"Human poverty is hugely susceptible to nature's depredations, and Haiti, one of the world's poorest countries, has again and again been the victim of demonically destructive wind, rain and flood," wrote Amy Wilentz last year. She's a journalist, who has lived in and written about Haiti.
"In the developed world, such vulnerability would lead quickly to measures for the public safety. But Haitians cannot expect what Paul Farmer, an anthropologist and physician who has worked there for more than two decades, calls "protection from the foreseeable."
In the wake of the disastrous earthquake in Haiti, from many directions a variety of worthy organizations are calling for people to step up to support the Haitian people through financial donations. Unfortunately, according to Tracy Kidder, author of Mountains Beyond Montains, a book about Haiti, "many projects ... seem designed to serve not impoverished Haitians but the interests of the people administering the projects." That's why he recommends supporting organizations where the contributions go directly into aid, not "funding the infrastructures of the aid organizations."
According to the website of Partners in Health www.pih.org, a relief organization co-founded by Paul Farmer MD, "Haiti is facing a crisis worse than it has seen in years, and it is a country that has faced years of crisis, both natural disaster and otherwise."
PIH is responding to the need for emergency medical care with a two-part strategy. Using a supply chain via the neighboring Dominican Republic, they are staffing and supplying field hospital sites in Port-au-Prince and neighboring regions where they can "triage patients, provide emergency care, and send those who need surgery or more complex treatment to our functioning hospitals and surgical facilities."
In addition, trained medical personnel able to travel to Haiti for disaster relief can contact their website to volunteer.
Tracy Kidder who serves on their board lauds PIH as "a solid model for independence -- a model where only a handful of Americans are involved in day-to-day operations, and Haitians run the show. Efforts like this could provide one way for Haiti, as it rebuilds, to renew the promise of its revolution."
Grassroots International, an organization that supports food sovereignty for Haitians to help build the local sustainable food economy, claims that "We know from over 26 years of experience that the best aid strategy - be it in Haiti or elsewhere - is to work directly with the people most affected. Emergency relief, like all aid, needs to be led by the communities themselves and move from the bottom up, not from the top down. We know from past history that Haiti has not been well served by the aid industry - Haiti's reliance on food aid has only grown over the years."
As a result, GI will use contributions to "provide cash to our partners to make local purchases of the items they most need and to obtain food from farmers not hit by the disaster."
Chavannes Jean-Baptiste, one of Grassroot's partners and the leader of a Haitian peasant-based agricultural organization points out that while Haitians have no way to prevent natural disasters like earthquakes or hurricanes, "What we can do is mitigate their damage." The goal is to empower Haitians via solutions that reduce the impact of natural catastrophes, which "sadly continue to challenge the hemisphere's poorest nation."
Update: In the aftermaths of crises, like this one, those who specialize in treating those suffering from trauma, loss of loved ones, injury, and shock are also needed. I intend to continue reporting on this, but as of right now, I've learned that Peter A. Levine, PhD., who trains mental health professionals to work with trauma in internatlonal settings is gathering a team. Those interested in knowing more can go to www.traumahealing.com or make a donation to his foundation, the Foundation for Human Enrichment at the same web address.
In addition, Trauma Resources International (TRI), a non-profr at http://www.restorativeresources.net/ has done trauma work in Haiti and is coordinating with established Haitian mental health groups, including Uramel, (www.uramel.org) a Haitian NGO which works with Haiti's top medical school, and IDEO, founded and directed by leading Haitian psychologists. People can contact TRI to make donations to these groups, which are positioned to offer mental health services.
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Caroline Gluck: Dispatch from the Ground in Haiti
http://www.reddit.com/r/worldnews/comments/ap5kz/please_go_to_wwwredcrossorg_and_donate_at_least/c0ip8st
http://www.progressivepuppy.com/the_progressive_puppy/2009/12/salvation-army-no-salvation-for-gays.html
Can we get a guarantee from this - or any - group we send money to that they won't pack up and run away from the ill - and if they have to leave an area for their OWN security - that they will at least take the most ill people along WITH them?
I decided to donate to Hope for Haiti since they have been helping there for 20 years and the focus is helping to improve the quality of life to Haitian people, with a strong focus on the children. 95% of donations reach the people.
http://www.hopeforhaiti.com/index.php
Thank you so much for this reminder and information.
Alison
www.healthjournalist.com
Bill Couzens, Founder Less Cancer
God Bless Haiti. and let us help them too.
Sending aid is one thing, but actual delivery is key. It's sad to see that so many are suffering while food, water and medicine are so close and those in need are not getting those supplies. I think we need to redefine, assistance or emergency response.
We need to understand what help is and we need to move faster.
People get so anxious to help they end up sending stuff that is inappropriate or unusable for the specific situation (like medicines past their expiration date that then become toxic refuse that need to be disposed of, or used winter clothes sent by the tons to the tropics after hurricanes and tsunamis). Sending planeloads of non-urgent donations means 20 to 30 minutes lost while a planeload lands and unloads on Haiti's ONE functioning airstrip; then the loads have to be moved somewhere out of the way.
