There is a shortfall of funds for the world food program in Darfur, see here to help

[Wesley Clark]

I have gotten permission from the mods to post this so:

In Darfur (http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/IRIN/a62f0fae0fedbaab0a8f9bf677082492.htm) there is a shortfall of $224 million for food aid. Maybe developed countries will pick up on this and do something, maybe not. However I'd like to at least do something to try to help.

If you wish to donate One charity (http://www.wfp.org/how_to_help/support_wfp/online.html) you can look into is the world food program. However I do not know how to donate via credit card to them so I will donate to the Friends of the world food programme (http://www.friendsofwfp.org/site/pp.asp?c=7oIJLSOsGpF&b=245179) as they take credit cards.

If you don't have/want to donate money that is ok, but there is a website called the hunger site (http://www.thehungersite.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/CTDSites), just by clicking on the link you can donate food for people.

So I shall get the ball rolling. I'll donate $20, which seeing that i'm reasonably poor see here (http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=318900) others can donate $10 or $20 themselves. I'll also be sure to click on the link at the hunger site everyday until I get bored and decide to go back to watching Roseanne on my TiVo.

Ratings for theFriends of the world food programme (http://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm/bay/search.summary/orgid/7696.htm) are good with 90% of income going to program expenses. The world food programme itself is a legitimate organization that collects money from many developed nations directly, so they are legitimate too.

[Measure for Measure]

A list of organizations working in Darfur can be found here (http://www.crisisgroup.org/home/index.cfm?id=2756&l=1).

Some of your donation will go towards fundraising. Fair enough, it's a legitimate expense. Those wishing that share to be as small as possible might be interested in the work of The American Institute of Philanthropy (http://www.charitywatch.org/). Their list of recommended organizations operating in Africa are here (http://www.charitywatch.org/hottopics/africa_crises.html).

ICG's list cross-referenced with AIP's charity guide follows. I'll simply skip the organizations that are not rated.

Africare A
CARE A-
Catholic Relief Services A-
International Rescue Committee A
Doctors Without Borders
(or Medecin sans Frontier) A
Mercy Corps B+
Oxfam A-
United States Fund for Unicef C-
US Committee for Refugees A-


Though it may not be clear from the above list, AIP is a pretty tough grader: over 100 charities receive an "F".

The International Crisis Group's briefing on Darfur is available here (http://www.crisisgroup.org/home/index.cfm?id=3060&l=1).

One advocacy group is located at http://www.savedarfur.org/ . They sell green reminder bracelets with the catchy phrase, "Not On Our Watch".

Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times devoted his June 5 and June 7 columns (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/opinion/editorialsandoped/oped/columnists/nicholasdkristof/index.html) to this subject. (reg req). Get them while they're still available. Kristof also has an interesting set of multimedia presentations (http://query.nytimes.com/search/query?srcht=s&srchst=m&vendor=&query=%22Nicholas+D.+Kristof%22).

The phone number of the White House switchboard is 202-456-1414.

Your representative's contact info can be found at http://www.vote-smart.org/ .

Interested members can join me for a debate on Darfur in GD.