During the past couple of days, my thoughts have revolved around the earthquake in Nepal and the people who faced the natural disaster and are continuing to face the aftermath of it.
The most recent UN situation report as of now (26.04.2015) has confirmed over 2200 dead and over 5800 injured and that while the total affected population has not been determined yet, 35 out of the 75 districts of Nepal have been affected.
From Sri Lanka's experience of the tsunami in 2004, the lesson that I learnt was that it is better to donate to well-known international organizations who are already functioning in the country where the disaster occurred. As the organizations will already have a working mechanism with the government concerned, this allows for more efficiency in fund transactions as well as effectiveness in reaching out to the people affected. While there are always issues with aid coordination and redistribution, this approach minimizes wastage.
I also felt that until and unless it is people based within the country organizing immediate care packages of food, water and other essentials for immediate help following the disaster, it does not make sense for those living outside the country to organize such care packages and have it transported there. It is always a logistical nightmare and there are usually not enough people to sort through stuff send in kind. Therefore, I prefer giving in cash than in kind when it comes to donating to a country where I am not residing in.
Here are a couple of links that I considered useful for those considering donating for the Nepali earthquake survivors:
(1) Global giving (thanks Gretchen for sharing the link on facebook) -http://www.globalgiving.org/projects/nepal-earthquake-relief-fund/
(2) Paypal campaign (thanks to Anjal, a Nepali friend in the UK, for sharing the link on facebook): this campaign has a selection of 15 international organizations, including Save the Children, Global giving, on its campaign page and you can choose the one you wish to donate to - https://www.paypal-donations.com/pp-charity/web.us/campaign.jsp?cid=35
And for those who want a bit more choice, do read the NYT article on their suggestions of international organizations to donate to.
While I generally recommend well-known international organizations for donating during humanitarian emergencies, I personally also look for smaller organizations, be it local or international, who are already working in the country because they probably are working in smaller areas of geographical coverage and have focused their ongoing work on fewer communities. My reasoning is that perhaps these organizations might be able to respond faster to the needs of the communities they work in, instead of having to try and work out priorities within the country as a whole that larger organizations have to work out.
As such, I thought of mentioning two such organizations:
(3) Yang-Ward foundation (thanks to Yangmali Rai for sharing this link on facebook. Yang is the founder of the US based organization working with women in Nepal and he founded it in 2013 with funds from the Clinton Global Initiative under the Resolution project. He is currently a fellow student at LSE and a fellow resident at my residence hall. I was touched by his posts on facebook where he shared the status of the community workers of his foundation as he got in touch with them to check on their welfare and particularly those who had lost their homes in the earthquake. While they have not shared updates on the website because their web administrator has also been affected by the earthquake, I hope they do so soon as that will probably help their fund-raising efforts) - http://yangward.org/getinvolved.php
(4) Live to love (thanks Nancy for sharing the link on facebook of the international organization, which I have not heard of before but where Nancy's friend in Kathmandu works at) - http://www.livetolove.org/what-s-happening-sidebar/277-help-us-help-nepal
That is all from me for now... I will share a final post this month on the 30th.
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