Earthquake in Indonesia, Flooding in the Philippines

For those of you that don't know, Padang, Indonesia was hit with an earthquake measuring at 7.6 on the Richter Scale on the 14th.  The earthquake caused widespread damage to a country that supplies our hobby with a large percentage of our fish & coral. 

As a firefighter in Galveston who volunteered during the aftermath of Hurricane Ike and other disasters, I feel for the people of Indonesia, and for the people working tirelessly to provide relief.  As I've had first hand experience with disaster relief charities (and scams), I recommend not donating to the Red Cross, and instead donating to SurfAid for those interested in helping via donation.  Below is a video provided by SurfAid regarding the disaster area:

As if that weren't enough, recent heavy flooding in the Philippines (our largest supplier of animals for the saltwater trade) was heavily flooded four days ago, putting most of the capital, Manila, under water.  More information is in the video below, or via BBC News. 

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Comments

[twitter.com/riaglo]

Hi Mike,

I'm part of the social media team at the American Red Cross. I'm curious to hear about your past experiences with disaster relief and why you wouldn't recommend donating to the Red Cross. Look forward to hearing from you!

[Captive Aquatics]

A few reasons:

1) I spent 3 days in the "disaster zone" after hurricane Ike, and never saw the Red Cross, whereas the Salvation Army was there only a few hours after our volunteer fire department, and FEMA was there before a lot of us!

2) I've tried to volunteer for Red Cross multiple times during natural disasters, and have always been turned away, despite my training and experience, and asked to simply donate money instead.

3) People I know and trust have stated that help from the Red Cross, when available, wasn't free, and that they were charged for aid.

I'm not really a fan of any charities, because I think they all exist for the same reason any entity exists: to make money. However, I think that some pocket less money than others.

In my experience, people aren't willing to donate time/effort, and would rather donate money, so I point out those disaster relief programs I see doing the most good when I'm there in person, and recommend them. Ultimately, people can do the most good by volunteering their time, because it's easy to see if time is being mis-spent - I'd rather help out than throw money at the problem.

[twitter.com/riaglo]

Mike,

I understand your concerns and would like to offer some information that hopefully addresses them…

- We were involved very deeply with disaster relief for Hurricane Ike in 2008. In an effort to improve transparency about our efforts and use of funds, we issued a report on our response efforts to hurricanes in 2008 (including Ike) that you can see here: http://www.redcross.org/portal/site/en/menuitem.d229a5f06620c6052b1ecfbf43181aa0/?vgnextoid=d0b6c08ad4981210VgnVCM10000089f0870aRCRD&vgnextfmt=default From shelters, overnight stays, and providing meals to distributing comfort kits, the Red Cross was definitely able to help alleviate some of the results of the hurricanes.

- I think that the most likely reason you were asked to donate money instead is that in the midst of disasters, we have already deployed trained volunteers who know how to work efficiently in these situations. I am sure that if you were to offer to volunteer for disaster services at the Red Cross before a situation arises, you could be trained and ready to go when something does happen.

- Red Cross aid is always free for those who need it. We try to reach the areas most affected and distribute our relief supplies accordingly.

I hope that these facts help. There are many charities and disaster relief programs out there doing a lot of good, and it’s great that you are encouraging people to help out. The Red Cross is a nonprofit organization, and although some portion of donated money goes to operating expenses, we are also committed to streamlining our operations costs. About 90 cents of every dollar that was spent last year was invested in humanitarian services or programs for those in need.

Thanks for your time and willingness to discuss this!

[Captive Aquatics]

I guess ARC just didn't arrive until 5+ days after the hurricane, then, and I missed seeing the volunteers.