How to REALLY Help in Haiti: Ensure that Your Contribution is Helpful instead of Harmful

I've been very frustrated with a lot of the coverage I've seen about Haiti, and I've seen a lot of wonderful, generous people make potentially damaging decisions in how they want to help with the effort in Haiti. I have written a note on how I feel about aid initiatives in Haiti since the international outpouring of generosity has been almost overwhelming - literally. My opinions on this subject are born out of field experience, extensive networking and formal education. I would appreciate it if you read it and spread this knowledge amongst your peers.


It is not uncommon to see an outpouring of grief and compassion from the international community and from individuals across the globe during times of mass casualty. The overwhelming international response to the 7.0 earthquake that hit Haiti on January 12, 2010 is no exception. Just like in the case of the Asian Tsunami of 2004 and the Pakistani earthquakes in 2005, individuals across the globe have demonstrated an astonishing desire to contribute to relief efforts through mass fundraising, individual donations, and warm-hearted gestures of generosity towards the Haitian peoples.

Unfortunately, such generosity can often cause stagnation of relief efforts at the emergency site if they are not properly executed by the proper authorities and using the proper means. Since there is such an outpouring of charity and kindness and a strong desire by so many people to help, I have compiled a list of warnings on how altruistic gestures can backfire and how you can prevent this through your own efforts.

Send Money, and Only Money: In the wake of an emergency such as this, there is often a desire to send supplies to the suffering country. Please do not do this unless specifically requested by an NGO (Non-governmental organization) that you trust, and whose credentials you can verify. You will notice that most major international organizations are not appealing for you to donate goods; they are asking for money. This is not an act of corporate greed and should not be presumed as such. The reality is that in the wake of an emergency, the majority of supplies that we in the Western world may think are required in an emergency situation are often not immediately required on the ground, or are not relevant to the climate and culture of the state in trouble. Items such as diapers, baby food, donated clothing, and even canned foods can lead to stagnation of relief efforts. Ports become clogged with materials that NGOs or the State have to eventually pay duties on, vehicles, aircraft and vessels become swamped with materials that cannot be collected by port authorities on arrival, and field workers are removed from their original positions of front-line humanitarian assistance to sort through items that may just be thrown away because they cannot be used or stored.

It is important to recognize that NGOs with staff deployed in the field are conducting needs-assessments and evaluating what goods are required. With your donated money, they can buy the proper equipment and goods they know they need and which will not impede them from doing their work efficiently. If you cannot provide funds and wish to donate materials to your local NGO, there are many that are requesting specific donations, such as satellite phones with minutes, or surgical supplies. Please donate only the field-specific goods that the NGOs ask for, as sifting through donated materials uses manpower that may be used more effectively elsewhere. At a later date, your donations of other material goods may be needed: Please save them until that time when they are more likely to be used liberally and most importantly, effectively.

Do not earmark funds: Organizations that have deployed staff to the disaster site have a stronger understanding of how and where to spend your monetary donation than you do; please let them make this decision for you. While it may be very generous to donate funds towards a specific geographic area within the disaster, the organization will be required to spend all the earmarked funds in that specific area irrespective of whether the site improves. If a neighbouring area is still in crisis, your earmarked funds cannot be donated to help and will continue to fund programs in the original region you specified them for, potentially leading to more crises in neighbouring regions.

The purpose of your monetary donation is to help individuals in the field provide a maximum of life-saving measures to improve the quality of life of those suffering from the crisis. By being in the field they are better equipped to determine who requires the most help, and what kind of help they need. If you do not believe that the organization you are donating to will use the funds properly, please do not donate to them. Find one you trust and then do it: trust them.

Do not go to the disaster site: While for many people this is obvious, many do-gooders feel that they can best contribute to relief efforts by traveling to the disaster site to provide emergency help. Please do not do this. Haiti does not need “extra hands,” and your well-intentioned presence is not required. Front-line humanitarian aid workers are highly skilled professionals who have been trained to deal with emergency situations – physically and psychologically, but also professionally. In a state of crisis, trained logisticians have a strong understanding of supply-chain management, how to direct goods and how to manage needs in the event of an emergency. If you arrive on-site, your presence is likely to disrupt coordinated relief efforts and you risk hindering the relief process, as well as hurting yourself and/or others.

