Batter's Box Interactive Magazine

Okay, I know this has nothing to do with baseball, the Blue Jays or anything else that we normally discuss here. It's about one of history's worst disasters, striking a part of the world so vulnerable in its poverty that it's hard for us to imagine how much they've lost. This is a plea for help.

You already know about the Sumatra Tsunami and the devastation it's caused in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, Thailand and elsewhere. But you might not fully realize the long-term effects of this terrible event: farmland ruined for generations, painstakingly-dug wells filled with salt water and rendered useless; killer diseases poised to rip through tens of thouands of children; and the mind-boggling task of restoring millions of people just to their previous level of poverty.

Canadians have outstripped virtually every other country in per-capita donations, something of which we should all be proud. But it really is only the first step. Here are links to the donation sites of several charitable relief organizations; money given to these groups will be matched dollar for dollar by the federal government:

Canadian Red Cross
Care Canada
Medecin Sans Frontieres
Save The Children
Oxfam
World Vision Canada

If you've already made a donation by phone, mail or Internet, thank you, and be proud. If you haven't, or if you want to give again as the magnitude of the hurt is fully realized, please do so. Today. Right now. I know the Christmas season has just ended and many of us spent extensively on gifts, food, entertainment and travel. I know many of us are students or are between jobs. But this is an unprecedented disaster and an unprecedented opportunity to help. Anything you can give is all to the good -- but please give as much as you can.

A water purification tank, providing clean, drinkable water to as many as 750 people, costs just $2,800, according to an article in today's Globe. If the readers, users and lurkers of Batter's Box could pledge in this thread that amount of new money, that would stand out as the best thing this site has ever done. Please give, today. It's needed, badly.

Posted by Jordan on Monday, January 03 2005 @ 12:12 PM EST.

They Need Our Help | 30 comments | Create New Account

The following comments are owned by whomever posted them. This site is not responsible for what they say.

_Jordan - Monday, January 03 2005 @ 12:15 PM EST (#5831) #

I'll get us started, with a $100 donation I just made online to the Canadian Red Cross.

_Mark J - Monday, January 03 2005 @ 01:01 PM EST (#5832) #

http://www.redcross.ca/article.asp?id=000005&tid=003
I've just donated $100 too through the Red Cross. Also to note, on the Red Cross home page (COMN) they say that the Canadian goverment will match all donations made before January 11.

_Jordan - Monday, January 03 2005 @ 01:03 PM EST (#5833) #

Thanks, Mark! And I should also add that these donations are also tax deductible for the previous fiscal year up till January 11.

_Lefty - Monday, January 03 2005 @ 01:05 PM EST (#5834) #

$200 to Oxfam.

_Jonny German - Monday, January 03 2005 @ 01:11 PM EST (#5835) #

$100 to the Canadian Red Cross.

_Anon - Monday, January 03 2005 @ 01:20 PM EST (#5836) #

My wife and gave a small sum ($55 American) to OXFAM a week ago. We will give more.

_Brian W - Monday, January 03 2005 @ 01:45 PM EST (#5837) #

$200 to Canadian Red Cross. Thanks for providing the links.

Mike D - Monday, January 03 2005 @ 01:53 PM EST (#5838) #

$100 to the American Red Cross.

Pistol - Monday, January 03 2005 @ 02:25 PM EST (#5839) #

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=493&ncid=762&e=6&u=/ap/20050103/ap_en_mo/people_sandra_bullock
Does Sandra Bullock visit here? She just gave $1 million. COMN.

I'll donate $100 to the American Red Cross.

_Ken - Monday, January 03 2005 @ 02:28 PM EST (#5840) #

I gave $120 to Oxfam yesterday. Great to everyone helping out.

_Daryn - Monday, January 03 2005 @ 02:46 PM EST (#5841) #

$100 to Red Cross

"Intended" to anyway, but thanks for sticking it in my face.

_Lefty - Monday, January 03 2005 @ 02:54 PM EST (#5842) #

$1175 so far. Dollars not ajusted to park factors. Nice work. Lets keep it rolling in from Da Box readers.

