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Post by CourageouslyLion SeeksSerenity on Jan 28, 2010 18:12:11 GMT -5
- Haiti doesn't need our hoarded stuff! DON'T send old clothes, blankets, medicines, etc. You'll CLOG the process and make things SLOWER. The BEST thing to do is to donate MONEY yes ... MONEY to an ESTABLISHED reputable charity that is already working in Haiti. One example given in the article was what happened after Hurricane Katrina ... aid workers saw DONATED clothing piled three and four stories high in parking lots all over the area that was soaking wet and being consumed by mildew -- that had to be discarded. Please read the entire article ... and check out the disaster relief blogs it links to: www.nytimes.com/2010/01/21/us/21charity.htmlIf for some reason, you can't open the link, here are a few snippets from the article: For more information, read this blog: "Good Intentions Are Not Enough"by Saundra Schimmelpfennig, an international aid expert. Her blog is read by the U.S. State Department. goodintents.org/disaster/choosing-organizations-after-the-haiti-earthquakeAlso: "No One Needs Your Old Shoes: How Not to Help in Haiti"by Alanna Shaikh, an international relief and development expert aidwatchers.com/2010/01/nobody-wants-your-old-shoes-how-not-to-help-in-haiti/- |
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Post by Rory on Jan 28, 2010 20:21:11 GMT -5
I've been involved in charity work and was over in Sri Lanka a few weeks after the tsunami.
Thanks for the advice. It is sensible and timely.
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Post by sparkle on Jan 28, 2010 21:39:05 GMT -5
Sage words, lioness. Once again, you get right to the heart of whatever the subject. Money, no matter how little, is what is needed now.
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spiritwalk
New Member
Joined: December 2009
Posts: 58
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Post by spiritwalk on Jan 28, 2010 22:47:41 GMT -5
How true. I donated some items to be sent to Katrina to help the rescue effort of dogs and cats and heard later that much was misused.
If you do donate, check to make sure the charity is legit (Charity Navigator is a good place to check them out) and that if you use a credit card to make the donation that they don't take out the fee. There is no sense in the bankers making money off other people's misery. They've already made us miserable enough!
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Post by Rennie Ellen on Jan 29, 2010 0:02:53 GMT -5
CL,
I'm not talking about sending old medicines to Haiti. I'm talking about donating empty clean prescription bottles. In third world countries, there isn't a pharmacy on every corner. So empty prescription bottles would come in handy, especially now.
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Post by Fivecat on Jan 29, 2010 0:03:42 GMT -5
Awesome post lion, something we all needed to hear. Fivecat
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Post by illuminata on Jan 29, 2010 2:36:01 GMT -5
I think the problem is two-fold: One thing is that we see value in items that are not valuable or that have lost what value they once might have had. Just because I once paid $50 for a lovely pair of athletic shoes doesn't mean that they are worth anywhere near that now. And the other thing is that we've seen so many so-called "charities" misuse funds that people can be loath to pledge actual money. But if you choose reputable charities, the chances of that happening are pretty slim. We can all pretty much figure out which charities are on the up-and-up...just use common sense. Plus, you don't have to clean and disinfect and sort and store money. Another plus!  |
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Post by Gryfon on Jan 29, 2010 3:59:50 GMT -5
One suggestion if you want to help and get rid of any hoarded items is to take them along to a charity shop where the charity is working in Haiti. Then they get the money from selling your stuff and you get rid of some things!
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Post by Rory on Jan 29, 2010 4:07:37 GMT -5
The truth is that in some places at some times items discarded as rubbish in the rich world can be of value. The problem is that often the cost of sending the item out is more than the cost of the item in the third world country. The other problem is what is required when.
In rural Madagascar empty plastic water bottles were valued. Now it would be absurd to collect these and send them out.
In Haiti at the moment there is an emergency situation where the problem is getting the right goods to the people who so desperately need them as quickly as possible. Some things might be of value later on but are not at the moment.
When I was in Sri Lanka there was an infrastruction that still worked away from the affected areas. There were problems in getting supplies into the country and blockages in the distribution chain. In Haiti the infrastructure has gone and the situation is different and much more difficult.
Speaking just for myself as a messy and hoarder I need to get myself and my place clean and clear so that I can function otherwise I can be of little use to anyone. For me storing stuff does not work. I used to do so. Now I get rid of things as quickly as possible.
