Canadians have been donating money to help the earthquake-ravaged country by the thousands.



From school bake sales to "text donations" to loonies and toonies dropped in corner store collection boxes, Canadians are donating by the thousands to help Haitians struggling in the aftermath of the devastating earthquake.

That flood of donations is setting Canadians apart, leading the world in providing aid to Haiti, giving almost $2 per person.

And today, Prime Minister Stephen Harper is expected to announce the federal government is upping its cap on matching contributions. Ottawa had promised to match donations to the Haitian relief effort to a maximum of $50 million, effectively doubling individual donations to charities.

But with donations rapidly approaching that total, the federal government is poised to commit even more funding to earthquake relief efforts.

Harper praised Canadians Friday for their "compassion and generosity," and implored everyone to give more.

"So widespread is the damage, so severe the destruction that much is needed, much more," Harper said in a message that aired on a nationwide telethon.

"Our government is committed to matching every donation that Canadians make to relief organizations dollar for dollar," he said.

U.S. President Barack Obama telephoned Harper on Friday and the two leaders agreed their countries would work closely on the immediate relief effort and longer-term help for Haiti, the Prime Minister's Office said in a press release.

Earlier in the day, Harper sketched out the challenge facing Canada and other nations, calling the rebuilding of Haiti nothing less than the "rescue of a shattered society."

Even before the quake, Haiti was the largest recipient of Canadian aid assistance in the Americas, with $555 million pledged for the period 2006-11.

Michael Messenger, vice-president of public affairs for World Vision Canada, said Canadian donations to his organization are running ahead of those in other countries when measured per capita.

"We certainly have seen a very, very strong response this time. It has really resonated with Canadians," Messenger said.

"In World Vision offices around the world, we are certainly the highest per capita response to Haiti," said Messenger, whose agency had raised $9.6 million in private donations by Friday morning.

The Canadian Red Cross says it's collected $61 million for Haiti, $45 million of that from individual Canadians. The rest comes from the federal government and corporations.

"Canadians have been incredibly generous," said Heather Badenoch, an agency spokesperson.

Canadians are giving on a scale not seen since a tsunami in 2004 swept across Southeast Asia, killing 270,000.

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Donations will only grow in the days ahead as benefit concerts and other high-profile events encourage Canadians to open their wallets even more.

Charity organizers attribute the largesse to Canada's long ties to the Caribbean nation – and technology.

Thanks to the Internet, people everywhere quickly understand the scale of the disaster, unlike the tsunami where the true impact wasn't known for several days.

"Here, within hours, you had Twitter posts, with the photos people had snapped on cellphone cameras. The average person had a pretty good idea just how massive this disaster was," said Kieran Green, of CARE Canada.

And charities soon saw the impact.

"The very first week ... we were quite literally overwhelmed. Our donation servers were crashing, our call centres were overloaded," Green said.

Technology is also making it easier for Canadians to donate online; 80 per cent of donations to the Red Cross are done online, or even by texting from a cellphone.

World Vision launched a challenge on Facebook encouraging people to give $10 and quickly saw their cyber-plea spread, Messenger said, adding "we just saw it showing up all over the place."

That technology has put cash in the hands of aid agencies faster, which has helped speed their response.

Alexandra Lopoukhine, of Oxfam Canada, said the scale of the disaster has also made a difference in donations.

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