Aid Agency: Stop Donating
 |
James Joyner | Monday, January 3, 2005 |
Aid agency: stop donating (News.com)
Australian branch of aid agency Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF, Doctors without Borders) has become possibly the first in the world to ask donors to stop pledging money to its tsunami appeal. The local MSF branch paused its appeal after reaching its $1 million target in just three days. It decided it would be breaching its ethical code to collect money if it could not be used for its designated purpose, a spokeswoman told The Sydney Morning Herald.
“We can only send a certain number of people at a time. We can’t rush more over because we have to co-ordinate with MSF teams from other countries,” Dorothy Griffiths told the newspaper. Australia’s MSF team has 300 volunteers but so far it has been able to send only one doctor, a nurse and three logistics experts to Sri Lanka, and a doctor and a water sanitation engineer to Indonesia.
Interesting. One would think this would be a widespread issue: There’s plenty of need to go around but only so many rapidly deployable resources.
About the Author: James Joyner is the publisher of Outside the Beltway and the managing editor of the Atlantic Council. He's a former Army officer, Desert Storm vet, and college professor with a PhD in political science from The University of Alabama. He lives just outside the Beltway in Alexandria, Virginia.
Follow James on FriendFeed | Twitter | Digg
- None Found
- Unqualified Offerings linked with Tsunamiana
I'm sure it will be. I've donated some money already, but it's equally important to keep donations ready for the long haul, when you can see where new needs open up, before contributing to an unusable surplus. We saw this with all the surplus blood donated to the Red Cross after 9/11 -- valuable overall, but not for the specific effort.
I'm sure it will be. I've donated some money already, but it's equally important to keep donations ready for the long haul, when you can see where new needs open up, before contributing to an unusable surplus. We saw this with all the surplus blood donated to the Red Cross after 9/11 -- valuable overall, but not for the specific effort.
grr.
Putting the excess cash in a trust fund for future rebuilding and support of orphans should solve the problem.
I applaud their integrity - this is something a lot of people or groups simply wouldn't have done, but it's refreshing.
Comments are Closed
