Last night as I watched a BBC special on the miraculous rescue of the 33 miners in Chili, I couldn't stop thinking about the incredible amount of resources that had been brought together from around the world, and about the last headline I read on my internet news reader.... "Haiti cholera death toll passes 250 "....
As I watched caravans of trucks that brought water across a desert to keep the drill cool (the first one, that never made it to the miners) I kept thinking about the 250 and growing death toll in Haiti.... We know what killed them... it's the water... and yet..... there seems not to be any great need on the part of the world to rush to Haiti and drill water wells, much easier than a hole to extract miners from a cave deep in the earth... and saving tens to hundreds of times as many people...
I loved the rescue, the beautiful technology applied, and then, we turn our head... or maybe not..
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Water For People helps people in developing countries improve quality of life by supporting the development of locally sustainable drinking water resources, sanitation facilities, and hygiene education programs. Around the world, 884 million people do not have access to safe drinking water and 2.6 billion are without adequate sanitation facilities. Every day, nearly 6,000 people who share our planet die from water-related illnesses, and the vast majority are children. But the real failures are all the broken pumps, filled latrines, and solutions that aren't. We want to change all that. The solution? Programs that last and examine entire districts and regions rather than purely households and villages. Create solutions that last, and not only do people benefit for a long period, but organizations don't have to expend time and energy going back again and again to the same location.
Pat, thank you for posting this. I've been thinking about the book every time I hear about Haiti. (I didn't know about the water for the miners.)
ReplyDeleteI don't donate online much. How do you know if a donation site really gets the money where it's supposed to go?
Sue,
ReplyDeleteI use a site called Charity Navigator.. http://www.charitynavigator.org/
it tells you how much of the money they collect is used for adiministrative stuff (fundraising, for example), and how much goes to what it you probably intended to support...
There are LOTS of charities that spend 85% of their income on fundraising (paying the people who man the phones calling you at dinnertime.... ask them what actually goes to the function,,, they are supposed to tell you).. If they don't get 85-90% into the job, I don't give.. Water for People uses less than 15% for ALL administrative costs..