Disaster Relief - Myanmar And China

Americares is a terrific international and domestic aid organization currently focused on Myanmar and China.  If you have not heard of them, they are highly regarded for their good work and low expense ratio - less than 2% of donor dollars go to overhead, mainly because their staffers are paid a pittance (my wife works there).  Closer to home, Americares is also involved with tornado relief in the Midwest.

The story of their founding is a classic:

On April 4, 1975 a U.S. jet carrying 243 Vietnamese orphans crashed into the jungle outside Tan Son Nhut. A third of the children burned to death, many of the remaining victims were critically injured. Soon after, the Pentagon announced that it would not have the resources to rescue the children for 10 days.

The world received the news of the crash with dismay, shock, and a widespread sense of helplessness. One individual decided to take action. Robert C. Macauley, a paper broker from New Canaan, Connecticut immediately chartered a Boeing 747 to rescue the young survivors. Within 48 hours, the children were safe in California.

The rescue plan a success, Macauley now had to deal with a few financial issues, a minor detail in his philanthropic mind. Macauley did not have $10,000 in the bank to cover the down payment for the aircraft, nor the $241,000 for the remaining balance. To cover his expenses, Mr. and Mrs. Macauley took out a mortgage on their house. A fair trade, his wife Leila comments, "The bank got the house and Bob got the kids."

If you fly it, they will come; Times coverage from their archives is here and here.

Their current effort in Myanmar is described here; a snippet:

An AmeriCares emergency relief expert arrived in Myanmar and is assessing the situation and working to obtain clearance for our airlift of essential medicines
and medical supplies to land in Yangon. They are also working closely with the World Health Organization to help coordinate relief efforts and ensure the aid is distributed to the delta regions most affected by Cyclone Nargis.   Our relief expert on the ground has extensive experience in responding to the 2004 tsunami disaster.

...AmeriCares is mobilizing additional disaster relief experts to the region.  Our manager of emergency response has been in Bangkok working to procure additional emergency relief supplies and participating in logistics meetings with the UN and other NGO's to coordinate relief efforts staged out of Thailand.

AmeriCares is working around the clock to obtain additional visas into the country in order to distribute the first airlift to those most affected.  We are in the process of planning additional shipments of essential supplies, including water purification sachets and supplement anti-malaria medications, which are included in the first airlift.

Aid groups are having a hard time getting people and aid into Myanmar right now.

In China, Americares has people on the ground, as well as an unlikely ally - the  good people of Worldwide Wrestling Entertainment plan to put a smackdown on earthquakes (I guess they are ready to rumble, but don't say that).

It's for a good cause.  Thanks in advance.

Myanmar Relief

China Relief

Tornado Relief.

Comments

[clarice]

Ah, fiddlesticks, that story about the orphans made me cry,TM. Okay I'll send them a check.
The WaPo reported something interesting today--for the first time anyone can remember since the communists took over China,Chinese citizens are contributing lots of money to private relief organizations.I take that as some sort of good sign.

[kim]

Does she get big tips from the customers?
==========================

[hit and run]

TM:
Americares is a terrific international and domestic aid organization ... (my wife works there).

That's awesome.

Seriously. Thank you TM for sharing that, and Mrs. M for your work.

[JM Hanes]

Kudos to Mrs. TM! That 2% for overhead not only means that staff are getting a pittance, it means they're doing amazing work too.

Eventually, we will see the scale, large and small, of the devastation in Burma, and I must admit I'm dreading it. The cyclone was a disaster, the tragedy is what followed. It must be excrutiatingly difficult for aid workers to be sitting on supplies and ready to go. They, more than most, know exactly what the passage of each day means.

[Nancy]

Thank you for the info on AmeriCares--people want to give and help, and this is a great way to do so. On the "home front" I have spent the last three days working Disaster Relief for the victims of the fires in Palm Bay, Florida (my home town!) I am moved beyond words at the unbelievable generosity of the donors. Within 24 hours of the Monday fires, hundreds of people had donated bottled water, food by the truckload, toys, toiletries, even pet food and leashes and kitty litter. This is in addition to the work the Red Cross is doing for those who lost their homes! Anhaueser-Busch donated a huge truckload of canned water, Coca-Cola provided a cart loaded with bottled water, vitamin water, and soda, local restaurants have donated food to feed the aid workers and those waiting in line for help--amazing.

Again and again, people have simply shown up at the distribution center with pickup trucks loaded up with supplies, having driven for hours and hours, and they just roll up their sleeves and start working. I am amazed at the love and generosity of American people. I know that the political problems in Myanmar are blocking aid--and I pray for those who are not being permitted to experience the donations.

Nancy

[Jack is Back!]

Tom,

I am in for a C note. Tell your wife to send me a tax receipt. The way the race is going I'm going to need it.

[Daddy]

Happen to be in Hong Kong, and what is surprising to me is the English language coverage of the earthquake on the CCTV (Communist China TV) channel. Having been coming over for years, it is amazing that the channel seems to be holding nothing back at all, and is publically announcing how bad the earthquake situation is. The panel guests are pulling out satellite photo's of the province and very specifically showing where landslides have clobbered the road systems, so that the country will not be able to clear them and bring in assistance for a very long time, and that this is going to be catastrophic for human life in the short term.
Reports are also startling in showing parents screaming at the government for laxness in providing aid, and most especially for construction failures at schools. Apparantly in the hardest hit province, over 700 public school buildings collapsed, wiping out a generation of schoolkids. As this Province is still of the 1 child allowed allotment, the distraught parents have generally lost their only child, which is absolutely horrendous culturally as well as personally. I am very surprised to see this so publically aired and translated.
The channel reports they have asked for and recieved emergency assistance from at least 5 neighbor countries, though they did turn down Australia's offer of limited technical support. I have friends in Chengdu and they report they are sleeping in the streets outside their homes, as they are uncertain of the structural integrity of their houses, and apprehensive of further aftershocks.
Suspect we'll hear much more of this intermixed with the upcoming Olympic coverage.

[kim]

Yes, Daddy, apparently the outcry from the citizens and parents in unprecedented. Andy Revkin at DotEarth is all over this.
=====================

[Daddy]

Today's morning Hong Kong Standard newspaper reports that yesterday, (18 May) Sunday, Hong Konger's raised just under 1 billion HK dollars for Quake Relief. A roung divide by 7.7 in my head makes that something over 100 Million US. Its very good to see that happening. Reports over here on the Myanmar situation is that the ruling Junta is keeping the blockade enforced, thereby horribly exacerbating the calamity. Don't know if thats an object lesson for the Chinese, but whatever has caused it, they sure seem to be taking an opposite tack, and dealing with it proactively and unashamedly.
The only thing I haven't seen addressed on the CCTV Channel has been discussion of their nuke plants in the Province. The HK paper simply states in a short paragraph that "unnamed officials have said that their nuke plants have been confirmed to be safe."

[sophy]

I will thank for my friends bringing me in this world. I am not regret to buy flyff penya .