It’s easy to get lost in the craziness of the holiday season, indulge in a bit of post-holiday shopping and bask in the glorious foods on offer during this time of year.

While having fun, spending time with family and friends and indulging a little after a hard year’s work is important, please take time to remember those in Haiti, who will be marking two years since the devastating earthquake hit the nation this month.

January 12, 2010 – a 7.0 magnitude earthquake struck Haiti at a depth of 8.1 miles, killing over 200,000 Haitians and continues to this day to affect the lives of those in the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere.

Despite efforts to rebuild Haiti since the destruction in 2010, most Haitian communities are still living in immense poverty, most living in tent camps, suffering life-threatening illnesses such as Cholera, and having no access to nutritious meals, medical treatments or quality education

Artists for Peace and Justice (APJ), an organization created by Oscar-winning director Paul Haggis is an organization near and dear to my heart.  We encourage peace and social justice and address issues of poverty in the poorest communities in Haiti through programs focused on education, health and dignity.

APJ was on the ground when the earthquake hit and saw first-hand how the earthquake shattered the lives of Haitians and continues to have rippling effects throughout the communities.

Through the efforts of APJ supporters and board members such as Olivia Wilde, Gerard Butler, John Hamm, Madeleine Stowe and Susan Sarandon, APJ has been working to rebuild the communities in Haiti over the last two years, including creating the first free secondary school in Haiti and providing free life-saving medical care for Haitians.  Although so many accomplishments have been made in Haiti, so much more still needs to be done.

APJ Founder, Paul Haggis visits the nation many times a year, and lends his thoughts to the situation pre and post-earthquake.

“Before the earthquake, Haiti was already in desperate need of help.  Today those needs are even greater.  Many promises of massive foreign aid were never kept. As a result, reconstruction is almost non-existent. Children today live in the slums, in tiny crowded rooms with mud floors, tin roofs, no electricity, no plumbing or water.  Right up until last year these children had no access to education past grade six. Now they do, due to the generosity of APJ donors, and the proven effectiveness of our Haitian partners,” Paul Haggis.

APJ’s efforts to-date and the situation in Haiti include:

• The first free high school in the nation; the Academy for Peace and Justice. Upon reaching capacity in 2014 the Academy will provide life changing free education to 3,000 students;
• All students at the Academy receive a full scholarship, including tuition, uniforms and a nutritious meal – often the only meal many of the children will receive in a day. Meals are provided by APJ partner The World Food Program;
• In 2012, APJ will partner with the We Are the World for Haiti Foundation to build the state-of-the-art Quincy Jones and Lionel Richie School of Music.  The school will be a new division to the nation’s only free college for art and technology, the Artists Institute of Haiti;
• APJ also supports the St Luke Family Hospital, which provides free medical care to the poorest and most vulnerable people in Port-au-Prince, including the Academy’s students and families;
• APJ has enabled over 2,000 life-saving emergency surgeries at the St. Luke Hospital;
• APJ also helped fund The St Philomene Cholera Center, which was able to open 36 hours after the epidemic hit and has treated 20,000 patients, 50% of whom would have died without medical treatment;
• APJ has worked closely with Rick Frechette, a physician and community organizer who has been working in Haiti for over 25 years. Frechette and his St Luke Foundation of 1200 Haitian employees have extensive relationships with grassroots networks in Haiti.

APJ is working with Haitian partners to make long-term changes, to build quality institutions to serve the poor.  In doing so APJ efforts are helping give birth to a new generation of Haitian leaders.  It is Haitian people who will solve their problems – they just need a fair chance to do it.

How Can You Help?

Susan Sarandon and fellow Board Members are calling out to everyone to dig deep and support APJ’s efforts in Haiti.

“Please join us and help us rebuild this devastated community – give generously in honor of those whose lives were forever changed,” Susan Sarandon.

Donate online via apjnow.org and support a nation in desperate need.