This rule also applies to trained doctors and nurses. While your skills are absolutely desired, if you arrive on site and are not under the responsibility of a coordinated relief effort, you risk disrupting humanitarian aid and will become a burden for the person who ends up being responsible for you. If you are a medical professional with significant surgical or trauma training and experience and would like to volunteer with the relief effort in Haiti, please contact Partners in Health directly for information. They are seeking anesthesiologists, nephrologists, orthopedic and trauma surgeons, trauma nurses, and surgical technicians.

Do NOT adopt a child: In the wake of a disaster such as Haiti’s, stories of homeless, parentless children left alone to fend for themselves in the rubble are rampant on the internet and in the news. You may feel a strong desire to give an orphaned child a home and to protect him or her from any further danger. However, the reality is that many children “orphaned” by disaster are not actually orphans and indeed have family members who may be frantically looking for them. While you may think that you are being charitable, inter-country adoptions during disasters often encourage the growth of child trafficking. In these cases, seemingly-legitimate organizations arrange for inter-country adoptions in contravention of international laws and may ultimately place the child in grave danger. Inter-country adoptions should never take place during emergency situations precisely because of the instability of the adoption process. If you are interested in helping a child during the emergency, please consider giving generously to UNICEF, Save the Children, Plan International , or War Child. You may also find a charity which suits your needs at Charity Navigator.

Do not forget about Haiti: While the media blitz that has occurred in light of the Haitian earthquake tragedy has raised awareness about poverty and resulted in mass donations from people across the world, it’s important to recognize that the rehabilitation and rebuilding effort will take many years to complete. In time, your material donations may be very valuable and useful to the survivors of the earthquake who will be struggling to obtain more than just basic tools for survival and will need your donated items; please save your goods and give them generously at that time, when they can be used effectively and reach your target audience.

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The reality is that nobody needs your old sweaters or your canned beans. Please donate cash to an organization you trust instead, and allow them to make the decision for you on how to help according to their long-standing experience and knowledge of disaster recovery and development initiatives. Please also don't hesitate to cross-post this or to inform other individuals accordingly, as misguided material donations can waste hundreds of millions of dollars in post-disaster recovery and harms the very people who you are trying to help.

New Position!

So I've been accepted on the list of Child Rights Country Experts for the International Bureau of Children's Rights. My position is as a consultant for the International Bureau on any questions regarding children's rights in state of Sierra Leone. Currently the IBCR is not working on any issues regarding children in Sierra Leone, but as soon as they do, I will be consulted for information on any publications they are writing.

I'm so excited.

AN UPDATE!!

Hi Everyone,

This blog has not been updated in an extremely long time. I left Sierra Leone at the end of May 2007, and the idea of writing about it made me tremendously sad. I was completely unable to write about the experience of leaving Sierra Leone: not in the days approaching my leave, at the time of the event, or upon my return to Canada. Additionally, I felt that this was my Africanna Blog, that it had been removed from anything pertaining to my regular life, and that it was particularly Africa-based. I have not, unfortunately, been able to return to Africa since my leave.

However, I now have good news regarding my most major project in Sierra Leone. A recap of what I was doing there will help readers, I think:

When I first moved to Sierra Leone in November 2006, Sierra Leone was, according to the United Nations Human Development Index (published yearly) THE poorest country on the planet, and had been for the past ten years. Since then we've moved up one notch. (Now I believe it's Niger that is in the worst place.) This is tremendously unfortunate for Niger, but wonderful for Sierra Leone, in that it is showing at least a minimum of progress. Equally unfortunately, it is only a minimum of progress.

My work in Sierra Leone as a legislative analyst in children's rights and international law has just been published, and I know that several people here have shown an avid interest in human rights, world politics or Africa in particular. For this reason I thought I would use this venue to raise awareness about this publication.

An explanation may help:

Only two States in the world have not ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) - those being Somalia and the United States. The reason these two countries have refused to ratify the convention is because it states that children (meaning anyone under the age of 18) cannot be executed for a crime.

