Day 5 – Imagine (Updated)

Posted on January 23, 2010 | Leave a comment

Today, two miracles happened. A man was found alive under the rubble – after he was trapped in the rubble, without any food and water for ten days. Another 84-year-old woman was also pulled from the rubble [video]. It is a big sense of hope and encouragement when CBC’s David Common reported that water is increasingly more available (albeit unclean) in Port-au-Prince. The most encouraging of all is witnessing the unlimited support from fellow Canadians in the Canada For Haiti telethon and the Hope for Haiti Now telethon around the globe.

We were featured at several places across the country, and in fact all over the world! We were featured on The Globe And Mail’s “Disaster relief, v2.0” article (scroll down to the bottom); UBC Alumni Affairs; and Facebook – thanks to many of our friends, the word is getting out through FB! Consider updating your FB profile with our logo. If you’re part of our Google group, you can download the logo under “Files”.

We are proud and happy to let you know that the donation is coming in too. Our resident realtor Andrew La Fleur has closed his first deal since he started the $1 donation for $1,000 transaction campaign. Three hundred and twenty dollars will be donated to the Canadian Red Cross. Great job, Andrew! We also have Mark Savel, another local realtor, on board, as he joins the $1 for $1,000 campaign as well.

Furthermore, a special thank goes out to our youngest donor, nine-month old Carla van Eimeren who donated $25 to TW4H, to thank her dad for babysitting her. We also have secured another donation in exchange of babysitting , adding another $200. That’s already 10% of our target!

This week has been, simply put, awesome. We ran into so many people who are so compassionate and innovative. We learned about different groups and projects popping all over town to help people in Haiti. We already have eighteen volunteers on our team! (Noticed a new counter on the sidebar?) As a country, Canada is leading the informal Friends of Haiti group and will host the Montreal Conference to discuss what is and will be needed in Haiti, in days, weeks, months and years to come. We will be doing something similar over the weekend. What comes out of it, you will be the first to know. Happy weekend!

P.S. Thank you Becky, our newest volunteer , for proofreading for us.

Leave a comment

Posted in Progress

Tagged , , , , , , ,

Day 4 – We’re growing

Posted on January 22, 2010 | Leave a comment

A very important connection we made today. Katherine attended a fundraising event that pulled together the Haitian community here in Toronto and those who are wanting to help. The Built Haiti Fund is looking into ways to provide assistance to reconstruction projects in remote areas outside the capital. With the knowledge of the country and the communities, this connection presents to us a lot of possibilities in helping out those who were in a dire need even before the earthquake.

Yay! We were featured at BlogTO today. Check it out. Thanks Sophie, our resident Social Media guru.

On the business side of things, we are very happy and grateful to announce Andrew la Fleur as our first affiliate. Every $1,000 his clients sell or buy through him, Andrew will donate $1. This will increase our donation really quickly – for example, a $300,000 condo means a $300 donation! We also found out that a phenomenal french pastry chef and baker, and a long-time friend to Toronto Works for Haiti headquarters, Marie will be donating proceeds from her orders.

We’re also in the process of making you in charge of some of the tasks at TWH HQ. We’re growing and it’s time to delegate, delegate and delegate! If you’d like to help out, please let us know, just like Laura. We’re going to count on her for the PR work. Thanks Laura!

As days go by, the question of long-term assistance, the kind of assistance that empowers, involves, and is based on the locals, boggles our mind. Let’s think about that. It’s an important discussion and we have a voice that has an impact. So, keep it up team! Talk to you tomorrow.

Leave a comment

Posted in Progress

Tagged , , , , , , ,

Day 3 – The message of hope after the aftershock

Posted on January 21, 2010 | Leave a comment

The aftershock today sparked fear in tent cities. The aid hasn’t trickled down to those who need it. In the middle of all of this, two children came out alive out of the rubbles today, with their arms wide open to the sky, smiling and leading cheers from the rescue team. After being stuck in the ruins for more than 8 days, these children still managed to deliver the message of hope and resilience. This is what we’re holding onto today, day 3 at Toronto Works for Haiti.

In this part of the world, we have a few more amazing fellow Torontonians on board. Rick is a wonderful marketing effectiveness consultant and a freelance product photographer. You will be amazed by what he can do to make sure your products do well in the competitive markets like today’s! A political scientist by training and a project manager by day, Laura brings many precious talents to the team. Jeremy is an IT consultant who understands what most of us don’t. Yolanda runs a successful research design and analysis business and is ready to provide her expertise.

Lastly, but surely not least, we got our very first client signed up for a service! We will share with you more details on this soon. It’s incredibly exciting to think that we will be helping out more clients who simply refuse to stay complacent and do something to help the Haitian people. With our amazing volunteers, as long as Haitians need our support, our work will continue. And you can be a part of it!

P.S. Our poster is officially approved by Doctors without Borders today. Feel free to distribute.

Leave a comment

Posted in Progress

Tagged , , , , ,

Day 2 – More services added

Posted on January 20, 2010 | 1 comment

It’s day two here at Toronto Works for Haiti and it’s been eight days since the earthquake struck Haiti. The number of the dead continues to rise, and the concern now is about bodies decomposing in open space, let alone identifying them or giving them proper burial. Nonetheless, the living needs to be taken care of too. Grandparents, mothers, fathers, children, pregnant women, and babies who have seen and remember everything. Yes, the aid is arriving. We don’t know when it’ll reach everyone who’s in need. With 1.5 million people homeless and 500,000 in tent cities, the need is great and urgent, and it will increase for some time.

