Imagine a beautiful beach, waves lapping at the shore, a man and woman casually strolling. Soon they come to a spot where thousands of starfish lie stranded in the sand just beyond the water's reach. The man bends down, retrieves a starfish and tosses it into the water. The woman scans the countless starfish remaining on the beach and asks, "What do you hope to accomplish by throwing that one starfish back into the ocean, when all these others remain? What difference does it make?"

"To that starfish," the man responds, "it makes a world of difference."

This allegory provides a context to the horrible devastation -- and the small miracles -- I witnessed firsthand during a visit to Haiti earlier this month. Without this context, the enormity of the destruction caused by the massive earthquake there on Jan. 12 would have left me with a sense of utter hopelessness and despair.

On Aug. 9, I traveled to Haiti with my wife, Sandy, and Jeff Finkelstein, president and CEO of the United Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh. We represented the local federation as members of a 22-person delegation on a fact-finding mission organized by the Jewish Federations of North America. Our goal: to ensure that dollars we collected locally to aid Haitian earthquake victims were accounted for and being spent wisely.

When our plane landed in Port-au-Prince, we were immediately stunned to see a city that seemed encased in rubble. Government buildings, houses and apartment buildings reduced to enormous heaps of concrete and rubble. The landscape was covered as far as the eye could see by thousands of tents that countless families now made as their homes -- not even tents, really, but large tarps on poles, sometimes propped with cardboard. I fought back tears and wondered how could people live like this?

Measuring the catastrophe in Haiti in numbers is mind-boggling: 3.5 million people affected by the earthquake ... Some 185,000 homes collapsed, and 105,000 completely destroyed ... 1.5 million people living in these tarp tents ... 4,000 schools destroyed. And, most tragically ironic, 30 hospitals destroyed at a time they are needed more than ever before. But these are just numbers, and numbers do not reflect the immeasurable impact on human lives.

My initial reaction was that this situation is hopeless until I realized we had to look at this recovery in micro -- not macro -- terms.

The Talmud, an authoritative Jewish source, says, "Whoever saves a life, it is considered as if he saved an entire world." The positive news from Haiti is that there are many lives being saved, thanks to the generosity of Pittsburgh donors and prudent planning and implementation by direct service providers on the ground in Haiti.

Chief among those agencies is the American Jewish Joint Distribution Company, on whose executive board I serve. JDC is primarily involved in the rescue, renewal and relief of Jews in 70 countries around the world; however, in times of crisis, JDC is very often the first responder on the ground to assist victims of natural or man-made disasters on a nonsectarian basis.

Last January, as word of the 7.0 magnitude earthquake had spread -- along with news of the enormous loss of life (more than 330,000 dead), the Jewish Federations of North America and its local affiliates began collecting funds. Immediately, JDC sprang into action, preparing an elite team of medical personnel from Israel, which was on the ground in Haiti within 48 hours. JDC then formed partnerships with other nongovernmental organizations in Haiti to cope with this enormous tragedy.

Approximately $7.4 million was collected nationally by JFNA, with more than $94,000 coming from Pittsburgh. I can say with conviction that these dollars have been well spent -- because I personally saw the results.

Our group visited a displaced persons camp, where JDC had funded a water tank and a temporary school in partnership with the Prodev Foundation, a superb Haitian NGO. In all, our money established 80 water tanks, along with distribution formulas to supply fresh water to hundreds of thousands of earthquake victims.

In a rural mountain area we saw another JDC partner NGO, Heart to Heart, implementing emergency care services, building clinics and rebuilding a school. We even took up picks and shovels to remove rubble, a hands-on lesson in the challenge of clearing rubble without heavy equipment.

Finally, we went to a tent camp called Petion-Ville Club, built on the only nine-hole golf course in Haiti. Now home to 66,000 people in tarp tents, this former golf course is renowned as the locale receiving support from actor Sean Penn.

In the 21/2 days that I spent in Haiti, I saw destruction that is incomprehensible. And I saw the enormous humanitarian effort under way. The Haitian people are amazingly resilient, although they have a long uphill fight. With hope and optimism, I look to their strength and to the kindnesses extended by those who have come to Haiti to help. I envision the beach and the marooned starfish. And, with hope -- and pride in knowing that we can all be part of the solution -- I think we are making a difference, one life at a time.

Cartoonist Rob Rogers does "Rob's Rough," an early look at his work and his creative process, exclusively at PG+, a members-only web site of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Our introduction to PG+ gives you all the details.