However, in International Law, a theory exists that if virtually all States (usually 2-thirds) have signed a Convention, then it is applicable to all countries, even if they have not signed it. Because of its massive ratification worldwide, the UNCRC has made waves as the most-ratified international treaty in history. It is important. Many scholars say that both Somalia and the United States are bound by its provisions, despite never having signed it.

When this treaty was written it included two important provisions:

1) That States must regularly submit Reports to the United Nations stating in detail how they had fulfilled their obligations, and:

2) That NGOs could form a "coalition" to provide an Alternative Report explaining what they had experienced in real life, on the ground, regarding their humanitarian work. This provision was considered essential to ensure that the UN was not given erroneous information about children's rights worldwide. It gave a chance for everyone else to say, "Hey wait, the Government says that they are providing assistance to schools, however what we see are: no teachers, no books, no schools. They're wrong. What gives?"

This means that the UN would be faced with two alternating reports - one from those in charge, and one from everyone else. The two, together, would be assessed by the United Nations, who would then publish their Concluding Observations. These Concluding Observations would include a several page-long report telling the State what they needed to do to fix the situation. The United Nations' observations are mandatory.

My job in Sierra Leone was to organize this Coalition and write the Alternative Report. And it has just been published. (!!)

I spent my time there reading submissions from various NGOs in Sierra Leone, assessing the convention, national laws, the education system, the health system, how former child soldiers were treated, what kind of rape/abuse crisis centers existed (if any), and talking with abused children. I visited hospitals, I spoke with former child soldiers, I spoke with victims of war whose entire families were murdered. I analysed the proposed Child Rights Act (2006) and was invited to Parliament (twice) to tell the MPs what was missing, what was needed, what wouldn't work. I was, at the time, one of the leading Child Rights Specialists in Sierra Leone due to the extensive array of subjects addressed in my report.

And it's finally been published!

For any of you who are interested in world politics, human rights, poverty, rape as a weapon of war, child soldiers, juvenile justice, health, nutrition, or law, I would strongly encourage you to read this report. Feel free to skip the complicated beginning that focuses on legislative and administrative reform and jump to the sections that interest you according to the table of contents, such as:

1. General measures of implementation
2. Definition of the child
3. Education, leisure and cultural activities
4. Civil rights and freedoms
5. Family environment and alternative care
6. Basic health and welfare
7. Special protection measures/children in emergency
8. Children in conflict with the law
9. Conclusion


Thank you on behalf of myself and all the people I worked with, all the women and children I met throughout my stay, all the war children, and all the victims of poverty and war in Africa, be they in Sierra Leone or elsewhere in Africa. Because, unfortunately, these issues are widespread and not purely Salone-based, but prevalent in almost all African countries, as well as most post-conflict societies, be they in Europe, Asia, South America, or elsewhere.

Reading this kind of publication allows you to see both sides -- and officially so -- knowing that you are not reading the humanitarian version of The Enquirer; You are not reading dramatized heart-string-pulling, please-donate, wallet-wringers. This is it, the offically-accepted, document truth, as provided by multiple national and international humanitarian workers with nothing to gain but change. Additionally, it only even skirts the major issues. :(

Thanks to anyone who bothered reading this, let alone skimming the report!

You may find it here: http://www.crin.org/docs/Sierra%20Leone_CRC-SL_NGO_Report.pdf

With so much love for Sweet Salone,
Anna

What's New?

I am writing this from Mamba Point, a very Western guesthouse/restaurant/bar. I have mentioned it once before, saying that here you can find a good pizza, watch movies on Tuesdays, and (unfortunately) meet very few Sierra Leoneans. It is one of my favourite places to go, despite its frigid atmosphere, the shameless dismissal of its African home, and despite the abundance of boisterous clients. But it is one of the only places in Freetown where a person can find a caesar salad, a clean draft beer, and a big-screen television with cable. I come here regularly after work to - well, work, since that’s all I do (when I’m not cruising Facebook, anyway) - and to watch The News.

