Sri Lanka, India, Thailand, Indonesia, East Africa, the Seychelles and Maldives. The devastation is widespread, the numbers are staggering and baffling, the suffering and loss unprecedented. According to Reuters the death toll in the tsunami disaster is approaching 154,848.
Yes, countries all over the globe are already helping and have pledged over 220 million in help but let's face it, even that is not enough as this help will only make a dent in the needs of the millions of victims. We have to get involved and help bankroll the long-term rebuilding.
Up to five million people in the region lack access to the basic supplies they need to stay alive. Money donations are key. Millions more will certainly be needed to rebuild entire village's infrastructure systems, shelter and livelihoods throughout the countries hit.
Only yesterday did our own government acknowledged the events in South Asia and has pledged a few millions in assistance. So, it is incumbent on us all to help our friends in South Asia in any way we can. They had so little to begin with and now they are more vulnerable than ever before.
Food drops have began along the coast, mostly of instant noodles, cookies and medicines, with some areas "hard to reach because they are surrounded by cliffs". Clean and basic sanitation, airlifts of rice and water purifiers, much needed food and medical supplies are the most important items needed at this juncture.
And even though the response from countries around the world has been extraordinarily generous that is only a very good starting effort. Please donate whatever you can now, when it is most needed.
Skip your lattes, take brown bag lunches to work and eat less restaurant meals. Donate what you save by doing this. Think of ways you can downsize your weekend celebrations. Whatever you save in your menu budget send it in. Skip the full priced shows ans go to a matinée.
Buy one less bottle of champagne or spend half of what you would normally invest in a bubbly or party wine. Run a bake sale. Take your loose change to CoinStar and send in those dollars. Every nickel counts. List a few things on ebay and donate the proceeds through Save The Children, Global Impact or Unicef.. Every little bit helps.
If you are unsure about how to go about making a donation or which charity to send your money to please visit Charity Navigator.Org. It displays the financial profiles and history of the many charities, ranking and grading these organizations. You can even see pie charts of how each dollar is spent by them.
I found Amazon's Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund very easy to use to send in my donation. If you already are a customer of Amazon, all you have to do is go to amazon.com's home page, click on the Red Cross link, type in a number you are comfortable with, confirm your Amazon email and password and press enter. It took me less than a minute to go through the process and I got an instant confirmation of my payment. Easy peasy. So far, they've collected $14,439,653.19 in donations.
And finally, speaking in practical terms, a year-end gift to organizations such as Mercy Corps, Care, Unicef, Doctors Without Borders and the American Red Cross Disaster Relief can help them continue to provide assistance to our brothers and sisters in South Asia and at the same time provide you with a valuable tax savings.
If you have a blog, please link to any of your favorite organizations and fellow bloggers through buttons or posts or both. The South-East Asia Earthquake and Tsunami Blog is a great blogosphere resource of all things related to this disaster. Spread the word and keep the message alive. We all need to help. We all must help.
