Welcome to Orcmid's Lair, the playground for family connections, pastimes, and scholarly vocation -- the collected professional and recreational work of Dennis E. Hamilton

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The Asia Disaster: Aiding the International Relief Effort

Following up on yesterday's post, I have a report on my choice of relief organizations and some other interesting activities.  Some of these were recorded on 43 Things and others on my school discussion system.

There are other links to more coverage now.  One of the most valuable resources is a continuously-maintained Wikipedia report.  Another with comprehensive aggregation of information is The Command Post with an interesting international (and Australian) perspective.  There are also new items being scoured into Scoble's Link Blog that range from additional relief efforts to on-site reports by bloggers.  These tend to reaffirm that the most-effective step we can take for immediate support is to donate cash to organizations that can use the funds to make purchases of needed items in the impacted region itself.  There are certainly other steps that can be taken for longer-term relief and contribution to reconstruction efforts, but the most effective immediate and urgent assistance is accomplished with cash

Finding Appropriate Relief Organizations

Following through on yesterday's promise to donate more, I checked around through the UN OCHA site because they provide a coordinating role.  I didn't find a way to donate directly, but I did find a news-service announcement that CARE was already in action in Sri Lanka and other parts of Asia because they already had people there who quickly went to work on feeding people.  They suggest that cash donations help the most, because the funds can be used to purchase more food in Sri Lanka itself.  I matched my earlier contribution to the American Red Cross International Response funds.  Keep in mind that that corporate gift-matching works with CARE and the American Red Cross.  It depends on the employer so you should check.

I was a little puzzled about purchasing food and supplies in the country of the disaster, and I now find that it is a common theme, reflecting valuable experience in disaster relief.  The American Red Cross has a deeper explanation of how this has optimum effectiveness and is also appropriate for speeding relief.

The appeal letter from Sri Lanka specifies water-purification tablets and temporary shelters as well as food, especially dry foods that do not require preservation or preparation.  I take this to mean that we want to support organizations with airlift and transport capabilities for delivering this kind of relief to where it is needed.  I forget that, except for the earthquake damage in Sumatra, all of the tsunami impact is coastal (except where islands have been over-run) and relief can be brought from accessible inland areas.

Because the situation is urgent and multi-national, I have been looking for international organizations that have experience and resources for rapid response.  Oddly, the United Nations relief organizations apparently lack means for accepting individual contributions, dealing instead with governmental agencies and NGOs of member contries.  I'd like to be mistaken about that and I will keep looking around.  So far, they've thanked me for registering on their site, and I failed to find any way to contribute.

Check Your Local Newspaper

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer has an on-line article that describes efforts being mounted from this area.  There are web links to a number of local organizations, including Mercy Corps.

For our third donation yesterday, 12-27, I selected Mercy Corps because they are already in Indonesia where the earthquake damage is the most severe (as opposed to the tsunami damage).  They may be able to obtain permission to enter the earthquake-damaged area more quickly than those not already represented in Indonesia and Sumatra.  Mercy Corps also allows a variety of ways to target your donation and check for gift-matching.  I didn't select any of their donor gifts.

The acute situation appears to be in the hard-hit tsunami areas where the fresh-water supply is contaminated, there is no food or shelter, and the risk of serious disease is immediate.  I was a little hesitant for the possible less-urgent attention to the earthquake damage, but today's (12-28) news suggest that there is a critical need in Sumatra too.

We're done making donations for the moment.  We'll reassess after I have done the month-end bills and there is more word on what makes the most difference.

Buy Software, Save the World

From another Scoble link I learn that Nick Bradbury, author of Top Style and Feed Demon is donating everything he makes on those products between now and the end of the year to disaster relief.  He may make more than usual.  People who were running pirated copies have decided to purchase a legal one in response to that promise by Nick.

I figure I can at least give it a look and see whether those are products I should try out.

Joel Spolski's Fog Creek Software is making a similar offer of 50% of the revenue.

Have a Web Page, Save the World

Meanwhile, some folks on Channel 9 propose that people with Google Adsense and other advertising revenue sources donate their payments to international relief organizations.

posted by orcmid at 12/28/2004 04:53:54 PM