Throughout my years in Paris I became positively obsessed with The News, raising my electric bills by insisting on keeping my television set to Euronews at absolutely all times. (Because what if something happens and I don’t know about it? What if something happens and I am not there?) I will admit that this obsession began in 2001, on, say... oh, September 11th or so. I did not have a television or a radio, and spent the next week compulsively seeking out televisions at all the local sports bars. On September 18th, my 21st birthday, my mother offered me money to buy myself a television. I have been glued to The News ever since.

Over the next several years in Paris, before crawling out of bed in the mornings, my first sleepy, pyjama-clad step would be to turn on the television and watch the news. I would suddenly soar with purpose and reason, devoted to my studies and my desire for change. I, A, had Things To Do.

When the repetitive programming got to me and I had memorized all the day’s stories, I would set the television on mute and leave it on all day as I did my homework, occasionally looking up to see if perhaps a fresh story had flashed across the screen with blaring red letters underlining that THIS JUST IN THIS JUST IN THIS JUST IN. It was absolutely, positively, my favourite ritual (newsnewsnewsnews), and, according to some, it apparently disrupted my life and threatened my emotional stability.

“A, stop watching the news. You’re just depressing yourself.”
“A, stop watching the news. It’s not that interesting.”
“A, stop watching the news. Nothing is going to happen in the next few hours.”
“A, stop watching the news. Blah blah blah blah.”

I never stopped watching the news. That is, until I came to Sierra Leone.

It is probably the thing that affects me the most here. I have never been a very big television-watcher. And here I am, in Africa, dealing with a lack of most Western comforts, feeling happier than I’ve ever been, and I’m still obsessively, tremendously affected by the fact that I don’t have regular, immediate access to the news upon waking.

My ritual has changed: I wake in the morning thrilled at the prospect of thumping along bumpy roads in a white SUV, excited for work despite knowing that I am going to spend an exhausting day perusing international legislation on child soldiers. I quickly bathe in a concrete oubliette with a bucket of cold water and absent-mindedly wonder if I have malaria (again) (Malaria Countdown: Day 7.) On the drive to work I discuss child protection programmes with my Country Director and pout as I poke my fingers in the sad, black hole from which the car radio was stolen. I want my news.

On arrival to work, I rush upstairs to turn on my computer and scan the World’s Top Stories. I grab a coffee, and excitedly await the morning’s Media Briefing given by our Communications Officer. The news focuses exclusively on Western Africa and issues pertaining to Sierra Leone and are followed by Security Updates. It is unquestionably my favourite part of the day. Because after the Media Briefing, I know that if something happens, even if I am not there, I will know about it.

And then I can change it.

A-HA!

Virginia is the program manager I used to work for, a woman who has faith in my work (to the point that she has *strongly* encouraged me to apply for a job as a Child Rights Program Manager in a war-zone, no less, which requires experience that I simply don’t have, but which she insists I would be amazing at, which means more than I could ever express because she’s positively brilliant) and one of my favourite people in Sierra Leone. Virginia, I love you so much more tonight, because you suggested a brilliant idea about my mattress problem.

After commenting about the fact that “Geez, A, you seem tired - is everything ok?” I answered a resounding, guttural, whiny, lengthy “NOOOO, *I can’t sleep,*” to which she suggested that I do something very simple that I’d never have dared do without her permission: Switch my mattress with that of the other bed in my apartment. Duh, right? But I don’t actually have to pay for my living accommodations and “but that is the guest’s bed! And Temporary Roommate is returning this weekend! I can’t do that to her, she knows how terrible my mattress is...” Instead of agreeing that it would be rude, Virginia insisted that my health is paramount because of the simple fact that I actually have to sleep on the pseudo-concrete mattress every night, whereas Temporary Roommate is only there very rarely. “A, you need sleep. Badly. Switch the mattress,” she said. So tonight I did. Wish me luck, because I felt supremely guilty doing something so ridiculously simple.

PS. I was bitten by several mosquitos last night. Malaria Watch Countdown starts today: Day 1.

I'm a whiner.

