Since we received news of the devastating earthquake in Haiti on Monday, there have been many diaries on the recent and recommended lists, led by the the terrific posts of Dallasdoc, cosmic debris, Norbrook, betson08, and ALifeLessFrightening. The focus of these diaries has been to share information on ways to help the victims.
Last night, I tried out a new idea: a liveblog Q & A session to answer folks most pressing questions about disaster relief and the efforts currently underway in Haiti. I expected that it would get a few comments and then roll off the recent diary list into the dustpin of blog history. Instead, you guys had me up until the wee hours, racing to respond to your comments and questions as fast I could think and type.
During the course of our conversation, there were two topics that came up again and again in different forms, and it is my experience that these issues always come up when a devastating disaster hits the front pages. So after recapping a little about what we discussed last night, I want to focus on the following tonight and over the weekend:
- When and to whom to donate, and what kinds of donations are most useful
- How and when to volunteer, whether you have clinical or technical skills or just a huge progressive heart
The original idea for a diary or diaries was conceived earlier this week when I posted the following comment for the community:
I have spent a fair amount of time in Haiti and have experience in disaster relief. I was thinking of posting an insider's guide to disaster relief so that folks would have a better understanding of what it is actually like on the ground, how relief is rolled out and how their contributions and donations can be best directed at different stages of the effort to be put to the best use -- i.e. directed to which kinds of organizations and why. If you think that there would be any interest in this, I will begin work on it tonight and try to post tomorrow.
If anyone else wants to weigh in, I'd love your thoughts. It's a lot of work and I am tight on time, so if others don't find it helpful/interesting, I'll abandon the idea.
Thanks!
Many kossacks liked the idea and encouraged me to get something up ASAP. So last night, I posted my experiement of sorts and said:
I began to write this diary by trying to share much of my experience with disaster relief. Since time is of the essence and I am writing on the fly, it began to resemble a textbook (a disorganized textbook). So in the interest of getting this up as quickly as possible and meeting the community’s needs as best as possible, I’ve decided to try an experiment: I will post a brief introduction and then stick around for however long it takes to answer specific questions. This means that the comments may be long and it may take me a while to answer all of them, but I think that this will be the quickest way for me to serve the community as it tries to make sense out of supporting and understanding the relief efforts underway in Haiti.
I kicked off the discussion by making a few basic points:
First, there are different types of disasters, which for purposes of this diary, can be divided into man-made and natural disasters. Man-made are basically conflicts and wars, which develop or occur over time and often lead to displaced populations. While I am glad to answer questions on these, the focus of this diary will be natural disasters, and earthquakes, in particular.
We all know what a natural disasters are, but we may not always think about the differences between the types of disasters. Hurricanes, for example, are predictable, and vulnerable locations often have advance warning of impending disaster, which plays a huge role not just in protection of life and property, but also in disaster preparedness. Assets and personnel can be pre-positioned close to a developing impact zone and, perhaps more important, planning and preparations can often be made over the space of a few days, which, when you are racing the clock to save lives, is the equivalent of years.
Earthquakes, of course, happen without warning, so we don’t know when and where they will strike, and don’t know anything about their severity before they strike. In my mind, a devastating earthquake is the most difficult situation to deal with in disaster relief.
I went on to provide a few indicators to help kossacks really understand what we are talking about when we say that Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere:
• The average person over the age of 15 has 2.8 years of education.
• Only 20% of eligible children attend secondary school.
• Approximately 40% of the population is illiterate.
• Over half the country does not have access to potable water.
• 54% of the population lives in abject poverty.
• 80% of the population lives below the poverty line.
To anchor the conversation, I offered some suggestions of topics that seem to come up repeatedly when natural disasters strike, and then I asked the community what was on its collective mind.
We had a far-ranging discussion, which I suggest you peruse before joining in tonight. It will help to bring you up to speed and to orient you.
Among other things, we discussed:
* The role of water, how it will arrive and be distributed, and especially the role that it will play given that clean water has never been available to most Haitians
* The problems with dropping food and water, other means of distribution, and the importance of safety and security in the distribution of goods and services
* Exactly how disaster relief is organized -- how is it coordinated, who is in charge, who participates, timelines, etc.
