyclef’s ongoing efforts to help Haiti. So many people responded to the former Fugee’s call to action that the Yele site was temporarily down earlier today. The term “Yele” comes from a Haitian Creole word meaning ‘to yell,’ and asked by CBS’s Scott Pelley why he chose this name for his charity, Wyclef responded “Because I want you to hear us.”

It’s been one day since the 7.0 magnitude quake struck just 10 miles outside Port-au-Price, but Wyclef has already returned to his homeland through its neighbor the Dominican Republic to focus on family, finding and assisting Yele staff and general disaster response, the Los Angeles Times reports. “I cannot stress enough what a human disaster this is, and idle hands will only make this tragedy worse,” said Jean in a statement on the charity’s Web site. “We must act now… Haiti needs your prayers and support.”

Yele spends $100,000 a year on athletic programs for Haitian children and helps feed 50,000 people a month with food donated by the UN. The nonprofit also offers much-needed jobs to people in Cite Soleil, one of the world’s most notorious slums. Don’t forget to check out James Ridgeway’s piece about how Bush-Cheney policy screwed Haiti and MoJo human rights reporter Mac McClelland’s advice on how you can help.

 

For updates on Haiti, follow Mac on Twitter.

 

 

WE CAME UP SHORT.

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WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

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