Helping Haiti, Hurting Others?

Nearly three million citizens are displaced from their homes and 300,000 left dead according to the United Nations. Charitable organizations like UNICEF and the Red Cross are asking for donations and aid from people across the globe. Yet only 22% of Sudan's requested funding has been committed or contributed in 2010 according to the Financial Tracking Service.

With 300,000 left homeless and a death toll rising over 200,000, the people of Haiti are battling to stay alive in their ravished nation. Meanwhile local charity organizations are fighting a battle of their own to keep up funding for other causes left in the rubble amidst aid for the Haitian disaster. Text donations, benefit concerts, and "We are the World" remakes are all set to raise money to help after January's devastating earthquake, but ailing nations like Sudan, Afghanistan, and the Democratic Republic of Congo are receiving as little as 0% of their requested appeals for humanitarian aid. Donors around the world have been distracted by the Haiti media hype and without the Caribbean nation's name headlining shows, charity organizers are finding it difficult to attract the crowds they had hoped.

"It is really difficult to raise money for other causes," said Boston University UNICEF President Meghan Rhodes. "All of our focus and money is going to Haiti. All of our time and energy and funds are going to Haiti. So, it's been really difficult because all the attention is drawn to this whole Haiti thing, which is great, but there's a whole world of living poverty out there and no one is really doing anything to help them at the moment."

Benefit concerts and battle of the band type shows have been a popular theme to rake in donations and attention for charitable causes of late. Yet, unless Haiti heads the bill concert seats and donation jars echo empty tunes. Even local musicians are noticing the falling turnouts.

"One of the other bands that was involved in the Darfur Battle of the Bands show I was in had a benefit concert at the Middle East (bar) for Haiti right after," said one local musician, Jeremy Exelbert. "They seemed to be in quite a rush to get there and from what I heard it was a much bigger turnout."

Other causes around the globe will have to wait until the media attention moves from Haiti to regain the donations they once had, which may actually be sooner than later. After the devastation in Haiti, the organization "Doctors Without Borders" has reported that they received enough money in three days to cover a decade of aid in the impoverished nation. Most of those donations have been earmarked for the future, as the program is set for the current time.