The Real Thing

[mamculuna]

I was thinking about the differences in how we perceive natural disasters as opposed to man-made ones. A terrorist act like 9/11, etc., is set up for maximum public exposure--the images that appear on TV and online all over the world are the real point. Since we get those images so clearly and so immediately, the event seems real to us. But the natural disasters aren't set up that way. The news leaks out, a little at a time. No one was filming the waves that hit during the Tsunami, and only now are we beginning to get some visual images that make it seem real to us.

But it is real. This is a site about one refugee camp before the disaster and the people who lived there. It makes it real to me:
http://www.livejournal.com/users/ceret/52383.html

Comments

[mamculuna.livejournal.com]

I know that feeling, but I suspect you also know from travelling in poorer cultures how much difference just a few dollars can make. In Africa, for example, a young woman can be educated for a year on $100--and otherwise won't have a chance at school.

To me, the problem with giving money is partly the possiblity of corruption taking it before it reaches its goal, and partly that I don't feel that I'm really giving of myself. I try to find organizations I can trust (I give through Save the Children right now, also Oxfam). I also try to find more local ways of giving of myself, but that's harder to do.

[midnightsjane.livejournal.com]

I know from personal experience that what I consider spare change can be enough to change someone's life in a poorer country. I have been a Foster Parent for many years; for the equivalent of a cup of coffee a day, my contribution has helped educate 3 wonderful young people, and that has in turn helped their families. My first foster child was a little girl in Ecuador, Rosa. When she was 8, I travelled to Ecuador, and met her and her family. Rosa's mother told me that with the support of Foster Parents' Plan, Rosa would be able to continue going to school. She graduated from high school, the first person in her family to do so. I now have a foster child in Kenya.
Like you, I try to support established organizations like Foster Parents Plan, or Oxfam, or Doctors Without Borders,organizations that have well established track records. In times of crisis, like now in SE Asia, money is the most useful thing we can donate. Many of the organizations are there already, and have warehouses of emergency supplies there. The logistics of sending blankets and food etc. overseas makes it very expensive, and uses up money they could better spend on the ground.
I am so amazed at the generosity of people in these tragic times. I read in the paper today that one of the First Nations bands here are donating $2000.00 that was designated for repairing flood damage to their town, to the people in S.E. Asia. They said that those people needed it more than their town did.

[mamculuna.livejournal.com]

I read in the paper today that one of the First Nations bands here are donating $2000.00 that was designated for repairing flood damage to their town, to the people in S.E. Asia. They said that those people needed it more than their town did.

That is truly generous--for people who have their own problems to see that someone else's are worse. And good for you as a Foster Parent.