My feet get very dark here in my sandals. I was staring at them a moment ago and noticing the lovely tan that I am getting. Then I took a shower and my miraculous “tan” washed off in a murky grey mess, the product of smog and copious amounts of red dust in the air. I am not tanned - I am just a dirty shade of orange-ish brown. The rainy season is coming and the air is humid. The result ia a soft coating of reddish-orangish-brown sand decorating my skin. Something about it makes me giggle every time it happens (which is every day.) I suppose I should be disgusted about being perpetually dirty, but each and every day, as my pseudo-tan washes down the drain in a muddy whimper, I let out a little teehee. I’ve been living in Africa on-and-off since November, and every little “inconvenience” about living here still makes me giggle.

Last Wednesday I was at a party and Adam made a comment (crack? -Ermm..) about me being rude (Moi?! N’importe quoi!) and when he said it, Virginia, my boss, piped up (with a smile so bright it even rivals those of the children here) that I was the most enthusiastic and positive person in the office “even on Monday mornings!” When she said it, she practically squealed, and I beamed so brightly.

I am constantly beaming here, and so genuinely. I mention in my profile that I have never been so physically uncomfortable or so happy in my life: The latter is definitely the truth (who would have known that a person could love life so incredibly?) the former, I had been so used to it that I stopped noticing any difficulties.

Until recently.

Until 4 days ago, I was genuinely, completely, unequivocally, the happiest I had been in my life, and possibly the most uncomfortable, but really hadn't noticed the latter anymore. However, for the last four days, one tiny thing has thrown my days off-kilter, and the result is that I spent the entire weekend (let alone Smiley/Happy/Cheerful Mondays) not only being unenthusiastic, but being positively negative. On Monday, Brian, our logistics manager and my personal hero, cheerfully asked if I had had a good weekend: I pouted and shamelessly hurled out a resounding “NO.” ...An answer I had never (ever) voiced before at work. But now, since my work has moved me to a new apartment, and since I spent a miserable weekend, I finally voiced it:
NO. I did NOT have a good weekend. And on this Monday Morning, I was NOT HAPPY.

The "dire" issue? : My new bed:

I moved to a new apartment on Friday. My new bed is so hard that I checked under both the sheets AND the mattress to see if possibly the last tenant had slipped a sheet of wood under there, if not a whole plank of solid concrete. I have lain in bed over the last several days and literally (seriously) contemplated whether sleeping on the floor on a pile of clothes might be more comfortable. For the first three days I suspected that perhaps this might be a case of princess-and-the-pea-syndrome since my last apartment was such a palace (and, let’s face it, I am the quintessential Spoiled Brat: Fortunately so, because I’ve been so incredibly lucky, and Unfortunately so, because I fear it makes me a less-likeable human being), but I have since had the bed verified by two girlfriends of mine and they have both responded in ways that confirm that my whininess has been legitimate. Temporary Roommate pushed on my bed with her fists and said (with genuine shock), “Oh, wow.... That is hard!” Temporary Roommate invited a friend over, and since Friend had no You-are-my-Roommate-so-I-will-be-Polite reasons for lying, her yelps upon touching my mattress caused me to give out a sigh of relief. I am not just a Western princess complaining about her difficult life: my mattress is unbelievably hard. Like, maybe-sleeping-on-the-floor-will-be-more-comfortable-HARD. I sleep for only about 3 to 4 hours a night. I spend the rest twisting and contorting my body against the most solid substance I have ever had to lie upon, kicking against my mosquito net and wishing that I could just fall ASLEEP but OW my SKIN and my MUSCLES HURT OW...

The result is that I spend my nights wanting to cry about the fact that crap, my bed sucks, and crap, crap, crap, I am such an (expletive) spoiled little Western (expletive) brat.

Since Friday, I have woken every morning in cranky tenderness, contorting my muscles and moaning in pain as my bones creak against one another. I groan and mope over to the bathroom in the mornings praying that there will be hot water in the shower to soothe my muscles before I trudge over to work. Except that in this apartment, not only does my shower not work, the feeble trickle of water dribbling from the showerhead feels like it’s pouring from my (ineffective) air conditioning unit. The result is that I can’t use the shower at all, and instead of having hot water pour over my aching muscles, I am back to dunking a bucket in a tub of cold water and pouring it over my head repeatedly, praying that it will be enough water to rinse the suds out of my hair and trying not to cringe from the cold, since that just makes my bones and muscles ache further.

