Auction for Haiti

The world has been horrified by the recent events in Haiti, where an earthquake has destroyed large parts of the country, leaving as many as 200,000 dead and millions homeless. In recent days aid has started to arrive to those who need it in the country, with convoys from around the world bringing food, water and medical supplies, and charities relocating there to offer their assistance.  Mayo woman Gena Heraty has been working with Haiti’s most needy children for many years, doing admirable work with a disadvantaged and vulnerable group of people. Post-earthquake, she is still there, minding children, trying to keep them safe. She needs support in many ways, including financial support.  You can help.

Having read about Gena’s work and her plea for help, photographer Tommy Lehane (known on Twitter as EyeBlinks and on pix.ie as Covey) decided to do something to help. He offered some of his prints up for auction on the Irish photo-sharing website pix.ie. He tagged them with #printauctionforhaiti, sent a tweet out to his followers, and encouraged others to bid, and/or to put some prints up for auction. Slowly the word has spread amongst photographers on pix.ie, and there are currently over 60 photographs up for auction.

Bidding on a print

The easiest way to bid on any of the prints is to comment on the one you like on pix.ie.  I have offered a 12″x8″ print of the photograph above, mounted in a 16″x12″ frame, for the auction. [Read more about this photo] It has some bids, but more would be great – I will accept them via a comment on pix.ie, via a comment on this post (click the link below), via email or via Twitter if that’s easier (or if you’re not registered with pix.ie).  Also, if you wish to bid on another print in the auction, feel free to let me know and I’ll place the bid on pix.ie on your behalf.

The highest bid on 31st January wins the print at the size specified by the photographer, the bidder donates the money to Gena Heraty’s fund (details below), and the photographer posts the winning bidder the print. With over 60 photos up for auction, if every photo raised €50, over €3000 would be finding its way to Gena’s cause in Haiti.

Other ways to help

Simple – spread the word. Let people know about the auction, link to this post or to the pix.ie page, or write your own blog post about it. Tweet about it. Email your friends. Do what you can to let people know and hopefully a lot of money can be raised.

Better still, just donate some money to the charity yourself.  The account details for the Gena Heraty Haiti Fund at AIB Westport are:

A/C Number: 11108008

Sort code 93-71-69