If you’re visiting this site for the first time, a very warm welcome to you – we hope to see you participate as a volunteer or as a client. In fact, today we welcome Sophie, Ryan, Lida and Patricia to the team!

  • Sophie is an amazing social media consultant and if you know what social media means, you will benefit from her expertise and experience. (We all see how the Haitian people were using social media to get the message out about their situation and communicate with their families!)
  • Do you struggle every morning deciding what to wear? Ryan will help you with style consultation. Sit down with him and based on your lifestyle, needs and goals, you’ll get a chance to understand what you already own and go shopping with the style expert!
  • Lida, being a highly sought-after editor and a proposal writer/evaluator by day, will help you polish your writing.
  • Patricia is a great tutor and she’s waiting to hear about your learning needs.
  • We’re happy to report that there will be piano teachers and more tutors joining the team soon. So think about what you have been wanting to learn! We will very likely have someone who can help you with it.

It’s great to see excitement and interest in our project. Don’t forget to let us know if you have any ideas. Let’s keep our hearts together for people of Haiti!

1 Comment

Posted in Progress

Tagged , , , , , ,

Day 1 for Toronto Works for Haiti

Posted on January 19, 2010 | Leave a comment

What’s happening in Haiti has touched so many of us. Everyone is talking about it, and everyone wants to do something about it. It is clear from the images and stories we have encountered that there is just so much agony and pain in Haiti, especially in Port-au-Prince right now. Well, they say the most incredible challenges bring out who you truly are, and we know and believe that Haiti will pull through this. We want to do our part to support their efforts to rebuild their country, reclaim peace, and restore lives. After all, we are one of the neighbours in this global village, just 2864 km away from our friends who simply refuse to give up.

We are going to blog about our journey and will share with you any updates we will have on this project. You’ll get to know our dedicated volunteers, amazing clients and supporters we’ll meet on the way.

Right now we’re concentrating on getting things started. We have talked to many friends and everyone has been so supportive. We are incredibly excited about the responses and reactions that we have been getting so far.  Our go-to person for everything under the sun (maybe above the sun too!), Elliot secured support from a local Realtor, Mark Savels in the form of advertising. Mark will let people know about our blog from his blog. (Thank you Mark!) Elliot also set up this blog along with our eblast to get things rolling. An event planner by birth, Katherine continues to work her magic on the logistics and administration side of things. Kilim has been talking to some people at work who seemed quite keen to get involved. She’s also thinking about what kind of services she can offer as a volunteer. Carol has come up with an awesome idea of meal planning for busy families. Who can resist a full meal planning service which includes complementary weekly shopping lists from our resident gourmet expert who is known to fix all kinds of problems in the kitchen?  Thank you Jia for the amazing feedback and proofreading and Rox for your legal expertise!

You might have noticed our discussion board is up and running now. Do you have any creative fundraising ideas? What are your thoughts on long-term support to the reconstruction of Haiti? Let’s get our heads together. Feel free to post anything that comes to your mind.

So that’s been our first day! We look forward to getting to know YOU better and providing our services to you soon, because that will all mean helping our neighbours in Haiti. Talk to you soon.

Leave a comment

Posted in Progress

Tagged

Day 0 – Toronto wants to help – Toronto Works for Haiti

Posted on January 18, 2010 | 1 comment

“Toronto Works for Haiti” – We are a group of concerned Torontonians offering professional services in exchange for donations to support disaster relief efforts in Haiti.

  • Are you looking for more ways to help the disaster relief operations in Haiti?
  • Small businesses: Are you looking for professional services?
  • Volunteers: Do you have any professional skill sets to volunteer?

Millions of Haitians are in urgent need of help.  Do you have projects that require a quick turnaround time (less than a week)? We are a co-operative network looking for more ways to help the people in Haiti.  We want to volunteer our services and time in exchange for your donation to support the disaster relief efforts in Haiti.  We are also looking for more people providing a variety of services through friends, LinkedIn contacts, and university alumni in exchange for their donation.

We will not charge administrative cost.

Target geography:

  • Targeting local businesses in the Greater Toronto Area.

Currently we are offering services in the following areas:

  • Print design
  • Web design
  • Editing services
  • Party planning
  • Catering services
  • Family meal planning
  • Tutoring
  • Personal shopping
  • Valentine’s day planning
  • Baby sitting
  • Can offer more as we have more volunteers.

How it works:

A call also goes out for volunteers in any services or help you would like to offer. We are looking for diverse skill sets and are not limited to the aforementioned list.

Why you should join us?
  1. It’s an opportunity to help
  2. It’s an opportunity to create a larger donation from Canada
  3. It’s an opportunity to network with like-minded individuals

Contact us today!

torontoworksforhaiti [at] gmail [dot] com

http://www.torontoworksforhaiti.com/

Administration Details:

For clients:

1) Please contact us with a specific help that you are looking for.

2) Our volunteer will contact you to confirm availability, scope of work, and the estimated hours of services.  A copy of service agreement will be provided upon approval.

3) Once we receive the signed service agreement, we will provide you the contact information of the volunteer and he/she will contact you.

4) Upon work completion, we ask that you make a donation within 24 hours and send us a copy of the receipt.

5) If receipt not submitted, a reminder will be sent every 2 days.  Clients will be blacklisted after 7 days and published on the website.

For volunteers:

1) Please complete a volunteer form with your name, contact info, your skills set, and your availability.  We ask all our volunteers must be able to commit at least 7 hours per week.

2) We ask our volunteers to submit a time sheet after completion of each project.

A call also goes out for volunteers in any services or help you would like to offer. We are looking for diverse skill sets and are not limited to the aforementioned list.

1 Comment

Posted in Admin