Saturday, Jan 23
The fish, or the pole? This has been the age old dilemma of relief work for decades, probably generations. Do you give people the fish, or do you teach them how to fish. As the saying goes; give a man a fish and he eats for one meal.. teach him how to fish and eats the rest of his life. So what does Haiti need? The short answer is “both”! At the moment there is no question they need the fish, and as much of it as possible. Feed the Hungry does an excellent job of getting that crucial ‘first response’ into the country. But the reason I bring up the question of the fish or the pole is even as aid organizations are working around the clock to address the immediate issue of survival, media groups are already presenting docu-ports on ‘what’s next for Haiti’… and ‘how do we rebuild from here’ and so on. I also notice that much fund raising centers around the issues of ‘moving forward’ for this nation.
Now as much as I think this is a little premature I recognize the media loves to lead the circumstances with the news of tomorrow – after all, their teams have been there for 10 or 12 days now and you can only talk about the same thing for so long. But seeing as though it ‘is’ a legit question eventually, what ‘does’ Haiti need moving forward? This is where the question about “the pole” comes in… as in; what is the pole that we need to leave there – and more importantly do any of the fund raising efforts even have a plan as to what the pole is?
This has been a crucial question in past disaster relief operations but there is something very different at work in this one regarding Haiti and we are about to see it come to the surface rather quickly. Because of the new technology and methods being used to raise funds today, donating is as simple as a text message or a phone hit. Celebrities are coming together as never before to present the need – and because of the severity of the crises people want to help in record numbers. The result? We will see a dollar amount pour into this response that will dwarf all other relief efforts in disaster response history.
In just the first couple of days of airing the ‘Hope for Haiti Now’ telethon in the U.S., a new record for disaster relief telethons was reached bringing in over 58 million dollars. This is a figure that does not even include donations made by corporations and large private donors. This also does not include the money coming in from I-Tunes involvement and as of yesterday The “hope for Haiti Now” project is the biggest one-day album pre-order in iTunes history and is currently the #1 iTunes album in 18 countries around the world.
Imagine what a week will look like!
Now add to this the great work of our Canadian telethon, as well as untold additional fund raising sources and at some point you have to ask – what kind of fishing pole will we be leaving? Who will decide how all this money will be used? What will be done with it? Where will it be directed? How will amounts of this magnitude be handled?
If I could, I would want to encourage people to ponder this question; which relief organization has a plan in place? Taking you back briefly to my thoughts on getting aid from the airport to the people, I have pointed out that while many groups, governments and efforts do an amazing job of getting the relief supplies into the airport of the effected country, they really don’t have a plan from there… so much precious time is lost and the much needed aid sits on the tarmac. As you know, I was able to present the plan that FTH already has in place – working through a social network already in operation (the local Church) thus no time is ever spent by FTH trying to draft up a plan as to what we will do with the aid once we get it into the country… it is all systems go from the first moment that disaster strikes. That is what allows FTH to be so completely instant in its disaster response.
Well in the same way, which organizations have an actual plan in place for how projects will be determined and money spent? Disaster after disaster, the mandate of FTH is unchanging and rock solid. Our web sites are chalk full with the way our resources go out, how money is spent and what the plans are in the immediate response, the secondary response and the long term follow up. Folks it has become fearfully easy to raise money today and break records as technology continues to make donating easier and easier… its another thing altogether to have a plan in place as to who spends that money, how it will be spent and when it will happen. It is important for everyone who contributes to these disaster relief operations to also ask the question “what is the plan?”
Of course there are many exceptional organizations doing amazing work. Like everyone else I find myself tearing up every time I see the way our nations are opening up their wallets and their hearts… you have to love it! The reality is however, not all money raised is attached to an actual plan, and that… is a dangerous thing. With the response to the Haiti earthquake prepare yourself for unimaginable dollar amounts to be in the news every day for some time, but you might also want to prepare yourself for what will undoubtedly be the single greatest accounting dilemma in world relief efforts.
Most importantly, when you consider giving… ask if the organization you’re giving to actually has a plan.
Made it (barely) to Regina – good heavens these Prairie winter storms!!
….don
