Celebrities Join Forces For Haiti Help
By WENNThursday, January 14, 2010
SHAKIRA, OPRAH WINFREY and CHRIS MARTIN are the latest celebrities to plead for help in raising funds for the Haitian earthquake relief effort.
The stars have joined Ben Stiller, Jessica Alba, Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie and Wyclef Jean in calling for people to lend their support to those left homeless after the the disaster, which rocked the poverty-stricken island nation on Tuesday (12Jan10).
Shakira has posted a message on her personal website asking everyone to donate cash to Jean’s Yele charity organisation, while other stars including Mark Hoppus, Yoko Ono, singer Joey Mcintyre, and Kim Kardashian have all taken to their Twitter.com pages to raise awareness of the tragedy.
Jean’s campaign has proved so popular, the website crashed as a result of the number of donations being made every minute. A spokesperson revealed the organisation is working on improving the site to allow for more donations.
Meanwhile, Winfrey opened her talk show on Wednesday (13Jan10) calling for viewers to donate to the Red Cross, saying, “This is a time where we, as a global nation, should come together and support those who are in need.”
And Coldplay’s Martin is pressing for donations to Oxfam’s Haiti appeal: “I visited Haiti with Oxfam a few years ago. It’s a country of extreme poverty and brutal living conditions. Most people in Port-au-Prince live in tin shacks. The earthquake that has struck Haiti will have turned the city into an unimaginable hell.”
Hollywood supercouple Pitt and Jolie have also extended their efforts by donating $1 million (?625,000) to help Doctors Without Borders in the earthquake-ravaged zone.
In a statement, Jolie says, “It is incredibly horrible to see a catastrophe of this size hit a people who have been suffering from extreme poverty, violence and unrest for so many decades.”
Pitt adds, ?We understand the first response is critical to serve the immediate needs of countless people who are now displaced from their homes, are suffering trauma, and most require urgent care.?