Follow @artistsforpeace

Sing it with us: “It’s the most wonderful chaotic time of year!” And chances are, you need to become a 24/7 taskmaster, like, yesterday. After all, it’s not just the big guy in red who’s making a list and checking it twice. So what better time of year to share five of the best online list-making tools?

The challenge: find a list tool that requires little or no set-up, is simple enough to capture your task quickly, and offers build-in sharing tools (delegating is the name of the holiday game). Explore them and find one that works now, so you can be set-up for success in the New Year.

There are countless to-do applications and list management tools for various platforms. Creating lists increases our productivity regardless of how it’s applied, whether working on home or work projects. David Allen, author and a productivity guru, stresses the importance of lists and how it can be used to capture every actionable step.

First up: the Action Method Online (AMO), brought to you by Behance CEO Scott Belsky, author of the book Making Ideas Happen. AMO influences team collaboration and task assignment among their groups. The list items are considered Action Steps with built-in time tracking, target date, reference and discussion thread features. The tool itself is surrounded by a methodology develop by Belsky promoting simplicity of project management. Well-suited for the creative and freelance professional.

If you’re looking for a well-organized project management tool, try using the AMO’s web interface. There’s also an iPhone/iPad app to sync your actionable steps (perfect when you’re in the middle of the holiday run around). Budget bonus: creating an account and listing a maximum of 50 to-dos is free.

Additionally there are stationeries such as journals to capture actions steps on paper (a great gift for creatives or those who could use a little help in the organization department). I use AMO for creative projects to collaborate among the creative team members.

2) Things

This Mac-based task management application was developed by Cultured Code. It won best in show at Macworld in 2009. A few of the features include: tagging capabilities to group tasks, assigning tasks to team members and scheduled reminders. Things will sync across your Mac desktop, iPhone/iPad and integrates with your Mac Mail. It’s interface is well-designed, however there’s no web application to get to your projects, to-dos and calendar. Recommended for anyone that is used to Mac OS usability features and wants to extend Mac Mail.

3) OneTask takes a different approach by allowing you to stay focused. We all know it’s easy to skip tasks when distracted, but OneTask allows you to keep track of how much time is spent on a task – a must when you’re faced with a serious time deficit, like the week before Christmas. Considered a lightweight task management tool, it utilizes a minimalistic design for a relaxed and efficient workflow. The lightweight is another free Mac-based application with no web application. I would suggest using this application if your approach is to reduce and remove multi-tasking from your workflow.

4) Wunderlist will sync between your desktop and mobile devices such as iPhone, iPad and Android app. You can also print or email the tasks to share with your team, family or friends. Wunderlist is available as a web application and synchronizes across your devices. The free application is simple enough to easily capture tasks highlighting important tasks to float to the top of your list.

I use Wunderlist for simple two-minute tasks that are not project related. I capture daily deliverables that require little or no notes, and occasionally share tasks with team members to promote collaboration.

5) Evernote is a great tool for capturing everything you need to remember. Save anything from your computer or mobile such as ideas, tasks, websites, quotes, recipes, voice notes, and video into a digital notebook. Evernote allows you to easily search the digital notebooks you create using your browser or via a desktop application. By far Evernote is one the leading journal tool out there. Evernote also features The Truck, which is a collection of tools that integrate with the service, allowing you to easily capture your brain maps from Minjet or your sketches from Skitch.

Ever think of going paperless? Then Evernote will allow you to scan documents, perform screen captures, compile notes for to-dos and projects complete with tags. I also use Evernote to save reference materials such as login credentials, inspirations, ideas and electronic invoices when I make online purchases.

There are many different ways to be productive. A list itemizes and shows progress allowing you to feel in control of your workflow. You don’t have a to change your workflow much to include one these tools. We can’t guarantee all of your “to dos” will get crossed off by using one of these tools (that’s up to you!), but at the very least, your frantic festive activities will be a little more organized.

– André Morgan