Truth is that wanting to help is one thing knowing how to do so appropriately is another.
There is an African tale of the helpful monkey who seeing a fish in the water decided the fish must be drowning and grabbed it and brought the fish into the tree with him. The fish was not pleased and bit the monkey who dropped the ungrateful fish back into the water.
I was told this tale by an old African when I was a young man and wanted to help.
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Post by illuminata on Jan 29, 2010 4:14:37 GMT -5
The truth is that in some places at some times items discarded as rubbish in the rich world can be of value. The problem is that often the cost of sending the item out is more than the cost of the item in the third world country. The other problem is what is required when. In rural Madagascar empty plastic water bottles were valued. Now it would be absurd to collect these and send them out. In Haiti at the moment there is an emergency situation where the problem is getting the right goods to the people who so desperately need them as quickly as possible. Some things might be of value later on but are not at the moment. When I was in Sri Lanka there was an infrastruction that still worked away from the affected areas. There were problems in getting supplies into the country and blockages in the distribution chain. In Haiti the infrastructure has gone and the situation is different and much more difficult. Speaking just for myself as a messy and hoarder I need to get myself and my place clean and clear so that I can function otherwise I can be of little use to anyone. For me storing stuff does not work. I used to do so. Now I get rid of things as quickly as possible. Truth is that wanting to help is one thing knowing how to do so appropriately is another. There is an African tale of the helpful monkey who seeing a fish in the water decided the fish must be drowning and grabbed it and brought the fish into the tree with him. The fish was not pleased and bit the monkey who dropped the ungrateful fish back into the water. I was told this tale by an old African when I was a young man and wanted to help. Oh, this is awesome.  |
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Post by Evelyn on Jan 29, 2010 4:53:25 GMT -5
Okay, this is a little off-topic, but sometimes I like to do the numbers:
At last report, all of the roads in Haiti were impassable, or very nearly so. Some transport of aid is being accomplished by sea, but not in any significant amounts. That leaves air transport:
The largest US military transport plane, the C-5, can carry 270,000 lb -
but the only place in Haiti a C-5 can land is the airport at Port-Au-Prince.
The largest US heavy transport helicopter, the Sikorsky CH-53E, can carry 30,000 lb and can land anywhere there's roughly a football field's worth of good flat ground.
270,000 lb/30,000 lb = 9 helicopter flights to distrubute one C-5 load of aid.
So 1 C-5 landing + 9 helicopter landings = 10 aircraft landings at Port-Au-Prince Airport to distrubute 270,000 lb of supplies.
According to Wikipedia, aircraft landings at Port-Au-Prince Airport are up to 180/day.
Assuming that 18 of these are C-5s fully loaded fully loaded with humanitarian aid and all of the other 162 are similarly fully loaded helicopter flights -
(Note: this is an extremely optimistic assumption for several reasons, including the unlikelihood that PAP airport has the cargo-handling capacity to unload & reload 4.86 million lb of cargo every 24 hours - that's 270,000 lb unloaded from a C-5 every 45 minutes, with 30,000 lb being simultaneously loaded onto the helicopters every 5 minutes. This is not really possible in the real post-Haitian-earthquake world, but even if it were... )
18 x 270,000 lb = 4,860,000 = 4.86 million lb supplies distributed/day
but (again, according to Wikipedia) there are an estimated 3 million Haitians in need of immediate aid:
4.86 million lb/3 million people = 1.62 lb/person
The US-developed Humanitarian Daily Ration is proabaly as good a measure of how much food each earthquake survivor needs as any other. It weighs 30 oz, or 1.9 lb -
4.86 million lb/1.9 lb = 2.56 million Humanitarian Daily Rations maximum possible distribution per day.
The other 440,000 earthquake survivors would have to go hungry if there were no food at all available locally. (While there is some food available locally, amounts are woefully inadequate.)
So, even using some unreasonably optimistic assumptions, it looks like it is just not physically possible to get adequate food to the Haitian earthquake survivors.
(And that's not even considering tents, blankets, medical supplies, and other desperately needed items.)
