Montreal’s orchestral indie rockers, Arcade Fire, have strong ties to Haiti. Mop-headed singer Régine Chassagne has familial ties to the country, which you might recall from the track “Haiti” off Funeral.

In the past, the band has encouraged fans to donate to Partners in Health to address care needs in Haiti, and this earthquake has prompted the group to ask again. As you surely know via other news sources, 45,000 to 50,ooo people are estimated to have been killed. (Those numbers are from The Washington Post.) And three million more are now injured and homeless.

On the band’s website, Chassagne and her husband Win Butler are asking fans to show their support by donating to Partners in Health. Below is the full text of their request. But first, a fan-made video of shots of Haiti along to Regine Chassagne’s “Haiti”:

Friends,

Haiti needs your help in her darkest hour.

We just got off the phone with our friends at Partners in Health. Most of the medical infrastructure in Port-au-Prince is down.

Since Partners in Health’s clinics are in situated the surrounding areas and haven’t been damaged, they are mobilizing their resources towards the capital, setting-up field hospitals to treat the injured on the ground.

Also, Paul Farmer (the founder of PIH) is at the UN and has access to the best information on where to direct the money… so for the moment if you want to help, we suggest sending funds to:

www.pih.org
+ donate.pih.org/page/contribute/haiti_earthquake?source=earthquake&subsource=homepage

Please be generous as time is of the essence.

love,
Win and Regine

p.s.
these photos convey some of what is going on:
+ www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/01/earthquake_in_haiti.html