PHOTOS, PAGE 1

       Editor and prime reporter is Doug Terry, a veteran television and radio reporter in   Washington, DC, (details below)

DEAR AMERICA: Please stop thinking of the American Red Cross as the only private relief agency to turn to when there is a major disaster. They get most of the money, but they aren’t doing most of the work in many locations around the world.

Here’s the deal: if your heart is moved by the events in Haiti and you want to do something to help, you really have to check things out on your own. Don’t have time? Well, Partners in Health, a Boston based group that has been working in Haiti for a long time with a major presence, would be a good place to start.

What to look for: if you want to give money, look for an established agency (NGO) that is putting the most muscle into this specific effort, recovery from the earthquake. Just a look at the mission statement of the organization would be one clue. Checking their record on how much of past gifts have gone into specific relief efforts would be another way.

Many different groups have different goals that have nothing to do with helping in this situation, but rush in to try to help in a major disaster of this nature. They might not be the best to give to, because, without prior experience in the country, they might not get as much done as a group that already knows the lay of the land. Also, groups tend to express their goals in very large, broad terms, but it is important to ask just what it is they do and are doing, right now, in Haiti.

One group I looked at indicated that they aim to provide very broad assistance in terms of flights into a disaster zone, but their actual commitment is one aircraft, two flights per day, coming in from Santo Domingo. That a good service, but it is a far, far cry from answering the needs of the situation.

Another important question is whether the funds collected will go into their general operating fund or be used specifically for the Haiti disaster. In years past, the American Red Cross used disasters as a fund raising tool, with no assurance that money raised in the name of serving the needs of that event would actually go to that event.

The Clinton-Bush fund for Haiti, with a link on this site, is one general collection effort that could provide funding to a wide variety of groups and services. Here’s the problem with that, however: how quickly can they get it out? Is it going to be months before they start making grants and will they send enough to a specific group to really push the job forward? Often, the goals of those running charities are at variance with the needs on the ground. Now, with Haiti suffering one of the worst natural disasters in modern history, it would be a shame to allow that to be the case.

FROM THE NY TIMES:

 Haiti Crisis Prompts Fresh Talk of Pooling  U.S. Relief Money

By STEPHANIE STROM

 Before the earthquake, the American Red Cross had 15 people in Haiti working on projects like malaria prevention and measles vaccines. Partners in Health, a charity based in Boston, had more than 700 doctors and nurses among a staff of almost 5,000 operating a hospital and multiple clinics in the country.

Yet the Red Cross has raised nearly $200 million for its relief operations in Haiti, and Partners in Health about $40 million.

Disaster fund-raising rewards organizations for their marketing prowess and name recognition as much if not more than for the scope, relevance and quality of their emergency services.

Now, as the total giving for Haiti exceeds $560 million, relief workers and charitable groups are revisiting a fund-raising model  last seriously discussed after the 2004 Asian tsunami to pool disaster donations across the United States and distribute them to organizations best placed to deliver relief.

The push to consider a new approach is being driven in part by relief groups that feel eclipsed by the Red Cross and frustrated at being frozen out financially right when their expertise could be best put to use.

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