Welcome
A warm Gulf Coast welcome to all of the visitors from China and other Asian countries. I hope you are finding the information you are looking for, and wish a speedy recovery for both Sichuan and Burma.
I have been looking around for a personal way to help. Mercy Corps seems to be on the ground in China, and has a four star rating at Charity Navigator. The Western Union Foundation currently has a matching pledge for $250K if they can raise it from private individuals, effectively doubling anything you can afford.
While the need in Burma is probably more widespread, I see no way of being sure that any money you send to aid in that effort will actually get to the victims rather than the government. While the government in China is working hard to provide relief, the government in Burma is hardly working.
3 comments
mercy corps also, has an ‘open book’ rating from the american institute of philanthropy and the highest rating from the bbb
nice to hear about that matching pledge too. thanks for pointing it out.
There are a lot of good organizations around, but you have to search to find one that can actually help in the affected area. Mercy Corps already has programs up and working in China, so they won’t have problems with official recognition. They also have local staff, which avoids language problems.
Almost no one has any connections in Burma because of the official paranoia, and there is no way for the best intentioned group to monitor needs, if they aren’t allowed into the area.
Obviously we have a personal connection to hurricanes, but the generals are blocking our good intentions.
Too bad Burma doesn’t have many resources for Bushmoron to steal. Would have been better to invade Burma than Iraq if he really had to invade someone! But then again… That might actually have done some good, which is never his goal. *shrug*
Good to hear that there are some good organizations still around. I was an Amnesty International Human Rights Defender and an adviser for a couple years. It least Amnesty are all volunteer organization (unlike some other big name ones I could mention).