Don’t give money to Haiti - but do give money, for Haiti
Do give money to MSF, then, but if you do, make sure that your donation is unrestricted. The charity will do its very best in Haiti either way, but by allowing your money to be spent anywhere, you will help people in dire need all over the world, not just in Haiti.
A huge amount of cash is going to Haiti. In some cases enough for many years of aid. Médecins Sans Frontières were able to put unrestricted donations to use in Haiti within hours of the disaster - before anybody had donated specifically for that cause. Some of the local charities (the article names Yéle) have a chequered past and funds are not necessarily accounted for.
So it would be prudent to support recognised, responsible, accountable disaster relief charities with unrestricted donations - and now is as good a time as any.
