WHAT EXACTLY ARE THE RELIEF ORGANIZATIONS DOING?

[WITH A MASSIVE OUTPOURING OF DONATED FUNDS COMES ACCOUNTABILITY: WHAT EXACTLY IS YOUR ORGANIZATION DOING WITH THE PUBLIC'S MONEY?  DON'T SPEAK IN PLATITUDES.  IF YOU CAN SHOW US PICTURES OF DEVASTATED PEOPLE, YOU CAN TELL US EXACTLY HOW AND WHERE YOU ARE SPENDING THE FUNDS YOU HAVE RAISED]

THIS PAGE WILL BE PERIODICALLY UPDATED (January 4, 2005 at 10:53 AM CST)

The money is now flowing to a number of relief organizations that are providing aid to South Asia earthquake-tsunamis victims.  That's good.  But what exactly is each organization doing?  We decided to take a look at press releases to learn exactly...

Normally, we advertise our product in this space.  Today, we simply ask that you make a contribution to  the disaster relief organization of your choice.  Thank you.

what each organization is doing with your money.  Our focus is on specifics, not generalities.

Action Against Hunger

December 31, 2004 Press Release:  Provided water equipment in Sri Lanka.

December 27, 2004 Press Release:  Focus is on Sri Lanka.

American Friends Service Committee

December 30, 2004 Web Update:  AFSC is supporting 40 Indonesian medical doctors working in remote parts of Aceh and northern Sumatra in the worst hit areas.

American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee

December 30, 2004 Press Release, JDC Raises More Than $1 Million Through Non-Sectarian South Asia Tsunami Relief Appeal:  JDC will allocate the funds it raises through this effort to partner organizations on the ground in South Asia. It will soon begin to support agencies that are best equipped to address critical areas of need that have not been adequately met.

American Jewish World Services

Webpage Update:  AJWS is currently working with 24 non-governmental, community-based organizations in the region to assess needs and provide emergency relief and reconstruction. AJWS has provided community development support to these local groups for several years.  We are particularly focusing our efforts on providing direct material relief to the poorest families in affected areas, including providing food, water storage containers, cooking supplies, blankets, temporary shelters, bedding, and school supplies. Trauma counseling for children and surviving family members will also be provided.

Organizations indicates that has raised $2.0 million.

American Red Cross

January 3, 2005 Press Release, Actress Sandra Bullock Donates $1 Million To Red Cross International Response Fund   

January 1, 2005 Press Release, American Red Cross Response to Southern Asia Disaster    Organization is providing water sanitation services, family linking and reunification, and relief supply distribution

Americares

December 31, 2004 Press Release, Americares Airlift Arrives in Sri Lanka; Medical Aid is Distributed in Critical Areas   "bringing 30,000 pounds of medical and water purification supplies, as well as an emergency response team"

Care

January 3, 2005 Press Release, CARE Emergency Teams to Help 500,000 People in Indonesia's Hardest-hit Region    CARE is operating in 14 of the largest camps, with populations of 1,000 people or more. CARE staff are distributing more than 200,000 safe water systems in the days immediately following the disaster, and we expect to provide safe water for 500,000 people a month — a total of 1.8 million bottles of chlorine solution.

Catholic Relief Services

Web Update

In India.  Catholic Relief Services and partner Caritas India responded immediately to the emergency by providing life-saving food, medicine and shelter in the worst-affected districts. With our partner Caritas India, CRS is supporting 10 diocesan organizations to manage 93 relief camps sheltering more than 125,000 people. Displaced families are receiving cooked food three times a day, clothing, clean water and medical assistance, as required.

In Indonesia.  CRS, Save the Children-US, Jesuit Refugee Services and the International Catholic Migration Commission are coordinating the delivery of survival kits-which include kitchen utensils, hygiene items, blankets, sleeping mats, water storage cans and plastic sheeting, to 755 families in the Aceh province.

