This morning's news said the vultures are already moving in. Supplies are
vanishing, and appearing shortly thereafter on the black market. Disgusting.

We sent a donation to Unicef this morning. After 9-11 I no longer trust
that the US Red Cross can manage donations wisely.


"Gould 0738" wrote in message
...
From USA Today:

(Dec. 30) - John Hewitt is used to opening his checkbook when disaster
strikes
overseas.

The Virginia Beach entrepreneur, who typically gives a quarter-million
dollars
to charitable organizations each year, says he expects to provide as much
or
more to help buy food for victims of the tsunami that has killed nearly
80,000
people and devastated parts of a dozen nations that rim the Indian Ocean.

Hewitt, owner and chief executive of Liberty Tax Service, which prepared
nearly
1 million tax returns last year, says he will "donate something for every
tax
return we do" to Stop Hunger Now, a charity in Raleigh, N.C., that is
among
dozens of U.S. organizations rushing aid to southern Asia and East Africa.
"My
feeling is that God wants us to give back," says Hewitt, 55. "I don't
think God
just says arbitrarily, 'You win, you lose.' "

Gut-wrenching images on television of dead children, mourning survivors
and
inundated villages have triggered an extraordinary response among
charitable
organizations, faith-based groups, businesses and communities of
U.S.-based
immigrants from South Asia.

From Northern California to New Jersey, immigrant communities are rushing
to
collect money, blankets, canned food and clothing. President Bush and
charity
groups on Wednesday urged donors to send only money because it can be used
to
provide aid more immediately.

As relief flights touched down Wednesday in some of the worst-hit
communities
in Indonesia and Sri Lanka, groups across the USA were reporting a huge
outpouring for victims of the tsunami, which left millions homeless and
flattened communities that now need fresh water, food and medical supplies
to
prevent outbreaks of cholera and other diseases.

"People have lost everything," says Scott Faiia, the country director in
Sri
Lanka for CARE, an international anti-poverty group. "It's just a complete
wipeout." Some victims have complained that aid has been slow in arriving,
Faiia says, but "my personal feeling - and I've been working in relief and
development for 30 years - is it was a pretty good response."

In person and on the Web


More From USA TODAY


· Tsunami Death Toll Rockets to 114,000
· Canada Discovers Suspected Mad Cow Case
· US Airways Wants Free New Year's Help
· Orbach Reigned on Broadway, Then Kept 'Law & Order'
· James Smacked in face as Cavs Fall to Rockets


In the United States, fundraising efforts have ranged from deeply personal
efforts by family members of tsunami victims to relatively anonymous
donations
made via Web sites operated by businesses and charities.

In Moreno Valley, Calif., east of Los Angeles, Saranasiri Wadhogala,
priest at
the Sambuddhaloka Buddhist temple, has collected more than $15,000 for a
Sri
Lanka relief fund.

Wadhogala, who is from the hard-hit Sri Lankan town of Galle, says he
learned
that the tsunami swept his aunt and uncle to their deaths on Sunday. Other
relatives "are alive, they survive, but all their properties are damaged,"
he
says. He plans to go to Galle soon to give the money to charities to
"build
houses and to buy clothes and food."

Other donors turned to technology to send aid quickly. Catholic Relief
Services
reported that it had raised more than $1 million in less than three days
and
that its Web site - which accepts donations by credit card - crashed
because of heavy traffic. Amazon.com posted a request for donations on its
home
page and reported raising more than $2.5 million in 24 hours.

In Northern California, where thousands of immigrants from India and other
nations hit by the tsunami have flocked to work in the high-tech industry,
a
group called AuctionDrop is urging people to drop off used digital
cameras,
computers and other electronic devices at UPS Stores across the country.
The
group will sell the items on eBay, and the proceeds will go to CARE's
tsunami
fund.

"The response so far has been tremendous," says Mary McClymont, president
and
chief executive officer of InterAction, a consortium of more than 160
U.S.-based charities. "Our members have long been aware of the generous
American public. But obviously, it's a heart-wrenching tragedy, and the
images
on TV remind people of the devastation and grave need."

