Book Benefit For Haiti
On January 12, a magnitude 7.0 earthquake devastated Haiti. In the capital of Port-au-Prince, many buildings collapsed, burying tens of thousands and leaving a million homeless. To date, an estimated 200,000 have died, and many more are threatened by lack of food, clean water, shelter, and basic medical care. Haiti is among the poorest nations in the world, and is in dire need of aid, both immediately and into the future.
You Can Help
Not everyone has money to give, but almost everyone has a book, CD, DVD, or video game they no longer use. Books For Haiti collects and sells these, passing proceeds on to Doctors Without Borders. Founded in 1971, Doctors Without Borders is a non-profit group of doctors and nurses committed to helping people in crisis. This work extends to Haiti, where they’re on the ground providing emergency supplies, nutrition, and expert medical care to earthquake survivors.
With Books For Haiti, helping is easy. Simply choose the items to donate, and then call or email with your preferred pickup location and time, and we’ll handle the rest. So please, consider donating your unwanted things. Helping won’t cost you a thing, and won’t take more than five minutes of your time. But for the people of Haiti it will mean a world of difference.
Learn More: www.booksforhaiti.com (https://www.booksforhaiti.com)
www.doctorswithoutborders.com (https://www.doctorswithoutborders.com)
Jonah Gendron
[email protected]
603.831.1333
"Mad" Miles
02-09-2010, 05:13 PM
So, uh, not to rain on your parade... But how many of these books will be in French or Haitian Creole? Those are the languages commonly spoken in Haiti.
English? Not so much.
And on a more general note about disaster relief. Anybody collecting hard goods (clothes, bedding, tents, medical supplies, books, toiletries, food, etc.) are basically wasting money, time and person power.
Every single international disaster relielf organization emphasizes this. The cost of sorting, packing and shipping, is far beyond what the delivered item is worth to the people on the ground who are suffering. Chances are it won't even get there.
Cash allows things to be bought locally, a more efficient use of funds and people power, and it stimulates the local economy.
Yes, everyone wants to help, and those without funds may feel better about donating something, but most of that stuff just sits in warehouses, clogs up the system, and is either discarded or distributed locally (meaning in our case, in the Bay Area) down the road, if it isn't just tossed in the trash.
They won't refuse a donation, but you're dreaming if you think it's going to end up thousands of miles away in a timely manner. Bulk lots of donated food and water might get there, but only if coordinated with a major agency at a very high level. We're talking corporation to non-profit disaster relief corporation level.
Every disaster is followed by the Second Disaster, the huge logistical mess of getting things needed to those in need ASAP.
That's a major reason why the news from Port Au Prince and Gonaives has been so horrific. Lots of stuff headed to Haiti, fairly quickly, but getting it to those in need on the ground? A whole other, much more complicated problem.
Now, if you were collecting books in French (which not every Haitian is fluent in, especially the most destitute, meaning most people there) and large bulk lots were being shipped by donated transport, I could see the efficacy in this appeal (and the others like it we've seen over the last few weeks) but I doubt that is what is going to happen. At least from this end.
Please, if I'm wrong about this, explain how and why. I'm not happy to be delivering such sobering news.
But it's one of the many things I picked up in my three years as the Administrative Assistant for Administrative Services at the American Red Cross, Sonoma County Chapter, from 1998 to 2001. Essentially I was the Office Manager, Facilities Manager and Executive Assistant to the CEO and the Board of Directors. Without the title, pay and power of course, but that's what my job encompassed.
I was the lucky guy who got to dump boxes of expired can goods into the trash after some well-meaning church representative insisted we take delivery. And that was only after they (the boxes of canned goods) sat around taking up useful space for a few weeks. This was not something my boss wanted advertised by the way.
I tried kickstarting an International Disaster Services program here in Sonoma County in my last year there. What I learned is that unless someone has highly technical skills (Doctor, Nurse, Civil Engineer), or has an advanced degree in international aid and years of on the ground experience, one is unlikely to be deployed to a disaster site outside of the U.S.
Mostly because there are plenty of volunteers already there who speak the language, know the customs and are in desperate need for employment in their local communities. Good hearted volunteers with no other specific skills need not apply.
Sad, but true.
You want to help the people of Haiti?
Donate funds to an on the ground non-profit with a proven record.
The ones that seem to keep getting mentioned are Partners In Health, Medecin Sans Frontieres (aka Doctors Without Borders), Oxfam and if you want the best bang for your buck, inspite of well publicized snafus over the years, the ICRC (aka International Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies).
