On January 12^th a 7.0 earthquake hit the island nation of Haiti. The death toll is expected to surpass 100,000 people. There are still many people trapped under the rumble as we speak.

When the earthquake hit I was at work and I didn’t realize how bad it was until I got home late that night and saw the presidential palace in ruins. I thought to myself “If the palace looks like that I can’t imagine what the rest might look like?” it didn’t take long for my question to be answered. In the minutes, hours and days after the earthquake, I was flooded with still images and video from Haiti, of the death and destruction that was left behind. I can’t recall a moment where I didn’t cry from seeing the images. The one that always sticks out in my mind is a photo that was of small babies and toddlers who were dead and people had to stack them on back of a pick up truck in order to clear the roads. That image will never leave my mind, never.

Being Dominican this tragedy hit too close to home for me. My parents were born and raised there and I still have family and friends still there on the island. For those who don’t know, Haiti & Dominican Republic share one big island called “Hispaniola” which was later on divided into two countries. After the earthquake struck I called family in Dominican Republic and was told that the earthquake was so strong that they even felt it thousands of miles away.

We’ve been told that our show helps people escape their daily lives for a few hours and tune in to get some laughs but from time to time we need to make people aware of certain situations like this one. We always come together to help trend our fav artist birthday on twitter or to help each other promote our own sites but this time we in the J-Pop & K-pop communities need to come together and help raise not only awareness but also funds, clothing, food, & supplies for the people of Haiti.

There’s many ways you can help. If you text the word “YELE” to 501501, you automatically donate $5, which will be billed on your next cell phone bill for the Yele foundation which is run by world superstar Wyclef Jean. If you can’t do it by phone than you can visit their site http://www.yele.org/

You can also text the word “HAITI” to 909909, you automatically donate $10, which will be billed on your next cell phone bill for the Red Cross. If you can’t do it by phone than you can visit their site http://www.redcross.org/

Another foundation that I support is “Doctors without Borders” which sends doctors from all over to different parts of the world to help assist those who don’t have much in the way of medical assistants. You can visit them at http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/

I’m sure if you google you will find many other ways to help or donate.

Any little bit helps. I’m sorry for the long rant but this is something that hit too close to home for me and I see friends whom I went to high school with who have lost a lot of family and friends. Some still don’t know where they’re families are.

For those of you who do donate, if you send us the proof via email we will shout out out on the show or even play a song request for you. You can send all proof to asianpopaddict@gmail.com

Thanks

Cyn City

Asian Pop Addict