Nancy Lindborg, president of Mercy Corps, says that Portland, Ore.-based
charitable organization has raised more than $1 million so far, one of the
biggest collections in its 25-year history.

Besides the scope of the disaster, she attributes the response to the fact
that
many Americans have relatives and friends in the stricken region and that
during the holidays, "people are feeling open and connected" to others.

Catholic Relief Services President Ken Hackett compares the outpouring of
donations to the responses after famine in Ethiopia became widely known in
1984
and after Hurricane Mitch devastated Central American nations in 1998.

"We are asking all Catholic churches in the United States to take up a
collection," he says. "We hope people will be generous."

The United Jewish Appeal Federation of New York has seen a "tremendous
expression of support," says Morris Offit, president of what he calls the
largest philanthropic organization in the USA. Offit says it is too early
to
tally the response to the tsunami but says the group typically raises $200
million a year in the New York City area.

The fact that many of the victims of the tsunami are Muslim has no impact
on
the group's donation decisions, he says. He notes the Jewish concept of
tzedaka, a Hebrew word that means both charity and justice. "This is an
event
almost beyond human terms, and we reach out to all people," he says.

Aris Shaikh, spokesman for Islamic Relief USA, an Islamic charity in
Burbank,
Calif., with 13 offices worldwide, says that a tsunami relief campaign on
the
group's Web site - www.irw.org - has raised more than $200,000. The
campaign is being complemented by fundraising efforts in Muslim
communities
across the USA.

More than 20% of the estimated 5 million Muslims in this country are of
South
Asian descent, and Shaikh says he expects contributions to pour in to
mosques
and Islamic centers during weekly prayers Friday. His group also is
receiving
contributions from non-Muslims, says Shaikh, who suggests that some
Americans
who might have been wary toward Muslims since the 9/11 attacks are putting
aside their prejudices.

"It takes a disaster like this to bring everyone together," he says.

Foundations also give

Many of the biggest donations are coming from charitable foundations. The
Bill
& Melinda Gates Foundation, created by the Microsoft magnate, pledged a
half-million dollars to Mercy Corps' campaign, Lindborg says. The
foundation is
donating an additional $2.5 million to World Vision, the International
Rescue
Committee, CARE and Save the Children.

The Pew Charitable Trusts of Philadelphia plans to send $1 million to the
American Red Cross to support relief efforts. The organization's chief
executive officer, Rebecca Rimel, says she hopes that Philadelphia
residents
will contribute $500,000 and that major cities across the USA will each
meet or
exceed $1 million in donations.

"If every major city could rise to this enormous challenge, the private
sector
could come up with $50 million to $75 million" and help save perhaps 1
million
survivors from starvation, disease and homelessness, she says.

Also contributing to the effort have been scores of organizations of
immigrants
from Sri Lanka, India, Indonesia and other nations affected by the
disaster.

"I had to do it," says Rizwan Mowlana, president of Asia Relief in
Bethesda,
Md. Mowlana, who grew up in Sri Lanka, says he has raised about $15,000 in
cash
and is using his home as a dropoff point for "tons of clothes, shoes and
toys."
He says he hopes to start an adoption program to assist thousands of Sri
Lankan
orphans.

In the San Francisco suburbs, about 20 groups of Indian immigrants - many
led
by high-tech executives and employees in Silicon Valley - met Tuesday
night
to coordinate their relief efforts.

Overcoming conflicts

Meanwhile, Nadadur Vardhan, president of the Hindu Temple Society of
Southern
California, says that his society's huge temple in Malibu expects to raise
"at
least $100,000" on New Year's Eve from 20,000 devotees who are expected to
crowd the massive house of worship. Normally, a New Year's service
includes
what Vardhan calls "celebrations" of the coming year, but those have been
canceled in favor of a "24-hour vigil and prayer meeting" that begins late
today.

Wije Kottahachchi, a New Jersey doctor who is president of the Sri Lanka
Medical Association of North America, is gathering medicine,
water-purifying
tablets and bandages. The first shipment of medical supplies from his
group,
along with clothing and food, is likely to leave the USA late today en
route to
Colombo, the Sri Lankan capital. There, the local chamber of commerce will
distribute the donations.