And then there was the question that came up again and again in different ways: How can I help?
I want to begin the discussion on donating and volunteering by setting up a framework within which each person can make an informed decision for herself or himself.
Earthquake disaster relief is comprised of three distinct and partially parallel phases: search and rescue, recovery, and rebuilding and reconstruction. The first lasts a maximum of two weeks (I am happy to expand on this in the comments but want to make this intro as concise as possible). The second begins immediately but becomes the first priority after search and rescue draws to a close. The third can begin at any point and is focused on the long-term development and rehabilitation of the population and the disaster zone.
It is important to understand the phases because different actors play key roles in each phase and because donations and volunteers are needed at each juncture. In the search and rescue phases, governments, military, and multilaterals are the key players. They are the only actors with the assets, expertise, knowledge, personnel and financial resources to be able to conduct the activities needed to create access to the disaster area and assist in the extraction and treatment of the injured and wounded. A small group of NGOs, that specialize in disaster work, provide goods and services that dovetail with "official" entities during this stage. An example would be Doctors without Borders or the Red Cross. In the search and rescue stage, much of the financing comes from the "official" providers: you cannot contribute to a military operation, for example. You can, of course, contribute to the NGOs.
Most NGO's that participate in the search and rescue phase also continue to participate in the next two stages of disaster relief. Doctors without Borders, for example, had ongoing operations in Haiti, as did the Red Cross. Many other NGOs take on increasingly important roles in Phase #2 and Phase #3. In the last phase, rebuilding and redevelopment, most of the NGOs that were previously on the ground doing development work, return to their previous programs and services, albeit in an altered climate and perhaps with different projects and timelines.
So without going into too much detail here, you can see that contributions are important in all phases of disaster relief, and that it is helpful to think about which organizations will be playing which role at which juncture in the process.
If I haven't thoroughly confused you, I'd like to address your questions and provide some specific examples (but not recommendations) in the comments section.
Before I open the floor to questions, I do have one very important thing to say about donations:
The most important donation that you can make to any organization at any phase is CASH. Cash enables the organization to use the funds most effectively, to purchase exactly what it needs when it needs, to buy in bulk/wholesale, to stimulate the local or neighboring economies when and where possible, etc. The corollary to this is the following: It is not helpful, and is actually a burden and waste, to send shipments of new or used anything into the disaster zone. The holds true for clothing, medical supplies, toiletries, toys, etc. Even if you are co-ordinating with your entire college campus and sending a container full of blankets and towels. Please do not do it.
Logisitics are the biggest challenge in delivering aid during and following a natural disaster. We all recognize the problem of clearing roads, moving equipment, etc. What most people don't think about is that if they send in-kind goods, the packages have to be opened, sorted and stored, using precious space and time. Space and time taken away from processing and warehousing thousands of boxes of plaster bandage rolls for casts, tens of thousands of doses of antibiotics and anitfungals, oral rehydration salts to save babies from dehydration and death, etc. You get the picture. More than once, I have opened packages with used children’s toys and half-full bottles of Advil or Nuprin and dissolved into tears as I imagine the family that packed those personal belongings in the hope of bringing some comfort or help to a family less lucky. In my mind's eye, I can see the child who made his parents cry when he offered his favorite stuffed animal to a child in a place that he will likely never see in his lifetime. And I know that almost all of those donations will probably never leave the storage facility and will likely be thrown away once the facility is closed or needed for another purpose.
So please, no collections at your church, in the neighborhood or at your school. Not to go to Haiti. The only exception to this would be during the rebuilding and redevelopment phase, if you have direct contact with a small organization, like a church or an orphanage, and they have provided you with a list of needs, and will be receiving the articles directly and making good use of them, and you are confident in that knowledge, by all means, open your hearts and dig as deeply as you can. In a direct partnership, fulfilling wish lists can be enormously gratifying. But please wait until commercial shipping is available and your packages are not taking up space on flights stocked with critical and precious relief supplies.
So the floor’s open and, once again, I will stay as late as I can, accounting for the exhaustion hangover from last night. I welcome all questions, though I may refer you to last night’s diary for some answers on certain topics. And of course, we'll be focusing on volunteering in my next diary over the weekend.
Thanks!