In Sri Lanka.  CRS has no operational presence in Sri Lanka, but we do have a network of partners with local Church and Caritas agencies.  CRS has recently committed $1 million to purchase and distribute much-needed relief items such as soap, jerry cans, kitchen sets, and bed sheets/sarongs. These items will be distributed to those in camps who have been displaced by the floods.

In Thailand.  CRS contributed an initial $25,000 to CRS partner organizations the Catholic Organization for Emergencies and Refugees of the Catholic Bishops Conference of Thailand for their initial emergency relief response.

Direct Relief International

January 3, 2005  Press Release  An emergency air shipment of 7 tons of medical supplies and medicines was picked up today by FedEx, which has donated ground and air transportation to deliver the material to Columbo, Sri Lanka.  A shipment containing over $1.3 million in medicines, equipment, and supplies will depart Tuesday for the coalition of four Indian nongovernmental organizations working in Tamil Nadu and Andra Pradesh. The shipment is destined for Chenai, India.

Doctors Without Borders

January 3, 2005 Press Release, MSF Continues Medical Aid Operation in Ach

Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) medical teams returned yesterday by helicopter to Lhok Timon along the west coast of Banda Aceh to provide medical consultations.

International Medical Corps 

January 2, 2005 Press Release, Tsunami relief: Private donors underwrite airlift capacity in South Asia; Chartered flight leaves Jakarta Tuesday morning

In coordination with local partners and other relief agencies, IMC plans to conduct mobile clinics with outreach to affected populations; secure supplies of clean drinking water; distribute hygiene and sanitation         kits; distribute food; provide psychosocial counseling and support to individuals and families; and provide generators for temporary shelters and health posts/facilities.

IMC has worked in Indonesia since 2000 providing emergency and primary health care to victims of violence in the Malukus, West and Central Kalimantan, Madura Island, Sumatra and North and Central Sulawesi,including psychosocial services to survivors and victim             families of the Bali and Jakarta bombings.

January 1, 2005 Press Release, Tsunami: IMC finding solutions to logistical bottlenecks in South Asia

December 29, 2004 Press Release, Tsunami: Medical team from IMC establishes operations in Aceh, Indonesia. Pre-existing Indonesia program and trained national staff were key to quick response

Islamic Relief USA

No mention of South Asia earthquake-tsunamis on this website except for donor designation on online donation form.

Lutheran World Relief

December 31, 2004 Press Release, WAVE OF GIVING GATHERS MOMENTUM LWR pledges an additional $500,000 – millions more to come.

Lutheran World Relief has worked in the region for more than fifty years, working with and teaching the very same people that have been devastated by this disaster,” Bonds added from her office at LWR headquarters in Baltimore, Maryland. “Because of our presence there, and our close, close working relationships with our partners, we were part of feeding stations that began urgent relief within just 15 hours of the tsunami,” she continued. Finally, Bonds noted, “Donors should also know that 100% of the money they designate to WAVE OF GIVING/South Asia Tsunami goes directly to those in need.               

WAVE OF GIVING was created to give people a trusted outlet for the gifts of money they have been told is most urgently needed in South Asia. LWR, a highly rated international relief and development organization today is adding an additional $500,000 to its initial $70,000 to meet the needs of our partners in India, Sri Lanka and Indonesia to continue supplying life-saving water, food and other provisions to survivors. This third wave of giving is a small part of what LWR promises will be at least a $4 million-dollar response, or more.               

WAVE OF GIVING was created to raise $5 - $10 million dollars for our short- and long-term efforts to help rebuild lives and livelihoods in South Asia,” adds Barbara Wetsig, Associate Director for Asia at Lutheran World Relief. “The fact that we’re nearly halfway to our goal on day three is inspiring,” she continued, “we’ll be able to help tens of thousands of people and rebuild many, many communities.

Mercy Corps 

January 3, 2005 Website Update

Indonesia

There are currently 19 emergency staff deployed to affected areas of Indonesia, including Aceh, with more on the way today.

