Tens of thousands of people remain without supplies of food, drinking water and shelter, and reports of looting and other lawlessness are increasing. In Concepción, one of the hardest-hit cities, thousands of government troops were sent to restore order, extending an overnight curfew until midday.

Ms. Bachelet said that she still was not able to give specific figures on the scope of the damage, but that projections have gone as high as $30 billion. She said an estimated 500,000 houses had been destroyed, and serious damage had been done to numerous bridges, roads, ports and public transportation stations.

Here are some more organizations that are working to help Chileans, in addition to the ones listed previously.

Save The Children is sending an emergency assessment team to Chile, and they are asking for contributions to their Children’s Emergency Fund to aid these efforts.

The American Red Cross has made an initial pledge of $50,000 from their International Response Fund, which you can contribute to to further assist.

AmeriCares is sending medical supplies and humanitarian aid to Chile. Make a direct contribution to AmeriCares’ Chilean earthquake fund.

Please donate immediately to any of the following charities to help the people of Chile. We will continue to add charities as we find them.

Red Cross
MADRE
Partners in Health
Doctors Without Borders
Americares
International Relief Teams
Mercy Corps

Seattle Atheists will be donating over $800 to The Childrens Hospital Fund thanks to the efforts of gift wrappers and the generosity of all the bookstore patrons who donated!  Also this month Seattle Atheists collected 57 lb. of food for Northwest Harvest.  Thank you, and remember to bring non-perishable goods to SA meetings and events!

Saturday, February 6,  2-5 p.m.

Wednesday, February 10, 6-8 pm

Contact:
Mike Gillis
Board Member of Seattle Atheists
P.O. Box 283, Seattle, WA 98111-0283
(206) 826-0770
seattleatheists@seattleatheists.org
www.seattleatheists.org

SEATTLE ATHEISTS CELEBRATE DARWIN DAY

SEATTLE — On Saturday February 6th, Seattle Atheists will join other free-thought groups to celebrate the 201st birthday of Charles Darwin, the brilliant scientist whose revolutionary work became the foundation of modern biology.

Seattle Atheists and our fellow organizations in the Northwest Freethought Coalition (NWFC) will come to together to celebrate Darwin, science, humanity and in appreciation of verifiable knowledge that has been acquired solely through human curiosity and ingenuity.

The event is family-friendly and will include speakers, educational evolution-themed games, activities, and food. The public is encouraged to attend.

WHERE:
Juanita Community Club
13027 100th Ave NE
Kirkland, WA 98034

WHEN:
Saturday, Feb. 6, from 1:00 to 4:30 p.m.

Seattle Atheists is a 501(c)3 organization dedicated to serving the atheist community in the Seattle area. We strive to promote understanding and respect toward all freethinkers by providing information, creating a sense of fellowship, actively opposing discrimination, and above all, emphasizing reason, critical thinking over supernaturalism, and the separation of church and state.

MEDIA CONTACT:
Mike Gillis, Board Member of Seattle Atheists, (206) 826-0770, seattleatheists@seattleatheists.org

# # #

In his Jan. 20 letter to the Tacoma News Tribune, Brad Elken asks of the crisis in Haiti, “Where are the atheists?”

Atheists are precisely where we’ve always been: giving what help we can to people who need it. Countless atheists and free-thought organizations have united under the aegis of Richard Dawkins’ Non-Believers Giving Aid, a multi-organizational drive to raise money for the people affected by the terrible earthquake in Haiti. Together, we’ve already raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for two admirable secular organizations: the International Red Cross and Doctors Without Borders.

True to the message of the holiday sign we placed outside of the Capitol building this past year, Seattle Atheists extends its resources and thoughts to those suffering, regardless of creed, belief, or religion. For the past several years, we’ve raised thousands of dollars for Seattle Children’s Hospital, we donated a large sum of money after the 2005 tsunami, we organize a year-round blood drive, and a year-round SeasonLESS Food Drive, which provides food throughout the year — not just during the traditional holiday giving season. We have a project underway now to donate books to our troops overseas with Operation Paperback.

