Haiti needs you!

To Our Beloved Bar Community: Haiti needs you!

The poorest country in the Western Hemisphere was still recovering from the devastating 2010 earthquake (100k dead) when Hurricane Matthew struck last week. Nearly 900 people have been confirmed dead as a result of the hurricane, and more than 350,000 people desperately need our help to meet their basic needs.

One of the island’s largest private employers is a home-grown business that many of us know and love: Rhum Barbancourt. Let’s help Haiti in a two-pronged fashion:

• Deplete every case of Rhum Barbancourt in the world
• Donate $1 of every Barbancourt drink to Haitian relief efforts

Let’s designate one week for this effort beginning tonight, October 8, 2016, and run through next Saturday night, the 15^th. On Sunday, October 16, please send your donation tally along with the number of cases depleted to me for tabulation (inuakena@gmail.com). Then make your donation to Haitian relief.

EDIT: A sage member of the bar community and owner/operator of one of the world’s best bars reached out and told me that for most operators, more time is needed to put together drink specials and order sufficient stock to feature Rhum Barbancourt cocktails on their menus. This person is of course correct, so let’s forgo the tally and date cutoffs in favor of a longer period of promotion. This effort is solely about getting people the help they need, so let’s all do what we can as soon as we can do it. If that means it’s today, fantastic, but if it’s a few months from now, there will still be a very critical need then, too, and the help will be no less appreciated by the people of Haiti.

Suggested groups worthy of your support:

One of the hardest hit areas was the village of Jeremie. The Haitian Health Foundation is a US-based charity with a four star rating from Charity Navigator, and their primary area of support is the village of Jeremie.

There are several other reputable organizations that are providing critical support as well, including Doctors Without Borders. Ultimately the choice is yours, but please ensure the charity is reputable and maintains a rating of 90 or above from Charity Navigator or other independent rating agency.

In the meantime, please post photos of your chalkboards and Barbancourt cocktails to social media using the hashtag #BartendersForHaiti.

If anyone has contacts at Barbancourt’s US importer (Crillon Importers) or executives at Southern Glazers, please let me know. We would love to double (triple?) our impact with matching donations from these companies. Please let me know if you are able to help in this fashion. Same goes for importers in other countries.

Individual cocktailians and rum lovers: YOU CAN HELP TOO! Simply post your photo with the #BartendersForHaiti hashtag and keep track of your own donation tally.

Please SPREAD THE WORD! Let’s make this go viral within our community and beyond.

Thank you for your support, and let’s drink with a purpose for Haiti!

In solidarity,
Josh