It’s been very difficult for me to deal with this for the last four days because a) I’m obviously finding it painful, but b) I’m fully aware that this is no big deal. I am one of the most privileged people I know. I actually *have* an air-conditioning unit, while most of the country is sweltering in wooden shanties with thin tin roofs. I actually have access to purified water, and I have the opportunity to bathe every day. I live in a country where very few of the nationals actually sleep in a bed at all, let alone on a solid mattress. They sleep on concrete, on wooden planks, on dirt. In the rainy season, the concrete, the wood, the dirt, is wet. I cannot complain.

But I will admit that my skin and muscles still do.

Small-small update.

I am so incredibly busy with my project right now that I haven't been updating any of my blogs. I write something almost every single night while I lie in bed but I always get too tired or anxious about work or distracted by must-sleep-must-sleep-count-sheep and turn off my computer before I have finished writing the latest entry. My project has to be completed by April 15th (*cough* tomorrow) and it's just not ready yet. I'm glad that the final report will not say "A Report On Children's Rights in Sierra Leone by A" because I'm going to be mortified by the lousy quality of formatting when it's completed. Oh well. The information contained is priceless, I've learned so much that my line manager mentioned that I'm probably more knowledgeable about children's rights than any of the other expats in Sierra Leone (*ahem*She said it, not me), and I've had an incredible rush writing it. I'm just disappointed that I've had to write about 30 pages worth of information that is going directly to the United Nations and I've only had a month to do it. (!?!) It's simply not going to be a perfect document and I'm disappointed by that.

Despite that, it's been very well worth the stress and the anxiety, since I spend my days learning absolutely immeasurable things. My evenings are spent drinking cool white wine on a beautiful porch overlooking bougainvillea bushes, reading books with Kumba and Fatmatah (the children who live on my compound) and eating chicken schwarmas by the pool at the local hotel. I take dirty, crumbling taxi cabs and chat with the locals who tell me stories about Salonean weddings, I hand out candies to the most beautiful, smiliest children you've ever seen, and feel extraordinarily fulfilled.

So, I have a million other things to add and plenty of half-written entries that I promise to complete and post next week when I actually have the time. In the meantime, I will mention this:

- I am currently at the Hotel Cabenda, which is why I have suddenly had internet over the weekends. They have wireless! Who woulda thunk it? We barely have electricity half the time, and here they have free wireless internet. I usually therefore spend my weekends working with my computer by the hotel pool, burning, uh, beautifully.

- The swimming pool is closed today because the hotel is having a wedding here this evening. I am supposed to go to a party tonight (theme: "glamour." I have a kickass red lipstick. It'll be interesting to see how a bunch of expats normally clothed in khakis and a pretty coating of red dust manage to clean up to look "glamorous.") but I am tempted to stick around to watch the wedding take place. I have never seen a Salonean ceremony before.

- My waitress told me that she thinks that I would make a beautiful bride. *Ahem*, mothers, lock up your sons!

- I went to a big musical festival on Easter Monday with my friend Justin. It was a music competition between artists: Western Sierra Leone vs. Eastern Sierra Leone. During this concert I experienced my first rain in 6 months. You can watch the video on Justin's website here. He also included some other videos from that night and has more to come, so feel free to peruse his site.

- I finish work on the 18th and leave on the 20th at night. During those two days off I need to: distribute all the gifts that I brought for the Salonean families I met here on my first trip; buy many, many souvenirs that will not fit into my suitcase and for which I will be royally ripped off at the covered market (so don't expect much, dear friends); I need to lead a workshop with collaborators of my project and the Save the Children team; I need to go to several schools to distribute pencils, pens and books to children; I need to pack and move out; and I need to socialise and take photos of all the things I've seen.

- I will be profoundly busy in my last week and probably arrive in Canada suffering from malaria, typhoid, an inflamed gall bladder and 2nd degree burns from the sun.

- Can't wait to see you all! Please take care of me when I arrived burnt, burnt-out, half dead, and brilliantly happy.