Unlike the religious groups mentioned by Mr. Elken, these organizations do not proselytize or use tragedies as an easy opportunity to convert vulnerable people. Christian organizations are exploiting the situation in Haiti by distributing solar-powered talking Bibles. The Haitian people don’t need bibles — they need clean water, food, and shelter. They need doctors, medicine, engineers, and aid workers to rebuild their country. They do not need faith-based opportunists who are already using the crisis as if it were a fire sale for religious conversion and salesmanship. They don’t need organizations that use charity as a Trojan horse to spreading their beliefs to vulnerable people.

The earthquake in Haiti was a tragedy, not an opportunity. Access to the country is limited right now. Every evangelist getting off the plane takes the place of a doctor. Every Bible is crowding out medical supplies.

Let’s be good for goodness’ sake.

The Board of Seattle Atheists

Seattle Atheists is offering four 50% scholarships to the Northwest Freethought Alliance Regional Conference. The cost for the conference is $125, so scholarship recipients will be able to attend the full conference (3 days) for only $62.

To apply for the scholarship, send us a brief essay explaining why would like to attend the conference and what you hope to gain from the experience.

Deadline: Feb. 1st. We will notify recipients by Feb. 15.

Where: Third Place Books, 17171 Bothell Way NE, Lake Forest Park, WA  98155

To RSVP: Please RSVP on Meetup.com

Jerry has selected “Divided by God: America’s Church-State Problem — and What We Should Do About It” by Noah Feldman as the first book that the group will tackle.

“In Divided By God, Noah Feldman examines the unique, fascinating balance the United States has pursued for well over 200 years now — the attempt at democratic government by the people in a country made up of many religions, and many highly religious people. The novel principle enshrined to help make this a success was strong separation of church from state. The strain on the system has never been greater as polarization grows over the many hot-button topics of our day.”

To ensure rapid response to this tragedy, we would like our readers to donate immediately to any of the following charities working right now to help the people of Haiti:

Humanist Charities Haiti Earthquake Relief Fund

We urge all members of the humanist and freethought community to join us in the relief effort. You can make a donation to the Humanist Charities’ Haiti Earthquake Relief Fund online, or by calling 1-800-837-3792.

The Center for Inquiry

CFI is accepting disaster-relief donations through its S.H.A.R.E. program to support those providing care to the survivors of the magnitude-7 earthquake. 100 percent of all donations will be sent directly to the secular aid group Doctors Without Borders, which suffered the loss of all
three of its medical facilities and is working against difficulties to provide the basics of first-aid care and stabilization.

Please make your contribution to S.H.A.R.E. here. All funds sent to S.H.A.R.E. are tax
exempt in the United States.

Red Cross

Donate to the American Red Cross Haiti Relief Fund here:
http://american.redcross.org/

Additional charites:

MADRE
Partners in Health
Doctors Without Borders
Americares
International Relief Teams
Mercy Corps

This effort is part of a coordinated nationwide campaign that began last year. In December it included billboards in Baltimore, Houston and Tulsa. Each billboard is sponsored by a local, multi-organizational coalition of non-theistic (atheist and agnostic) groups.

“The point of our national campaign is to reach out to the millions of humanists, atheists and agnostics living in the United States,” explained Fred Edwords, national director of the United Coalition of Reason. “Non-theists sometimes don’t realize there’s a community out there for them because they’re inundated with religious messages at every turn. So we hope this will serve as a beacon and let them know they aren’t alone.”

But reaching out to the like-minded isn’t the only goal of the effort. “Our message is also to let people know that we belong to the larger community,” added Ron Renard, coordinator of the Northwest Freethought Coalition. “Whether you know it or not, we’re your family members, friends, neighbors and coworkers. We’re just like you, except we don’t believe in a supreme being. Now we think it’s time we were as free as you to be open about our views.”

The United Coalition of Reason launched eighteen similar ad campaigns across the country in 2009. Each involved billboards or public transit ads.