Hey there everybody,
As I write this, I’m in a hotel room in Seattle. Tomorrow I have the first event on my short tour for the 10th Anniversary Edition of NOTW.
But it’s hard for me to get excited about the tour. This is partly because I caught a cold the day before I left, and it’s partly because I’m still exhausted from taking care of my dad in Hospice last month, and haven’t even begun to catch up on my sleep, let alone my e-mail…
But more than that. The world is just wearing me out these days. Natural disasters and mass shootings and… well… I’m sure you don’t need me to give you a list.
Gech. I don’t know what my point is here. This probably isn’t the best way to start this particular blog. But I don’t know how else to lead into this. The truth is, I’m tired, and sick, and heartsore….
But you know what? I have electricity. And clean water. I can pick up a phone and talk to the outside world. I can go to the store and buy food. And gasoline. I’m in no danger of getting cholera. My children are safe.
There are millions of people right now in Puerto Rico who have none of these luxuries.
(If you know where I’m going with all this, you can head over and donate here to help people who desperately need it without reading all the rambling that follows.)
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Right. Okay. Let’s talk about Puerto Rico.
It’s been hit by three hurricanes lately, but the latest, Maria, has devastated the island. Millions have no power, clean water, or food. And for various reasons that I won’t go into right now, federal aid to the island has been extremely slow moving.
I like doing charity work that builds things. There’s a reason my charity is called Worldbuilders. I want to focus on long-term solutions to the world’s problems. Sustainable agriculture. Education. Renewable energy. Solid social and economic infrastructure. That’s why Worldbuilders works so much with Heifer International. They’re the best at solving problems like that, long-term, all over the world.
But when someone doesn’t have drinking water, that’s a problem NOW. Sometimes you need to deal with a crisis fast, and worry about sustainable agriculture later.
So I went to the Worldbuilders team, because while the death totals we’ve seen out of Puerto Rico haven’t been terrifying so far…. well… A person doesn’t make a world like Temerant without a good understanding of how complex systems interact. So when I hear that millions of people on an island don’t have water and power. And huge parts of their infrastructure are destroyed, and they’re not getting sufficient help from the government, and their hospitals for the most part don’t have electricity….
Here’s the thing folks. Here’s what I’m afraid of. I’m worried when we finally do start seeing realistic death-tolls for Puerto Rico, it’s not going to be in the dozens or hundreds. I’m worried that by the time people finally stop scrambling for survival long enough to start counting bodies, the dead will number in the thousands.
I mean, most of you are fantasy readers, right? You know why clean water is so important. Without it, things like typhoid, dysentery, and cholera are right around the corner. Then, without medical infrastructure, those things will tear through a sick population like a fire through a field of wheat.
I don’t want to wait until that happens, then tear my hair out wishing I’d done something to help.
So last week I went to to the worldbuilders team and we started investigating charities. We know when donate money to us, you’re trusting us. You want to get the biggest bang possible out of your charity dollar.
Luckily, it turns out that Mercy Corps has put their seasoned emergency response team toward helping out in Puerto Rico.
We worked with Mercy Corps in 2015 to provide aid to the Syrian Refugees. And in just a few short days we raised over $200,000 to help those people.
Today, I want to ask you to consider doing the same for the people of Puerto Rico.
More than 3 million people still remain without power and water, and expected heavy rains could further impede aid efforts in the coming days. Mercy Corps has deployed an emergency response team, some of whom arrived just yesterday, to see how their global expertise in emergency response can support the efforts to deliver humanitarian assistance and start rebuilding the communities ravaged by the hurricane.
Their approach is to support and empower existing local organizations, with a special focus on the most vulnerable and underserved populations. We expect to work with them to provide access to cash, clean water, and other urgently needed supplies.
If you’ve been feeling like I have for the last couple weeks. Scared and helpless and wishing you could do something to help make the world less shitty. Here’s your chance.
There are real people who need our help. You can help by helping us spread the word. You can share this fundraiser, and make a donation.
And before you say you can’t afford it. Please keep in mind that if you’re reading this on a computer and had a glass of water that came out of a tap today, you are doing roughly 10,000% better than the people in Puerto Rico right now. If you kick in just a bit, it can make a huge difference, because when taken all together, we are a force to be reckoned with. I don’t know how to stress this enough. MILLIONS OF PEOPLE DON’T HAVE CLEAN WATER TO DRINK.
So please. Join us. Together we are awesome. We can help.
Mercy Corps has become our go-to charity for disaster relief. Their seasoned emergency response team has been deployed to provide supplies and assistance, and are working tirelessly to aid the people of Puerto Rico. Mercy Corps has a long history of both emergency relief and rebuilding communities struck by disaster, and we know their assistance will help Puerto Rico back to its feet.
And if it will help nudge any of you into joining in. I’m going to put my money where my mouth is. My dad left me some money, and I’ve got some royalties coming from the 10th anniversary of NOTW. So I can afford to put up $50,000 in matching money. That means whenever you kick some money in, more water, more food, more helping hands, more medicine, more supplies, more long-term solutions. Together, we can do twice the good.
Join us, and help in the relief, recovery, and rebuilding process.