A Little Help For Haiti

Although it's been all over our televisions, the catastrophic effects from this week's earthquake in Haiti are absolutely incomprehensible. Among all the awful devastation, access to basic needs like shelter, food, water and soap (yes, soap!) is severely limited. Soap helps inhibit the spread of disease and infection, and since I have lots and lots of soap here at the Manor, I am going to do my tiny part to help the people of Haiti through a wonderful program called Clean the World.

Clean the World Foundation, Inc. was founded in February 2009 by two individuals, Shawn Seipler and Paul Till, as a Florida not-for-profit corporation. Through the collection, recycling and distribution of soap and shampoo products discarded by hotels every day, Clean the World is dedicated to preventing millions of deaths caused by acute respiratory infection and diarrheal disease.

This afternoon, I've gone through the workshop and gathered as much soap as I can, to send off to the wonderful people at Clean the World. All of the Mischief Makers are gone from the web site, and soap stocks have been raided as much as I dare. I also have many soap ends which will also go, as all of it will be melted down in giant vats before being made into individual bars at the Clean the World headquarters and sent off to Haiti. I'll work to replenish as much as I can this next ten days.

There are of course other ways to donate, including through Unicef, Doctors Without Borders, the Red Cross, The Salvation Army, You can also donate to Clean the World, who accept monetary donations as well as soap. If we all do a little bit, a lot can be achieved!

Image reprinted from the NJ Star Ledger.