"The chamber of commerce is well known there to work with all groups; they
have
no ethnic or culture differences," Kottahachchi says.

But ethnic conflicts could hamper the distribution of aid.

The northeastern region of Sri Lanka is controlled by Tamil rebels, who
operate
their own administration, police and judicial system. The Associated Press
has
reported that, despite a 2-year-old cease-fire between the Sinhalese
majority
and Tamil minority, Sinhalese mobs have been raiding relief trucks headed
for
Tamil areas and diverting them to their own regions.

Among some Sri Lankans outside that country, concerns about the tsunami's
impact appear to have eased ethnic tensions.

The old tensions weren't "anything you could see, but you could feel it,"
says
Priyan Weerappuli, president of the youth group at the Great Lakes
Buddhist
temple in Southfield, Mich. "And then this happened, and everything kind
of
went away. It's kind of nice, actually. I'm hoping it will last." A
memorial
service Tuesday night drew about 150 people, with members driving from as
far
away as Cincinnati and parts of Canada.

U.S. officials hope donor interest will last when the images of the
tsunami's
wrath fade from television and newspapers.

"In the past, in natural disasters, there tends to be more money given
than is
required for initial relief response," says Andrew Natsios, administrator
of
the U.S. Agency for International Development, "and then not enough money
for
rehabilitation and reconstruction, which is much more expensive."

Contributing: Andrea Stone and Peronet Despeignes in Washington; Sharon
Silke
Carty in Detroit; Edward Iwata in San Francisco; Martin Kasindorf in Los
Angeles; and Paul Wiseman in Colombo, Sri Lanka.

**************

There's a huge difference between the Christian right and the right
Christians
http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/content/ne...41012bsh.shtml

On Thu, 30 Dec 2004 16:55:34 GMT, "Doug Kanter"
wrote:

This morning's news said the vultures are already moving in. Supplies are
vanishing, and appearing shortly thereafter on the black market. Disgusting.

Which is why it makes little sense to give lots of money all at once
before we have a way to ensure it gets put to good use. The
anti-administration rants about how 'little' the US gives to the world
for charity should pay attention.

John H

On the 'PocoLoco' out of Deale, MD,
on the beautiful Chesapeake Bay!

"Divide each difficulty into as many parts as is feasible and necessary to resolve it."
Rene Descartes

Jim,
I had a heart ache about that myself. I'm hoping they've learned their
lesson and are flying right. Anyway I contributed to the Red Cross.
Paul

"JimH" wrote in message
...
We sent a donation to Unicef this morning. After 9-11 I no longer trust
that the US Red Cross can manage donations wisely.


"Gould 0738" wrote in message
...
From USA Today:

(Dec. 30) - John Hewitt is used to opening his checkbook when disaster
strikes
overseas.

The Virginia Beach entrepreneur, who typically gives a quarter-million
dollars
to charitable organizations each year, says he expects to provide as much
or
more to help buy food for victims of the tsunami that has killed nearly
80,000
people and devastated parts of a dozen nations that rim the Indian Ocean.

Hewitt, owner and chief executive of Liberty Tax Service, which prepared
nearly
1 million tax returns last year, says he will "donate something for every
tax
return we do" to Stop Hunger Now, a charity in Raleigh, N.C., that is
among
dozens of U.S. organizations rushing aid to southern Asia and East
Africa. "My
feeling is that God wants us to give back," says Hewitt, 55. "I don't
think God
just says arbitrarily, 'You win, you lose.' "

Gut-wrenching images on television of dead children, mourning survivors
and
inundated villages have triggered an extraordinary response among
charitable
organizations, faith-based groups, businesses and communities of
U.S.-based
immigrants from South Asia.

From Northern California to New Jersey, immigrant communities are rushing
to
collect money, blankets, canned food and clothing. President Bush and
charity
groups on Wednesday urged donors to send only money because it can be
used to
provide aid more immediately.

As relief flights touched down Wednesday in some of the worst-hit
communities
in Indonesia and Sri Lanka, groups across the USA were reporting a huge
outpouring for victims of the tsunami, which left millions homeless and
flattened communities that now need fresh water, food and medical
supplies to
prevent outbreaks of cholera and other diseases.