And lobby our government for efficient and long term aid to rebuild (and in this particular case actually build for the first time) Haitian society.
"Mad" Miles
:burngrnbounce:
You raise some great points Miles, but I think you've misread my post.
Books For Haiti isn't sending books, CDs, DVDs, and video games to Haiti. We're collecting these things to sell online, via Amazon, Ebay, Abebooks, etc. The money raised will then be donated to Doctors Without Borders, a non-profit with a stellar track record of putting money directly to work in services on the ground.
So yes, collecting a bunch of books -- especially books in English -- to actually send to Haiti would be very foolish. But that's not our plan. We're selling the books, etc that are donated, and then donating to Doctors Without Borders, who will use that money to provide nutrition, shelter, supplies, and medical care.
Jonah Gendron
Books For Haiti
ps: This is based out of Petaluma, California, in case anyone's wondering.
So, uh, not to rain on your parade... But how many of these books will be in French or Haitian Creole? Those are the languages commonly spoken in Haiti.
English? Not so much.
And on a more general note about disaster relief. Anybody collecting hard goods (clothes, bedding, tents, medical supplies, books, toiletries, food, etc.) are basically wasting money, time and person power.
Every single international disaster relielf organization emphasizes this. The cost of sorting, packing and shipping, is far beyond what the delivered item is worth to the people on the ground who are suffering. Chances are it won't even get there.
Cash allows things to be bought locally, a more efficient use of funds and people power, and it stimulates the local economy.
Yes, everyone wants to help, and those without funds may feel better about donating something, but most of that stuff just sits in warehouses, clogs up the system, and is either discarded or distributed locally (meaning in our case, in the Bay Area) down the road, if it isn't just tossed in the trash.
They won't refuse a donation, but you're dreaming if you think it's going to end up thousands of miles away in a timely manner. Bulk lots of donated food and water might get there, but only if coordinated with a major agency at a very high level. We're talking corporation to non-profit disaster relief corporation level.
Every disaster is followed by the Second Disaster, the huge logistical mess of getting things needed to those in need ASAP.
That's a major reason why the news from Port Au Prince and Gonaives has been so horrific. Lots of stuff headed to Haiti, fairly quickly, but getting it to those in need on the ground? A whole other, much more complicated problem.
Now, if you were collecting books in French (which not every Haitian is fluent in, especially the most destitute, meaning most people there) and large bulk lots were being shipped by donated transport, I could see the efficacy in this appeal (and the others like it we've seen over the last few weeks) but I doubt that is what is going to happen. At least from this end.
Please, if I'm wrong about this, explain how and why. I'm not happy to be delivering such sobering news.
But it's one of the many things I picked up in my three years as the Administrative Assistant for Administrative Services at the American Red Cross, Sonoma County Chapter, from 1998 to 2001. Essentially I was the Office Manager, Facilities Manager and Executive Assistant to the CEO and the Board of Directors. Without the title, pay and power of course, but that's what my job encompassed.
I was the lucky guy who got to dump boxes of expired can goods into the trash after some well-meaning church representative insisted we take delivery. And that was only after they (the boxes of canned goods) sat around taking up useful space for a few weeks. This was not something my boss wanted advertised by the way.
I tried kickstarting an International Disaster Services program here in Sonoma County in my last year there. What I learned is that unless someone has highly technical skills (Doctor, Nurse, Civil Engineer), or has an advanced degree in international aid and years of on the ground experience, one is unlikely to be deployed to a disaster site outside of the U.S.
Mostly because there are plenty of volunteers already there who speak the language, know the customs and are in desperate need for employment in their local communities. Good hearted volunteers with no other specific skills need not apply.
Sad, but true.
You want to help the people of Haiti?
Donate funds to an on the ground non-profit with a proven record.
The ones that seem to keep getting mentioned are Partners In Health, Medicin Sans Frontieres (aka Doctors Without Borders), Oxfam and if you want the best bang for your buck, inspite of well publicized snafus over the years, the ICRC (aka International Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies).
And lobby our government for efficient and long term aid to rebuild (and in this particular case actually build for the first time) Haitian society.
"Mad" Miles
:burngrnbounce:
"Mad" Miles
02-09-2010, 06:18 PM
Jonah,
Thank you for your quick clarification. I sit corrected. And thank you for organizing financial aid for the people of Haiti. They certainly need it!
"Mad" Miles
:burngrnbounce: