In January, Westy Self Storage began a donation drive, in conjunction with Share International, to help victims of the Haitian earthquake. The earthquake killed more than 50,000 Haitians and left more than a million people homeless and destitute. Hundreds of thousands of earthquake survivors settled in camps outside Haiti’s capital city, Port-au-Prince, in the days after the earthquake. Westy collected donations from 16 self storage facilities in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut, and moved all the donations to its Wilton, Connecticut location.
Since the beginning of March, volunteers have been sorting through Westy’s donations. Donors had sent clothing, linens, towels, personal hygiene products, and other items. Volunteers packed the donations into boxes, and labeled them to ease the process of going through customs. Then the boxes were loaded into a container and shipped to Port-au-Prince, Haiti. In all, 1200 boxes of donations were sent.
“We are so grateful to all those that assisted with the drive, from the individual donations to the many volunteers who help sort and pack materials,” com
mented Isabel Chase, of Share Joy International, in a statement released by Westy Self Storage yesterday. “A special thanks to Westy Self Storage for coordinating the collection, their storage facilities and moving trucks and their never-ending time in facilitating this endeavor.”
In the last few months, donations have poured into Haiti from the United States, Europe and Brazil, and several donor nations have chosen to forgive Haiti’s debts to them, even those stemming from before the earthquake. On Wednesday, more than 50 nations at an International Donors’ Conference offered a collective total of $5 billion in Haitian aid for the next 18 months and almost $10 billion over the next five years. For the next year and a half, most of the aid will be used for rebuilding: clearing debris from the earthquake, providing medical care and safe drinking water, and providing transitional housing for homeless Haitians.
Sources used:
“Donor nations help Haiti with earthquake reconstruction, debt.” The Washington Post. April 2, 2010.
Interlandi, Jeneen. “Planning the Haitian renaissance.” Newsweek. April 1, 2010.
Westy Self Storage. “Westy Self Storage assists Haiti earthquake survivors.” Norwalkplus.com. Jan. 20, 2010.
“Westy Self Storage drive nets 1,000 boxes of supplies for Haiti.” Inside Self-Storage. March 1, 2010.
Westy Self Storage. “Haiti earthquake survivors receive 1200 boxes from Westy Self Storage and Share Joy International. April 1, 2010.