After 9/11 and Katrina I began to seriously question how relief organizations work and how they use the money people like us donate. Too much goes to administration. Outside contractors made fortunes during Katrina while the people who lived there begged for jobs. I have done work for several large groups – The Red Cross and Catholic Charities to name two and I hated the way they operated.
Sarah van Gelder wrote a piece for YES! Magazine that recommends several organizations that can be trusted to use your donations wisely …
PARTNERS IN HEALTH
OXFAM
GRASSROOTS INTERNATIONAL
ACTION AID
DOCTORS WITHOUT BORDERS
THE WALKING MAN left a link in comments for YELE HAITI. You can donate $5 from your cell phone or click the donate button if you can do more.
You can see Sarah’s article, as it was reprinted by Huffington Post, HERE
The article describes what each organization does.
I donated to Doctors Without Borders – Haiti’s medical capabilities appear to have been completely destroyed. Doctors Without Borders was already there when the quake hit and they have been working feverishly to save as many as they can.
When I was in Brooklyn at Christmas I ran into a woman I had worked with many years before. She and her sons were about to go back to Haiti to care for her elderly Mom. Her face was beaming as she told me how “kind and blessed” her life had become. They had put together enough money to move her mother to a decent home. I was so happy to see her and to see how happy she was. We had worked together under difficult circumstances and I remember her as always pushing people forward. Always talking about blessings and gratitude. Always offering to pray for someone as well as offering a piece of whatever little she had.
I spent all day today calling around. I finally found a mutual friend who said they are still in Haiti. A cousin here is trying to find out more.
I picture her standing there in a Brooklyn bakery on Christmas Eve and I close my eyes and hold my breath and ask the universe to please return her kindness.
“Our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children. And we are all mortal” ~ John Kennedy
27 comments:
Indeed, Indeed! This is such a horrendous tragedy...I pray your friend is okay, my dear.
Like you, I really mistrust a lot of these BIG organizations...But I too support Doctors Without Borders and I know they do what they say they do and they do NOT have a HUGE Overhead, etc....So, that IS what I am going to do in regard to Haiti...Thanks for all those GREAR suggestions, my dear....!
I Love that Kennedy quote...And it is so very true
This may be the worst tragedy of my lifetime, if the early figures that I read yesterday were correct of hundred of thousands of deaths. Worse even than the 04 tsunami. I’m just trying to send my prayers and positive energy to them. They were already the poorest country in the world with people having to eat mud mixed with flour to survive. How…….
Do you happen to know about the texting thing? Where they send $10 and just send it to your cell phone bill? If I were really in the US or Costa Rica I really would try to make it down there to help. This….is unbelievable. I pray that your friend is safe...
for them who won’t copy and paste
A friend of mine served with the Red Cross and was very dissatisfied with how it was run regarding the preferential trement some of the people needing help received over others.
Hi Lady Dianne!
Thank you, thank you, thank you for sharing this information with us...you're a true angel!
..."and ask the universe to please return her kindness"...
Amen.
X ya dear lady!
And I am making the same request .. please if you hear how she and her family are let us know xox
There is so much need. I don't have a personal connection like you do, but we are all connected. I love your quote.
Thanks for the donation information. I have already donated to the Red Cross, knowing that they have emergancy packets ready to go in their warehouses. But the important thing is to find a way to help.
Thanks for sharing this timely information in the face of the devastation in Haiti ... Like Linda my donation went to the Red Cross. My prayers are continual.
Hugs and blessings,
There was already such terrible poverty there. I can't imagine what the damage is really like from the pictures... how these people are finding anything to eat/ using the toilet/ safe place to sleep.
I do agree about how little of our money gets to the real destination when we contribute to charities. And I do think that Doctors without Borders has to be one of the very best, particularly in this case.
Dianne, you are an angel. Thanks for getting the information out there. I hope your friend and her family are safe.
I don't know how I missed this until just now, but I did.
Thank you for your very thoughtful--and informative post. One always feels so helpless during terrible disasters like this. I was going to give money to the Red Cross--I'm glad to send it to an organization that can do more good, though.
I hope your friend and her family are okay. . .
Thank you, Dianne. You're a gem. I tried donating via Canadian Red Cross this morning.. but with the same concerns. Internet lines were overworked, I guess and I don't think the transaction went through. I'll select one of these now. Sending best thoughts for your friend and her family.
Thoughts and prayers to your friend and her family. And everyone else down there.
Doctors Without Borders was the first name that popped into my mind when I heard about the quake, and that's where my money went.
I am deeply saddened with had happened to Haiti. This is such a very tragic incident. People of Haiti need our help now. Let us set aside our conflicts and arguments to help them. I hope your friend is okay. Prayers can help.
Thank you. I have always gone through the Red Cross, but after this, I will reconsider. The people of Haiti need our help in every way possible. Will keep your friend and her family in my thoughts.
Amen.... too much goes to administration for non-profit "humanitarian" organizations. Don't even get me started on government and taxes....
What a mess.
I wish you could broadcast that list to the world.
How tragic it all is...thank you for listing those organizations...I hope all is well with your friend....
ON an aside..what are your thoughts about Robertson's comments about Haiti? He's a piece of work isn't he.
Tragic. I cannot even imagine. Sending prayers.
Thanks for stopping by. I am always open for company!
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I agree with you on Doctor's without borders.
This tragic event has left me feeling broken. I'm sitting here in my den surrounded by so much wealth (in comparison) and I feel impotent. All I can do is offer prayers and money. They had so little and then they lost that too.
Next week is the Awards Of Excellence for the company I do business with. This year it is in the DR.
An email went out this week telling everyone who is attending (not me I do not get to go) to bring clothing and food items with them and it will all be collected and sent across the border to Haiti.
I thought that was a good thing.
Doctors without Borders is a wonderful organization
Oh I do hope you've heard news of your friend by now. It is a cruel tragedy to befall a place still not recovered from 4 hurricanes not 2 years ago.
OXFAM and MSF are my favoured charities. I have always believed they used donations to best effect, so I'm glad to know they are on your list.
Thanks for this list. Knowing that so little of the money donated actually goes to the intended recipients has kept me from donating at times. Now when charities call I always ask them what percentage actually goes to the needy. If the number isn't high enough, I decline.
Thanks for visiting my blog via POTW.
I pray for your friend & her family too & all of the people of Haiti. My son's school friend lost a cousin while another neighbors family is miraculously alright. Thanks for the great info. I have always heard good things about Drs w/o borders.
I support both Oxfam and action aid; good to know they a decent charities.
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