Non-Cash Donations are Hindering the Red Cross
Haiti is an island nation between Jamaica, Puerto Rico and Cuba with a history of poverty and struggle. A major problem for Haitians is their national debt, much of which was rung up under the watch of self-satisfying dictatorship. Haiti has only very basic infrastructure at the best of times. Enter into that equation the recent devastating earthquakes.
On the Red Cross Blog, Claire Durham explains in Help Not Hinder Haiti the differences between donations of cash compared to goods offered in the best of intentions. The simple fact of the matter is that the logistics and management of critical disaster areas requires sound organisational work. Palettes of rotting or out of date food, inappropriate medicine and disparate equipment pose a gamut of issues for aid organisations on the ground.
Examples from emergency areas are good. Rooms filled with inappropriate drugs translate to patients without rooms. Often the drugs are less than worthless, out of date and need to be destroyed after the emergency subsides. Palettes of food and blankets become obstacles that aid agencies have to navigate at airports and shipping terminals. Everything needs to be stored somewhere, managed and secured. Similarly, if every tent is different and every piece of machinery is unique then how do you train people to use them efficiently, how do you fix broken pieces or make swift inroads into providing aid outcomes? The problem is that much of this non-monetary aid makes us feel good in giving but it creates more work than its worth to even discuss over the telephone (because its thousands of telephone calls, not one).
The effectiveness of aid provision is all about the streamlined mechanisms of administering a logistic event. Its like a war without bringing the guns along. Food sourced from nearby countries to keep the economy idling, standardised equipment to maximise the efficiency of people helped to dollars invested. Aid organisations keep localised emergency stores around the world in expectation of these disasters and that keeps the transportation costs lower than flying second hand blankets from the UK or the US or Australia.
While I have issues with the amount of money that goes to administration of agencies such as the Red Cross and particularly to the high wages of the echelon management – Claire’s commentary about money versus goods in a crisis situation makes sense. If you do have goods then take them into charities that will sell them for cash and which donate that cash onto the Haitian emergency.
All-in-all I know that most people want to help others in their time of need. Its just a matter of understanding the best way we can help.