Action Against Hunger 247 West 37th St. New York, NY 10018 212-967-7800 www.actionagainsthunger.org
ADRA International Asia Quake Fund 12501 Old Columbia Pike Silver Spring, MD 20904 800-424-ADRA (2372) www.adra.org
Air Serv International 6583 Merchant Place, Suite 100 Warrenton, VA 20187 www.airserv.org
American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, Inc. DC-South Asia Tsunami Relief P.O. Box 321 847A Second Ave. New York, New York 10017 212-885-0832 www.jdc.org
American Jewish World Service 45 W. 36th St., 10th Fl. New York, NY 10018 212-736-2597 www.ajws.org
AmeriCares 88 Hamilton Ave. Stamford, CT 06902 800-486-4357 www.americares.org
Baptist World Aid Asia Tidal Waves 405 North Washington St. Falls Church, VA 22046 703 790 8980 www.bwanet.org/bwaid
B'nai B'rith International B'nai B'rith Disaster Relief Fund 2020 K. St. NW 7th Floor Washington, DC 20006 212-490-3290 www.bnaibrith.org
Brother's Brother Foundation 1200 Galveston Ave. Pittsburgh, PA 15233 412-321-3160 www.brothersbrother.org
CARE 151 Ellis St. NE Atlanta, GA 30303 800-521-CARE www.care.org
Catholic Relief Services 209 West Fayette St. Baltimore, MD 21201 800-HELP-CRS www.catholicrelief.org
Christian Children's Fund Child Alert Fund PO Box 26484 Richmond, Virginia - 23261-6484 800-776-6767 www.ChristianChildrensFund.org
Christian Reformed World Relief Committee (CRWRC) South Asia Earthquake 2850 Kalamazoo Ave. SE Grand Rapids, MI, 49560 800-55-CRWRC www.crwrc.org
Church World Service PO Box 968 Elkhart, IN 46515 800-297-1516 www.churchworldservice.org
Direct Relief International 27 South La Patera Lane Santa Barbara, CA 93117 805-964-4767 www.directrelief.org
Food for the Hungry, Inc. Food for the Hungry Asia Quake Relief 1224 E. Washington St. Phoenix, AZ 85034 800-2-HUNGERS www.fh.org
International Aid 17011 W. Hickory Spring Lake, MI 49456 800-968-7490 www.internationalaid.org
International Medical Corps Tsunami Emergency Response 1919 Santa Monica Blvd., Suite 300 Santa Monica, CA 90404-1950 800-481-4462 www.imcworldwide.org
International Relief Teams Asia Earthquake/Floods 3547 Camino Del Rio South, Suite C San Diego, CA 92108 619-284-7979 www.IRTeams.org
International Rescue Committee PO Box 5058 Hagerstown, MD 21741-9874 877-REFUGEE or 733-8433 www.theIRC.org
Latter-Day Saint Charities Welfare Services Emergency Response 50 East North Temple Street, Room 701 Salt Lake City, Utah, 84150-6800 801-240-3544 ldscharities@ldschurch.org
Lutheran World Relief South Asia Tsunami 700 Light St. Baltimore, MD 21230 410-230-2700 www.lwr.org
MAP International P.O. Box 215000 Brunswick, GA 31521 800-225-8550 www.map.org
Mercy Corps Southeast Asia Earthquake Dept. W PO Box 2669 Portland, OR 97208-2669 800-852-2100 www.mercycorps.org
Operation USA 8320 Melrose Ave. 200 Los Angeles, CA 90069 800-678-8876 www.opusa.org
Oxfam America Asian Earthquake Fund PO Box 1211 Albert Lea, MN 56007-1211 800-77-OXFAM www.oxfamamerica.org
Plan USA Asia Disaster 155 Plan Way Warwick, RI 02886 800-556-7918 www.planusa.org
Project Concern International Asia Tsunamis Press List 5151 Murphy Canyon Road Suite 320 San Diego, CA 92123 858-279-9690 www.projectconcern.org
Project HOPE Asia Tsunami Response 255 Carter Hall Lane Millwood, VA 22646 800-544-4673 www.projecthope.org
SAWSO (Salvation Army World Service Office) South Asia Relief Fund 615 Slaters Lane Alexandria, VA, 22313 800-SALV-ARMY
Save the Children USA 54 Wilton Road Westport, CT 06880 1-800-728-3843 www.savethechildren.org
Stop Hunger Now SE Asia crisis 2501 Clark Ave, Suite 200 Raleigh, NC 27607 888-501-8440 www.stophungernow.org
US Fund for UNICEF (news - web sites) General Emergency Fund 333 E. 38th St. New York, NY 10016 800-4-UNICEF www.unicefusa.org
World Concern Asia Earthquake and Tsunami 19303 Fremont Avenue North Seattle, WA 98133 800-755-5022 www.worldconcern.org
World Emergency Relief 2270-D Camino Vida Roble Carlsbad, CA 92009 760-930-8001 www.worldemergencyrelief.org
World Vision P.O. Box 70288 Tacoma, WA 98481-0288 800-56-CHILD www.worldvision.org
International Orthodox Christian Charities PO Box 630225 Baltimore, MD 21263-0225 877-803-4622 www.iocc.org
Doctors Without Borders PO Box 2247 New York, NY 10116-2247 888-392-0392 www.doctorswithoutborders.org
