URGENT: SE Asian Flood Disaster - Donate Money

mandymack

Well done fearless monkey

Not sure about running costs but I got an email yesterday from Oxfam asking for donations specifically for the Asian disaster so they are definitely involved in the aid effort.

Mandy

Snowboarder747

I too would be more then happy to make a donation but again would like to know which charity is more likely to pass a larger proportion of the donation directly to the people requiring it.

I am not for one minute suggesting people who work for a charity should not be paid a wage, far from it. However, in my humble opinion 18-19% is a rather large margin NOT getting through to the victims of this catastrophic disaster. ???

chekka

great post - thx for the links.

atherlon

a list of the charitys involved can be found here - http://edition.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/asiapcf/12/27/quake.aidsites/index.html

Sarfaraz

A Disaster Emergency Committee number has been launched for donations:

0870 606 0900

The DEC is an umbrella group representing the following organisations:
Action Aid, British Red Cross, CAFOD, Care, Christian Aid, Concern, Help The Aged, Merlin, Save The Children, Tearfund and World Vision.

Their website will be updated in the next few days (https://www.dec.org.uk)

TV ads will also follow within the next few days as well.

andrew_b6k

I'm always reluctant to donate to these charities because of the amount that doesn't actually get through to the people who actually need it after admin fees, governemnt costs etc...

I would recommend the following charity in Sri Lanka. I used to live in Sri Lanka, and my parents are good friends with its founder, who is a pilot with Singapore Airlines. Whilst I don't know him or have any memories of him, my parents have told me about how even though he is a pilot, he was constantly going round to his 'richer' friends and collecting toys and donations in his spare time and personally delivering them to underprivileged children in the region.

Anyway, the website for the charity is :

http://www.aflacinternational.com/

albalad

Well done Fearless

I think sometimes we all need a little reminder , personally i usually donate through oxfam on the basis of their "fair trade " policy

Ps the https://www.dec.org.uk site still seems to be appealing for the crisis in sudan

hesjane

Bump


and yes...I will also donate to this very needy cause

Hesjane

meinnit

Bump again, with the direct link:

http://www.redcross.org.uk/news_subsection.asp?id=40238

Try to donate at least 1% of your annual salary.

VeryTrying_2

I was pleased to see Andrew's post with the details of a Sri Lankan charity which he remembered from his time in that country.

Earlier on today, I was listending to Bill Clinton on the radio talking about his idea that individual countries should sponsor particular areas of the diaster zone, and take full responsibility for recovery. It was a longish drive and I was on my own, so my mind wandered to how this idea could really work out well. I thought how appropriate it would be for the UK to take on responsibility for Sri Lanka (still Ceylon in my mind), and then worked through a plan where my village could help a particular Sri Lankan village, and the local school could "twin" with theirs, etc. etc.

So that's what I'm going to do. I'm going to send some money myself to this little charity, and then try and persuade friends and neighbours to do the same.

If there is a management overhead of some 18% like some other posts have been discussing is the case with some UK charities, then it won't matter. Any overhead that there might be would be spent in Sri Lanka and would therefore help the local economy. EDIT - I've just re-read their website and it says "An important aspect of AFLAC is that no part of any donation received is reserved for administration costs. All administrative expenses are borne by the executive committee and participants as part of their own contributions to AFLAC. All donations from individuals are channeled directly to recipients without any form of dilution."

Is anybody else willing to join me in supporting AFLAC? Their website lists some contacts in the UK, so I'll give one of them a ring in the morning and ask if he'd take a cheque from me. I know it's a step in the dark, because before Andrew's post I'd never heard of them, but I'm sure it's safe to trust ......