"People have lost everything," says Scott Faiia, the country director in
Sri
Lanka for CARE, an international anti-poverty group. "It's just a
complete
wipeout." Some victims have complained that aid has been slow in
arriving,
Faiia says, but "my personal feeling - and I've been working in relief
and
development for 30 years - is it was a pretty good response."

In person and on the Web


More From USA TODAY


· Tsunami Death Toll Rockets to 114,000
· Canada Discovers Suspected Mad Cow Case
· US Airways Wants Free New Year's Help
· Orbach Reigned on Broadway, Then Kept 'Law & Order'
· James Smacked in face as Cavs Fall to Rockets


In the United States, fundraising efforts have ranged from deeply
personal
efforts by family members of tsunami victims to relatively anonymous
donations
made via Web sites operated by businesses and charities.

In Moreno Valley, Calif., east of Los Angeles, Saranasiri Wadhogala,
priest at
the Sambuddhaloka Buddhist temple, has collected more than $15,000 for a
Sri
Lanka relief fund.

Wadhogala, who is from the hard-hit Sri Lankan town of Galle, says he
learned
that the tsunami swept his aunt and uncle to their deaths on Sunday.
Other
relatives "are alive, they survive, but all their properties are
damaged," he
says. He plans to go to Galle soon to give the money to charities to
"build
houses and to buy clothes and food."

Other donors turned to technology to send aid quickly. Catholic Relief
Services
reported that it had raised more than $1 million in less than three days
and
that its Web site - which accepts donations by credit card - crashed
because of heavy traffic. Amazon.com posted a request for donations on
its home
page and reported raising more than $2.5 million in 24 hours.

In Northern California, where thousands of immigrants from India and
other
nations hit by the tsunami have flocked to work in the high-tech
industry, a
group called AuctionDrop is urging people to drop off used digital
cameras,
computers and other electronic devices at UPS Stores across the country.
The
group will sell the items on eBay, and the proceeds will go to CARE's
tsunami
fund.

"The response so far has been tremendous," says Mary McClymont, president
and
chief executive officer of InterAction, a consortium of more than 160
U.S.-based charities. "Our members have long been aware of the generous
American public. But obviously, it's a heart-wrenching tragedy, and the
images
on TV remind people of the devastation and grave need."

Nancy Lindborg, president of Mercy Corps, says that Portland, Ore.-based
charitable organization has raised more than $1 million so far, one of
the
biggest collections in its 25-year history.

Besides the scope of the disaster, she attributes the response to the
fact that
many Americans have relatives and friends in the stricken region and that
during the holidays, "people are feeling open and connected" to others.

Catholic Relief Services President Ken Hackett compares the outpouring of
donations to the responses after famine in Ethiopia became widely known
in 1984
and after Hurricane Mitch devastated Central American nations in 1998.

"We are asking all Catholic churches in the United States to take up a
collection," he says. "We hope people will be generous."

The United Jewish Appeal Federation of New York has seen a "tremendous
expression of support," says Morris Offit, president of what he calls the
largest philanthropic organization in the USA. Offit says it is too early
to
tally the response to the tsunami but says the group typically raises
$200
million a year in the New York City area.

The fact that many of the victims of the tsunami are Muslim has no impact
on
the group's donation decisions, he says. He notes the Jewish concept of
tzedaka, a Hebrew word that means both charity and justice. "This is an
event
almost beyond human terms, and we reach out to all people," he says.

Aris Shaikh, spokesman for Islamic Relief USA, an Islamic charity in
Burbank,
Calif., with 13 offices worldwide, says that a tsunami relief campaign on
the
group's Web site - www.irw.org - has raised more than $200,000. The
campaign is being complemented by fundraising efforts in Muslim
communities
across the USA.

More than 20% of the estimated 5 million Muslims in this country are of
South
Asian descent, and Shaikh says he expects contributions to pour in to
mosques
and Islamic centers during weekly prayers Friday. His group also is
receiving
contributions from non-Muslims, says Shaikh, who suggests that some
Americans
who might have been wary toward Muslims since the 9/11 attacks are
putting
aside their prejudices.