Sometimes the inappropriate aid just ends up being one more bottleneck the rescue effort has to contend with. In fact, the Red Cross yesterday said that they don't need any more field hospitals, what they need are medical personnel to staff them.
Yeah, yeah, no one likes a big bureaucracy like a government-run effort or the International Red Cross, but remember, they've got the administrative skills, resources, and experience to get it done.
If you don't want your donation to end up in someone's pocket, donate to the Red Cross rather than Pat Robertson's Operation Blessing. Read how disaster donations sometimes end up in Robertson's businesses.
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20050919/blumenthal
Red Cross:
https://american.redcross.org/site/Donation2?idb=1502217456&df_id=4437&4437.donation=form1&JServSessionIdr004=4a02q8qp96.app196b””
http://usliberals.about.com/od/homelandsecurit1/a/IraqNumbers.htm
"Lost & Unaccounted for in Iraq - $9 billion of US taxpayers' money and $549.7 milion in spare parts shipped in 2004 to US contractors. Also, per ABC News, 190,000 guns, including 110,000 AK-47 rifles.
"Missing - $1 billion in tractor trailers, tank recovery vehicles, machine guns, rocket-propelled grenades and other equipment and services provided to the Iraqi security forces. (Per CBS News on Dec 6, 2007.)
"Mismanaged & Wasted in Iraq - $10 billion, per Feb 2007 Congressional hearings"
During 9/11, when the Red Cross momentarily considered moving some of the donated funds to other relief effort, donors and the media held the Red Cross accountable and the money was saved strictly for 9/11 efforts.
Smaller, less visible organizations are more likely to experience questionable uses of donated funds. See how money donated to Operation Blessing for disaster relief efforts was diverted to questionable uses.
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20050919/blumenthal
What's happened to the billions of US dollars unaccounted for in the Iraq war because "bureaucratic" oversight was deemed unimportant in the rush to invade a country that had done nothing to us?
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/02/09/60minutes/main1302378.shtml
Thank you. Was a very helpful post.
We have to remember that organizations like the Red Cross, Catholic Charities are effective because they do have an independent infrastructure and local structures in place.
However, the IMF and World Bank may have done immense harm to Haiti and it population -- introducing investment into the economy, while at the same time destroying independent farming, making the economy dependent on buying US rice. Creating dependencies on established corrupt structures. Creating dependencies on the aid industry instead of the most basic tools, skills and civil structures for development and complete independence!
Some features of the aid industry (especially government run aid) is like the illicit street drug industry. Come in, make friends, get them addicted and dependent ....to the death.
Thank you.
http://www.truthout.org/article/noam-chomsky-the-tragedy-haiti
I used CharityNavigator.org and chose Doctors Without Borders for several reasons: 1. Low administrative costs; 2) The "workers" or clinicians are in the trenches with the people; and, 3. Good rating. To my surprise Red Cross was not ranked as high and perhaps because of high pay to its administrator.
Also in the aftermaths of crises, like this one, those who specialize in treating those suffering from trauma, loss of loved ones, injury, and shock are also needed. I intend to continue reporting on this, but as of right now, I've learned that Peter A. Levine, PhD., who trains mental health professionals to work with trauma in internatlonal settings is gathering a team. Those interested in knowing more can go to www.traumahealing.com or make a donation to his foundation, the Foundation for Human Enrichment at the same web address.
In addition, Trauma Resources International (TRI), a non-profr at http://www.restorativeresources.net/ has done trauma work in Haiti and is coordinating with established Haitian mental health groups, including Uramel, (www.uramel.org) a Haitian NGO which works with Haiti's top medical school, and IDEO, founded and directed by leading Haitian psychologists. People can contact TRI to make donations to these groups, which are positioned to offer mental health services.
Many thanks for all your suggestions!
Alison
www.healthjournalist.com
And I have a PhD and 2 masters, and my salary is less than what an MBA would get. Nobody goes into development for money. And the same donors who do NOT want their money spent on salaries and cheap rents in unsavoury neighbourhoods, want their money to be well-administered! So, I suggest being thankful and appreciative of charities who do good work and be more sceptical when buying UNICEF cards, and donating to the Red Cross as opposed to Doctors without Borders.
Regards
Ujwala Samant
I thank you for your comments and from my perspective, we are in agreement. You may notice that all of the charities mentioned in this blog, which a number of leaders in charitable grass roots giving recommended, are small, grass roots operations, which engage with the Haitian people rather than some of the larger organizations which you mentioned.
I totally agree with your salute to those who dedicate themselves to this kind of service in the way you describe. However, many people in their eagerness to give, may not be aware of some of the issues you mention. That's why I wrote this blog so that people could contribute to a wider circle of smaller organizations beyond the names that are better known.
Thanks again!
Alison
www.HealthJournalist.com
Thanks for your reply. I do wish that people would question the UN agencies (who really do lead champagne lifestyles), the World Bank, the big aid groups who squander people's money. Having received pound coins taped to paper sent to the previous organisation I worked with during the earthquake in Pakistan, I know how this view of the UN and WB style agencies hurts smaller (and more fiscally tight) organisations in terms of donations and in turn, the organisations we serve. PIC is a remarkable organisation.
Regards
Ujwala