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Dear Friends and Colleagues:<br><br>
We all continue to shudder at the images of death, destruction and
suffering on the U.S. Gulf Coast in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
Most of us are also dealing with strong feelings of impotence, sadness,
anger and even guilt. With every image I see and hear, I am
reminded of the worst tragedies, natural and human-caused) that I have
seen around the world. <br><br>
At the same time we are heartened and proud of the thousands of people
that are helping in hundreds of different ways, giving their time,
energy, money, prayers and even a corner of their home to help the tens
of thousands of refugees. The question I have been asked hundreds
of times in the last few days from people around the world is "How
can I help". Here are some immediate actions to consider:
<ul>
<li>First and foremost, take care of yourself and your family.
Please make sure that you have given an adequate context and explanation
to your children that are watching these horrendous scenes on television,
. My daughter-in-law is an occupational therapist with children in
the Houston area and told me yesterday that many, many children are being
affected psychologically by the press coverage.
<li>Many NPOs need volunteers for a host of different tasks. Anyone who
is reading this letter has many skills that are urgently needed.
Check out Volunteers of America
<<a href="http://www.voa.org/" eudora="autourl">http://www.voa.org/</a>
> or the CNN Help Center
<<a href="http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2005/katrina/help.center/" eudora="autourl">
http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2005/katrina/help.center/</a>>.
<li>Offer temporary housing to a person or family. Take a look at:
<a href="http://www.hurricanehousing.org/" eudora="autourl">
http://www.hurricanehousing.org/</a>
<li>Donate canned food, materials and especially blood (urgently needed
in New Orleans) to your local Red Cross Chapter.
<li>Give a donation to a reputable aid organization. The Salvation
Army and World Vision have the best record of use of funds.
</ul>The situation on the Gulf Coast is, in most part, still in the
critical and survival stage. In the next days and weeks,
however, the emergent psychosocial needs of the survivors will
begin to appear and the challenge to help them is enormous.
Although FEMA and many other organizations will have Grief Management and
Critical Incident Debriefing teams working in the area, they will
not come close to meeting all the needs. <br><br>
GFSC is coordinating several efforts to use its Field Volunteers to
train, prepare and mentor other professionals and caregivers in Disaster
Intervention Facilitation (DIF):
<ul>
<li>Larry and Bego Meeker, with a group of other area GFSC volunteers,
are spearheading the efforts in the Texas Gulf area with local groups and
organizations to offer DIF Workshops different localities.
<li>We have many new materials now on the GFSC website
<<a href="http://globalfacilitatos.org" eudora="autourl">
http://globalfacilitatos.org</a>> on Grief Management, Critical
Incident Management and Caring for the Caregiver.
<li>We have a dozen GFSC Virtual Mentors that are available 24/7 to
support local professionals using our new Hot Conference
audio-video-desktop virtual conferencing platform that is accessible to
anyone with an internet connection, even a slow dialup.
<li>We are in contact with other facilitator organizations such as the
IAF and ICA to offer support to their groups as needed.
<li>If you are a professional facilitator, you can enter the GFSC
Mentored Pathways Field Volunteer program to prepare yourself for future
volunteer opportunities. For more information, go to:
<<a href="http://globalfacilitators.org/VolunFormEnEs.htm" eudora="autourl">
http://globalfacilitators.org/VolunFormEnEs.htm</a>>.
</ul>Finally, we really need a really insignificant sum of money to
help pay some of the expenses of our volunteers. We would
appreciate your help and you can safely donate online at:
<<a href="http://globalfacilitators.org/donation.html" eudora="autourl">
http://globalfacilitators.org/donation.html</a>>.<br><br>
For more information or for any requests for services, please contact me
at:
<a href="mailto:GFSC-Chair@amauta.org">GFSC-Chair@amauta.org</a>.
We will continue to keep you posted and thank you for your continued
support.<br><br>
Warm regards,<br><br>
Gil <x-sigsep><p></x-sigsep>
<dl><div align="center">
<dd><b>*******************************
<dd>Dr. Gilbert Brenson-Lazan
<dd>President - Global Facilitator Service Corps
<dd>Email:
<a href="mailto:GFSC-Chair@amauta.org">GFSC-Chair@amauta.org</a>
<dd>Website:
<a href="http://globalfacilitators.org/">http://globalfacilitators.org</a>
<dd>*******************************************
<dd><font face="Comic Sans MS" color="#800000"><i>Through the development
and support of local networks of volunteer facilitators worldwide,
<dd>Global Facilitator Service Corps helps build the capacity of
communities
<dd>to work through their challenges and create sustainable
solutions.</font> <br>
<br><br>
</dl></b></i></div>
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