On January 2, Mercy Corps facilitated the delivery of materials donated by Indonesia Peduli (a group of humanitarian organizations and companies). The donation was put on a US government airlift to Banda Aceh. It included 1,416 bottles and boxes of children’s milk, 264 bottles of water, 19 boxes of babies milk and 1668 boxes of babies biscuits.

Mercy Corps emergency team members are purchasing critical provisions for delivery to over 10,000 families, at an estimated cost of $1 million.

Mercy Corps has procured the use of three ships (from the Indonesian government) to get food and other supplies into areas inaccessible by road or plane. Specifically, Mercy Corps is using a 27-meter Indonesian patrol boat to help in the delivery of aid. This particular boat will take goods to affected areas on the west coast of Sumatra and then is scheduled to be used as a floating 'command post' for Mercy Corps in that area.

We are shipping in 33 tons of food right now, including nutritious wheat and soy, powdered milk for babies and water.

Staff is delivering food and other essentials to over 5,000 families in Padang and the Nias Islands.

In Aceh, Mercy Corps has distributed hygienic items to over 300 people. We will soon distribute similar items to 1,000 more individuals.

India

Mercy Corps has teamed up with local organizations to carry out crucial operations. Working in close cooperation with the Disaster Mitigation Institute (DMI), we are aiding the poorest and most vulnerable of coastal India's tsunami-affected population. Our efforts are currently centered around Chennai, Annichya Gokuppam and Muthaliyarkuppam.

Our inital operations in India are:

Providing supplementary food and nutrition for children and mothers in 1000 low-income families

Supplying water storage facilities for 200 families

Delivering household item kits (cooking and sleeping items) for 600 families

Helping 400 families achieve accelerated economic recovery

Sri Lanka

Mercy Corps staff is partnering with local organizations to ensure a rapid, efficient response to that nation's greatest needs. Immediate needs include health supplies and services, water purification materials, rebuilding of water and sanitation facilities, food, trauma counseling, clean up and access to basic services.

In Sri Lanka, relief efforts have been significantly hampered by torrential rains and flooding; three more Mercy Corps staff are en route to the capital city of Colombo to assist. We will continue to assess the situation over the next few days and provide aid and assistance in the areas where Sri Lankan families have the greatest need.

December 31, 2004 Press Release, Mercy Corps Aid Workers in Indonesia Report Huge Death Toll

International aid agency Mercy Corps has emergency humanitarian response teams in Indonesia, Sri Lanka and India with a total of 20 aid workers in the field and more on their way. The teams are also receiving administrative support from the agency’s offices in Jakarta, Indonesia.

Mercy Corps’ Jakarta office has received a donation of three 28-meter boats that will be used to distribute supplies and visit remote offshore islands that have not received any external aid to date. The agency also plans to distribute pumps to towns that will help remove salt contamination to provide clean drinking water.In India, Mercy Corps has teamed up with a local organization, Disaster Mitigation Initiative (DMI), to help carry out operations. Mercy Corps is supporting DMI in aiding the poorest and most vulnerable of the affected population on the seashore (in Chennai, Annichya Gokuppam and Muthaliyarkuppam in Villupuram districts) through food and nutrition projects for children and mothers, water storage, livelihood relief and provision of basic household items such as bedding and cooking utensils. Mercy Corps supported and trained DMI during the Gujarat earthquake in 2001.

Donations from the public have set new records at Mercy Corps. The agency has been astonished by the public’s generosity for this tragedy. To date, donations have totaled more than $5 million, all of which is earmarked for the SE Asia relief effort.

Operation USA

January 2, 2005 Web Update

We are sending relief shipments of medicines, including a donation of several million dollars worth of antibiotics and anti-malarials from Brother's Brother Foundation , water purification systems, and nutritional and shelter supplies, which are leaving Los Angeles for Sri Lanka, India and  Indonesia on donated United Airlines and Cathay Pacific Airways flights.

One of our Board Members is already in the region giving us first-hand needs assessments and coordinating logistics with local partners, many of whom we have worked with in the past.    

