Links for donating towards tsunami disaster relief

[beowabbit]

Howdy. Here are a few links I’ve seen in other people’s journals through which you can donate to organizations helping with disaster relief after the devastating tsunami in south and southeast Asia:

• Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF). They’re who I’m about to donate to. (Thanks to derien for the mention.)
• American Friends Service Committee, as recommended by bubblebabble.
• And Amazon currently have a button to donate to the American Red Cross on their front page. I personally don’t like Amazon as a company, and have very mild pricklies about the Red Cross, but I didn’t want to leave that link out.
• Edit: Wex and simonbillenness suggest Oxfam America; see their comments below. simonbillenness works for them. If I’d thought of them earlier I might have given to them instead of MSF, or split my contribution.
• Edit: keyne points to the American Institute of Philanthropy’s article “The Best Way to Assist in Providing Emergency Relief in Southeast Asia”, which lists and rates charitable organizations helping with the relief effort.

If people have links to donate to other organizations that they strongly recommend, please comment with links (and I may edit this post to include them).

Comments

[houseboi.livejournal.com]

I have a thing for doctors, so my first thought was MSF as well. They do some amazing work, from what I've read.

oxfam

[(Anonymous)]

NPR cited Oxfam (http://www.oxfam.org/eng/) as an organization worthy of donations for this and other efforts. Reasons:

Oxfam works directly with affected people - some organizations (e.g. UNICEF or ICRC) work through layers of government.

Oxfam already has an extensive network 'on the ground' in the affected countries. They have local workers and local contacts already in place.

Oxfam has a long track record of making a very high percentage of donated money actually reach the intended causes.

--wex

[simonbillenness.livejournal.com]

Might I suggest my own employer, Oxfam America?

More information here: http://www.oxfamamerica.org/whatwedo/emergencies/asian_floods_2004

[water-childe.livejournal.com]

I've been thinking about making a donation, but somehow that doesn't sit well with me. I'm kind of low income and don't have a lot of money to donate. Does anyone know anything about local agencies who might need volunteers to help with organizing outreach, and aid for those affected?
I'd really rather donate a day of my time then just through cash at the problem. Time I have. Money? Not so much.

[keyne.livejournal.com]

See The Best Way to Assist in Providing Emergency Relief in Southeast Asia, by the American Institute of Philanthropy, a charity-rating organization. They tell you which ones have a track record in the region and use their money effectively (and Oxfam, Doctors without Borders, the AFSC and the Red Cross are on the list).

[chienne-folle.livejournal.com]

I donated to the Red Cross before I saw this, and now I'm wondering what it is about the Red Cross that makes you twitchy. If they're doing something untoward, I'd like to know for the future.

Cory

[beowabbit]

They’re not doing anything untoward that I know of (other than taking blood from straight people who have unprotected sex with a new partner every week, and not from me, who have never had intercourse without a condom and haven’t had cunnilingus or fellatio without barriers in more than a decade), but I have an impression of them as being fairly large and entrenched and bureaucratic. I’m not sure exactly where I’ve picked up this impression from, but I have a feeling that a relatively high fraction of their budget does towards overhead compared with other NGOs and nonprofits. (Of course, probably some of that has to do with their quasi-official status; I’m sure it takes a lot of bureaucracy to interface with governments, the UN, and treaty organizations in the way they do.)

But more importantly, wow! You have a LiveJournal account! That's awesome! My journal will now be slightly more entertaining to you from time to time. :-)