How can designers help Haiti?

The empathy that provides designers with their intuitive and creative advantage can also ignite a compelling need to help others, such as when we witness the kind of devastation and suffering that nature has unleashed on the people of Haiti. Members have been asking how they can contribute toward saving lives and providing hope for the future, and whether there is a means for AIGA to organize help.

A tent city in Haiti after the January 12 quake. (Flickr: United Nations Development Programme)

In cases where AIGA has a local network of designers, as we did following Hurricane Katrina in the New Orleans area, we can mount a direct effort to help. In a case like the earthquake in Haiti, the best course right now is to invest in the organizations that can provide professional help locally.

AIGA encourages designers to support the following three organizations because they are productive, effective and minimize their administrative expenses. They are listed here with links to their donation pages.

• Doctors Without Borders: This humanitarian aid organization has been quick to respond to the enormous medical toll of this tragedy and is in urgent need of supplies.
• UNICEF: In addition to the aid that it is providing in Haiti, the supply division of the United Nations Children’s Fund has been working with AIGA to redesign the nature of emergency relief resources such as the “School in a Box.”
• Partners in Health: The pioneering rural health campaign has been in Haiti for more than 20 years. (To learn more about the organization, read Tracy Kidder’s book Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, a Man Who Would Cure the World.)

Many designers are driven by the contribution their special gifts can make to improving the human condition. AIGA has taken the lead in recent years in creating opportunities for members to give time, creativity and resources to aid those suffering from natural disasters. As members have expressed their increasing concern over finding ways to contribute to society, AIGA has sought to find channels that are focused, productive and accountable.

Some members may want to work with others in their chapters to develop local campaigns to raise funds to send to these or other organizations directly. These three organizations are not the only appropriate channels, and we encourage all members to demonstrate the engagement of designers in addressing challenges to the human condition. We believe the most important need now is not to have a separate charitable or action-related activity for designers, but to help those with experience seeking to work miracles on the ground.

The week before he passed away, Tibor Kalman asked me to make sure that AIGA would remind every designer not to forget the good that he or she can do for humanity through his or her unique talents. Sometimes we can contribute through our creative gifts—though at times such as now, it may be through our common sense of humanity and generosity that we can do the most good.