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Post by disorganizeddragon on Jan 29, 2010 11:17:49 GMT -5
This is a great article and all of the arguments made against sending things vs. sending money are extremely sound, but once again, the main-stream media is missing a very salient point: Many times, especially in this economy, people send things because they cannot afford to send money. Now, I know the next question from many people would be, "What, you can't even afford to contribute five dollars?" Well, no, actually, I can't. In two weeks, my hours at work are going to be cut by 50%. I am responsible for supporting not only myself and my pets, but also a mother with breast cancer. I have been required to be nothing short of a monetary magician to make this work over the past two years and often by the end of the week, I didn't even have enough left over to buy a cup of coffee at McDonald's. Now I don't know what I'm going to do. If you read about some deranged woman trying to rob a bank with a Nerf gun, it's probably me trying to come up with the money for my mother's medications and care. And I know I'm not alone in my situation. I know a lot of people are just like me, wanting desperately to help, but without an extra dime to their name. That's when you get tempted to send stuff. I see the two brand-new, never-worn pairs of tennis shoes (bought when I still had extra money and then promptly buried in the black-hole of a pile in my bedroom); the three pairs of brand-new, never-worn blue jeans that were sent to me by a friend who didn't realize I had gained 25 lbs. and now had a hiney the size of Saudi Arabia (and yes, I've held on to them, vainly hoping the Thin Fairy would come and strike me skinny in the middle of the night  ); and the brand-new, never-worn coat given to me by my aunt and never used because it makes me look like a camouflaged donut. All of these things are sitting in a pile by my door, waiting to be taken to Goodwill, but I see them and think, "Couldn't they use these things in Haiti?" And again, I'm sure I'm not the only one. Hence, the surplus of donated goods vs. currency. Obviously, I'll just take these things to Goodwill instead. (No one here is collecting donated items for Haiti, anyway.) But I feel lousy because contributing money isn't an option for me--my mother's oxycodone and ACTIQ have to come first--and I don't know any other way to help besides pray. I just wish the article would've addressed some other alternatives. |
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Post by CourageouslyLion SeeksSerenity on Jan 29, 2010 15:51:20 GMT -5
the main-stream media is missing a very salient point:
Many times, especially in this economy, people send things because they cannot afford to send money.
Now, I know the next question from many people would be, "What, you can't even afford to contribute five dollars?" Well, no, actually, I can't.
And I know I'm not alone in my situation. I know a lot of people are just like me, wanting desperately to help, but without an extra dime to their name.
That's when you get tempted to send stuff.
But I feel lousy because contributing money isn't an option for me-
--and I don't know any other way to help besides pray.
I just wish the article would've addressed some other alternatives. This was addressed in another thread, but is definitely worth repeating here: Perhaps ... in a few months ... when the immediate crisis has settled down, and shelter has been created, and the country is beginning to rebuild, then ... SPECIFIC items ... MIGHT be needed -- but only if they are on a specific list. If you give later on ... several months from now ... you'd still be helping. The process of recovery will go on for a LONG time. Years. djollydjolan wrote (on other thread):DJ's idea makes sense to me. After Hurricane Katrina, people wanted to help New Orleans dogs. As a result, there was much less help for local animal shelters. Due to lots of money now being donated to Haiti, there will be less money donated to local organizations. So ... when you do have items (even if very few) ... if you know a LOCAL charity that could use them, then go ahead and donate the items to your local charity. Even if your items aren't sent to Haiti directly ... they will benefit some local organization that will be suffering financially ... because Haiti is currently getting the bulk of monetary donation. It's all part of the same process, whether direct or indirect. - |
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Post by 60isolderthanithot on Jan 29, 2010 16:08:08 GMT -5
There are political reasons as well why we do NOT have a well designed infrastructure to donate anything but money. Charities are just businesses, same as hospitals and churches, though we hate to think of them that way. When you see the types of management policies they adopt, it's quite clear.
People in ROWBOATS have long made a run for it from Cuba, for instance. Yet we accept, even cultivate the idea that it takes huge fleets of big planes to deliver food (or anything else) to Haiti.
We couldn't deliver when our own people were drowned out in New Orleans. What did we say then? Same thing. Same as we're saying now - leave it to the experts.
There's always a good reason.
Maybe we should review how we come to believe some of these obvious truths.
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Post by CourageouslyLion SeeksSerenity on Jan 29, 2010 16:29:44 GMT -5
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I realize that politics might have impact on the situation ... but ...
... a gentle suggestion that we keep this thread focused on squalor and hoarding ... and that politics be confined to the Byways forum.
I realize that it might be intertwined and hard to separate out. But it's important to remember that our membership comes from EVERY aspect of the political spectrum.
Hugs.
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