Community Leaders In Philadelphia Respond To Crisis In Haiti
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - It's been over a week since Hurricane Mathew devastated Haiti.
The Haitian community in our area came together Saturday at Ebenezer Haitian Baptist Church in Northeast Philadelphia to come up with ways to help the survivors.
Representatives from numerous organizations spoke (in both English and Haitian Creole). Among them, Gilda Jean-Louis -- CEO of the Elise Joseph Foundation -- which serves Haitian families.
"We had put out a call for a community forum to come and talk about what we can do to help our Haitian people," she says.
The most important thing, she says, is providing long-term relief:
"We realize the USAID and some other organizations are providing food, clean water, things like that, but we also know that's a temporary stop measure."
Christelle Chery says collecting and sending money will benefit the survivors more than anything else:
"The dollar amount here is worth a lot in Haiti, so whatever you can contribute to help, we don't know what is going to happen next."
She says her mother lives in Haiti and she wasn't able to speak with her until a week after Matthew hit. So she understand the need for efforts like this:
"That's home. I've been crying for a week, I'm not crying anymore because I'm so happy I have people helping me help them."
Below are two ways you can donate.
