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zpdidudaFrom my elementary school friend Rocky Lopes*, former Manager of Disaster Education for the Red Cross and now a consultant on disaster education and relief:
STOP setting up clothing drives! Unsolicited material donations are frequently referred to as "the second disaster." They don't need clothes. They need medical supplies, helicopters, appropriate food (no, this does not mean you should start a canned food drive), and trained personnel. Organizations helping them need CASH. If you have donated clothes, have a yard sale and donate the proceeds.
*We reconnected on Facebook.
STOP setting up clothing drives! Unsolicited material donations are frequently referred to as "the second disaster." They don't need clothes. They need medical supplies, helicopters, appropriate food (no, this does not mean you should start a canned food drive), and trained personnel. Organizations helping them need CASH. If you have donated clothes, have a yard sale and donate the proceeds.
*We reconnected on Facebook.
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Date: 2010-01-15 03:18 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-01-15 05:17 am (UTC)People hear what they want to hear, it seems. This happens all the time with knitters, too -- a fire happens and they all want to send hand-knit/-crocheted afghans made of the cheapest scratchy acrylic yarn which does nothing to actually keep people warm. The justification always seems to be "it's for charity, and it's the effort that counts, not whether or not it's useful."
no subject
Date: 2010-01-15 06:44 am (UTC)They have GOT to be kidding...if they read any portion of the news at all, they ought to know that the airport is already backed up with more necessary relief supply planes coming in, made worse by the badly damaged and unusable main seaport dock.
And as for the food drive, how exactly do they expect the stuff to get down there? It would cost a lot more to send what most people are trying to donate than the stuff would actually be worth...I'm surprised how many people fail to grasp that concept. Better to just donate the shipping costs directly to the charity, and if they truly want to get rid of their "stuff", there are plenty of local organizations who will take it.