"It takes a disaster like this to bring everyone together," he says.

Foundations also give

Many of the biggest donations are coming from charitable foundations. The
Bill
& Melinda Gates Foundation, created by the Microsoft magnate, pledged a
half-million dollars to Mercy Corps' campaign, Lindborg says. The
foundation is
donating an additional $2.5 million to World Vision, the International
Rescue
Committee, CARE and Save the Children.

The Pew Charitable Trusts of Philadelphia plans to send $1 million to the
American Red Cross to support relief efforts. The organization's chief
executive officer, Rebecca Rimel, says she hopes that Philadelphia
residents
will contribute $500,000 and that major cities across the USA will each
meet or
exceed $1 million in donations.

"If every major city could rise to this enormous challenge, the private
sector
could come up with $50 million to $75 million" and help save perhaps 1
million
survivors from starvation, disease and homelessness, she says.

Also contributing to the effort have been scores of organizations of
immigrants
from Sri Lanka, India, Indonesia and other nations affected by the
disaster.

"I had to do it," says Rizwan Mowlana, president of Asia Relief in
Bethesda,
Md. Mowlana, who grew up in Sri Lanka, says he has raised about $15,000
in cash
and is using his home as a dropoff point for "tons of clothes, shoes and
toys."
He says he hopes to start an adoption program to assist thousands of Sri
Lankan
orphans.

In the San Francisco suburbs, about 20 groups of Indian immigrants - many
led
by high-tech executives and employees in Silicon Valley - met Tuesday
night
to coordinate their relief efforts.

Overcoming conflicts

Meanwhile, Nadadur Vardhan, president of the Hindu Temple Society of
Southern
California, says that his society's huge temple in Malibu expects to
raise "at
least $100,000" on New Year's Eve from 20,000 devotees who are expected
to
crowd the massive house of worship. Normally, a New Year's service
includes
what Vardhan calls "celebrations" of the coming year, but those have been
canceled in favor of a "24-hour vigil and prayer meeting" that begins
late
today.

Wije Kottahachchi, a New Jersey doctor who is president of the Sri Lanka
Medical Association of North America, is gathering medicine,
water-purifying
tablets and bandages. The first shipment of medical supplies from his
group,
along with clothing and food, is likely to leave the USA late today en
route to
Colombo, the Sri Lankan capital. There, the local chamber of commerce
will
distribute the donations.

"The chamber of commerce is well known there to work with all groups;
they have
no ethnic or culture differences," Kottahachchi says.

But ethnic conflicts could hamper the distribution of aid.

The northeastern region of Sri Lanka is controlled by Tamil rebels, who
operate
their own administration, police and judicial system. The Associated
Press has
reported that, despite a 2-year-old cease-fire between the Sinhalese
majority
and Tamil minority, Sinhalese mobs have been raiding relief trucks headed
for
Tamil areas and diverting them to their own regions.

Among some Sri Lankans outside that country, concerns about the tsunami's
impact appear to have eased ethnic tensions.

The old tensions weren't "anything you could see, but you could feel it,"
says
Priyan Weerappuli, president of the youth group at the Great Lakes
Buddhist
temple in Southfield, Mich. "And then this happened, and everything kind
of
went away. It's kind of nice, actually. I'm hoping it will last." A
memorial
service Tuesday night drew about 150 people, with members driving from as
far
away as Cincinnati and parts of Canada.

U.S. officials hope donor interest will last when the images of the
tsunami's
wrath fade from television and newspapers.

"In the past, in natural disasters, there tends to be more money given
than is
required for initial relief response," says Andrew Natsios, administrator
of
the U.S. Agency for International Development, "and then not enough money
for
rehabilitation and reconstruction, which is much more expensive."

Contributing: Andrea Stone and Peronet Despeignes in Washington; Sharon
Silke
Carty in Detroit; Edward Iwata in San Francisco; Martin Kasindorf in Los
Angeles; and Paul Wiseman in Colombo, Sri Lanka.

**************

There's a huge difference between the Christian right and the right
Christians
http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/content/ne...41012bsh.shtml