We have already made $85,000 worth of grants to local organizations in India and Sri Lanka for health, sanitation, water purification, and nutrition projects.                                          

Our mobile medical clinic in Tamil Nadu, on the east coast of India, is providing medical care to survivors and is being run by our long time partner Vivekanand Medical Research Society.

December 31, 2004 Press Release, OPERATION USA RESPONDS TO ASIA QUAKE & TSUNAMI: Port of Los Angeles Warehouse is Supply Base for Relief Flights on United and Cathay Pacific Airlines Over Next Two Weeks. Mobile medical clinic serving victims in India; Doctors on the ground in Sri Lanka.

OXFAM America

January 3, 2005, Press Release, Donor Generosity Fuels Oxfam Operations in Three Asian Countries

Within hours of the disaster, Oxfam workers around the world had begun assessing the damage and calculating the scope of the agency's response. Oxfam has sent two planeloads of supplies and equipment to the region, and relief operations are now under way in Sri Lanka, Indonesia, and India—three of the countries worst-hit by the tsunami, which is estimated to have killed as many as 150,000 people.

Oxfam's response is two-fold: providing food, water, sanitation, and other short-term measures to meet urgent needs and prevent the spread of waterborne diseases, while also laying the groundwork for the longer-term rebuilding of communities, restoration of livelihoods, and preparedness measures to minimize death and destruction in future emergencies.

This regional disaster will require massive and sustained assistance to prevent more deaths and continued suffering. The first 15 days after a natural disaster are crucial. Thousands more people may die during this period if food and clean water are not delivered immediately and appropriate sanitation measures taken. Oxfam has been working on this phase of aid delivery since Dec. 26.

Oxfam has been designated as lead organization in providing clean water to people in and around Banda Aceh, Indonesia, where an estimated 90,000 people need relief aid. The agency has flown equipment to the region, now on its way by truck. With our help, our local partners are also running food kitchens and distributing food, water-purification tablets, and other urgently needed supplies.

In Sri Lanka, Oxfam has shipped 11 tons of water and sanitation equipment and supplies to Trincomalee, where it will provide clean drinking water for 50,000 families.

Save the Children

December 31, 2004 Press Release  Asian Children Getting Much Needed Relief 

Save the Children workers throughout Asia have begun delivering much-needed food, water, medicines, and shelter to thousands of children and their families that have survived one of history’s worst natural disasters

As of Friday, MacCormack said, Save the Children USA had raised more than $7 million in support of its Asian relief efforts - half of it from more than 30,000 individuals donating through its website             

In the hard-hit Aceh province of Indonesia, where Save the Children has operated health, nutrition and job-creation programs for nearly 30 years, relief shipments have arrived and staff are preparing to distribute family survival kits containing an assortment of essential items including toothbrushes, soap, detergent, clothing, kitchen ware, jerry cans for water storage, matches, mosquito nets, small stoves and plastic sheeting for shelter.

In addition, Save the Children has moved health kits into the region to serve children in about 950 villages. Each kit contains life-saving antibiotics, antimalarial drugs, bandages, fever medicine, sterilizing solution, and wound dressings.

United States Fund for UNICEF

January 4, 2005 Press Release, UNICEF Identifies Key Steps to Save Children – Calls on All Players to Prioritize Children in Massive Relief Effort Now Underway 

UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy said that UNICEF has delivered basic medicines and shelter supplies to displacement camps in Banda Aceh, the capital city, and has water purification supplies, recreation and school kits, and other vital materials en route.  She also said the UN is conducting aerial surveys of Aceh to assess the situation in outlying areas not yet reachable by road, and that measures to ensure that unaccompanied children are found, registered and cared for are underway.

January 3, 2005 Press Release, UNICEF issues initial $81 million appeal

NOTE TO CHARITIES:  The public wants to know what is happening on the ground and how money is being spent by each relief organization.  Rather than press releases, you might consider using a blog with team leaders on the ground periodically reporting in.  We know these people are extremely pressed for time, but two or three minutes a day would make a big difference in the public's understanding of what is happening.

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