Send your dome to Asia, they need it more than you...

[kevinwells]

So I was thinking about the fact that we have hundreds of thousands, maybe a million displaced souls in Asia. Sending off a donation to your disaster relief fund of choice is all fine and good, but I like the direct action approach.
We burners have a pretty dang good supply of quick, cheap, easy to erect structures. Domes, Tarps, and what not, up the wazoo.
I know it is a pipe dream, but seems like it would be a great opportunity to get the burner value of "gifting" into the real world. Send those Domes to Asia !
Anyone got a 747 we could load up and send, chock full of tarps, domes, and supplies ?

[geekster]

From my limited experiance with relief agancies they tend to like monetary donations instead of material goods for several reasons. In many cases, needed goods can be located in areas very near the disaster location. For example, there are probably several companies in Thailand and Indonesia and India that make tents in regions of the country away from the disaster area. It is more efficient for them to buy the tents locally. The heavy transport might be more useful for things that can not be obtained locally such as specialized medical instruments and supplies, rescue teams and equipment, spare parts for telecommunications systems that might have been purchased from abroad, etc.

The blankets, tents, domes, food, etc. should be coming from the region itself. We would be best to send money to purchase it and large supplies such as water purification systems, portable waste treatment plants, and the like.

[kevinwells]

Yeah the relief agencies always prefer the cash. Truly, I know that there are very good reasons for that. However I also know that typically less than 50 % of any donation actually arrives to the needed location. Then when it gets there, it is subject to whatever local barriers that exist (i.e. corruption, wars, etc ).
Direct action can have direct benefit. It just takes a rather big commitment on our part. probably rather more than most burners would ever commit to. So, failing our own effort, sending off a donation is the next best option.Here is the red cross donation link: http://www.redcross.org/donate/donate.html

[swampdog]

my wife says:

I get a lot of great info on nonprofits from Charitay Navigator, which provides a thumbnail sketch, mission, financial statements, CEO pay on most public charities, along with a rating of financial and programatic efficiency. I found it very illuminating. http://www.charitynavigator.org/

She's particularly fond of an outfit called AmeriCares who claim a 1% overhead - 99% of donations make it to the field.

[kevinwells]

Thanks for the link. This is just the sort of link I like. Very useful information on how to make your charity dollars go as far as possible.

I think it is time to close this thread. It has very little interest with eplaya and was a little flippant on my part. I did not send my dome but I HAVE sent off this month's spending money to the red cross.
I suppose I am not that alturistic, I was not willing to give up my burning man tickets and send the cash to an aid organization. That admission made, I shall shut up now. Peace all.

[Bob]

I understood the sentiment, but it seemed a bit like sending greenhouses to the Amazon.