Remote Area Medical is working in the zone, and I made a donation to Habitat for Humanity for long-term relief.
I’ve also heard that the various Mennonite aid organizations are very reputable, and do not proselytize although they will give spiritual aid to those who want it. http://www.umcor.org/ , run by the Methodist Church, is the same way.
Probably going with globalgiving this time. But maybe the United Way. Both are good at finding those little groups that do good but that I’d never find (or vet) on my own.
UMCOR is distributing flood relief buckets, filled with cleaning supplies for mucking out a flooded home. I made one and turned it over today. And no, you don’t have to listen to a sermon to get one!
I just finished a shift helping out in Dallas. From what I saw, baby items were the most wanted. Strollers, the bouncy chairs, and diapers/wipes. The diaper bank is a good thing (and it’s not just babies. They supply adult diapers, too).
A few other not-typically-thought-of things I saw that were needed: hearing aid batteries, pillows, and reusable shopping bags.
Here is a news story from CBS Sunday Morning about the crap that people contribute to disasters, and how much of a mess this becomes. They mentioned, for instance, that after a disaster in Africa, people sent 100,000 liters of water in the form of the cases of 24 500ml bottles that are commonly available in the US. Someone pointed out that the professional disaster relief groups could use portable water purification systems to produce the same 100,000 liters for $300 versus $300,000 to ship the bottled water to Africa. Or how some women in America wanted to send breast milk to Haiti after the earthquake there.
After the attacks of September 11, 2001 the American Red Cross held blood drives across the country for weeks.
There was no need for blood for all the people killed.
There were few seriously injured.
The blood was dumped.
Their history seems to be a litany of incompetence and financial mismanagement.
My dad was in World War II and said the Red Cross would show up and sell donuts to the soldiers.
Here is what Snopes has to say about the Red Cross selling donuts to WWII soldiers.
after 9/11 I considered giving blood, and didn’t because the local Red Cross said they had enough, and urged people to wait and donate in a few months. Yes, they took donations in the first few days, but it’s not as if they were pounding the streets looking for donors. Rather, the rest of us were desperately looking for something we could do to help.
As for the donuts…that was a long time ago. It’s a different organization run by different people doing different things today. And “they charged my dad for a donut” seems like a pretty minor complaint, even at that. It might not be the most effective organization at disaster relief. But it’s not some evil thing.
No, they were doing the stuff to soldiers back in the 70’s. Charging them for all kinds of things.
As for blood, they take your blood for free, then turn around and sell it for I think $100 a pint.
Now I’m not saying the Red Cross isn’t good at the local level but at the national level I wouldn’t trust them.
You know that it costs a lot of money to extract, test, preserves, and ship that blood to be used by someone else, right?
I would like to see a cite for what “stuff” the Red Cross was doing back in the 70s.
Yes, but it is also a money maker. Why else do they sometimes pay people to donate?
Red Cross takes my free blood “donation” and sells it. I used to give at the Community Blood Bank until I realized everybody in that room was being paid except me.
You can bet the Red Cross down in Harvey is billing somebody for any aid rendered like say the local government.