_Brian W - Monday, January 03 2005 @ 03:00 PM EST (#5843) #

Here is a link to the online donation form for the American Red Cross if anybody needs it.

_miVulgar - Monday, January 03 2005 @ 03:08 PM EST (#5844) #

I'm curious, does anybody have info/data on the efficiency (i.e. how much of your money actually gets to where it's needed) of these agencies?

My workplace also has a donation-match and I intend to jump in when I get back.

_Jabonoso - Monday, January 03 2005 @ 04:02 PM EST (#5845) #

Very good question miVulgar. And the answer is: 15 to 25%.
I'm a survivor to 1985, 8,3 degrees earthquake, more than 40,000 deaths. Help came from all around the world, but distribution efforts were very poor. From local goverment agencies corruption to an atonishing lack of planning and control of the last phase of this funds distribution. So my plea is that besides the money you give is as important to keep engaged in the effort to ground it to where itis needed. ie: if your money goes to a potable water system to know in which town/location ii is started and get info about how it works/ who is being benefited.
About third world charities in general, it is widely encouraged to adopt a child health/education with a name, someone that will thank you and that you can monitor its effects.
There is a lot of bureucracy in big institutions that may eat big chunks of your donations and then there is a fair chance that it may be used ( criminally ) for other purposes.
regards

_Grand Funk Rail - Monday, January 03 2005 @ 04:11 PM EST (#5846) #

I work for TIME Magazine.
Our company is setting up a donation-matching program, as well.
As soon as it's up and running, I'm in.

No signature, not in this thread.

_Jim - TBG - Monday, January 03 2005 @ 05:25 PM EST (#5847) #

http://www.torontobaseballguys.com
$100 to the Canadian Red Cross.

_Dez - Monday, January 03 2005 @ 05:46 PM EST (#5848) #

$75 to Canadian Red Cross

_Jordan - Monday, January 03 2005 @ 06:25 PM EST (#5849) #

Concerns over distribution efficiency are justifiable, and I can't say for certain how these specific charities operate. But I don't think that only 15%-25% of your donation is going to help relieve the impact of this disaster. The Red Cross and Oxfam, to cite two of the charities to which Bauxites have already made donations, are well-known leaders in aid and development, and I'm not aware that their efficiency or legitimacy has been questioned in this regard. The local charities I work with get 80% to 90% of their donations directly to people and programs in need, and I'm sure all these agencies will strive for similar targets in the Bay of Bengal.

Some overhead costs and some waste from corruption in these types of massive charitable efforts are always inevitable, but they can be and are managed. The difficulty in distributing aid effectively to areas where the infrastructure has been utterly destroyed is well-documented, but a huge chunk of these donations will be used to rebuild that infrastructure and thereby improve distribution efficiency. At the end of the day, your money is still going to help people who've lost everything they have.

Jabonso is of course quite right that the more involved you are in tracking how your money is spent, the better. And as a former Foster Parents Plan participant, I can attest to the benefits of these types of sponorships. But none of this should prevent us from making a donation today towards relief of this tragedy: every single dollar is needed, and every single dollar will help.

Many thanks and kudos to all who've donated already (here and elsewhere), and to those who'll be doing so through their workplaces, places of worship, and local communities.

_StephenT - Monday, January 03 2005 @ 08:12 PM EST (#5850) #

$200 to the Canadian Red Cross.

_Lefty - Monday, January 03 2005 @ 08:31 PM EST (#5851) #

Just watching CNN tsunami coverage. They were reporting how much monet goes to direct aid. They mentioned two organisations. Amricares and Oxfam.

Oxfam is reporting more than %90 of donations go to direct aid for tsumami victims leaving %10 for administritive costs. They also report that normally %70 goes to direct aid in support of their various programs.

_Four Seamer - Tuesday, January 04 2005 @ 08:27 AM EST (#5852) #

$100 to World Vision. My wife matched that, so $200 all told from my house. We sponsor a child from Sri Lanka, who as far as we know is fine, but there are obviously many, many thousands of people who desperately need assistance. I wish I could do more.

Gerry - Tuesday, January 04 2005 @ 08:53 AM EST (#5853) #

Our family contributed last week.

Mike D - Tuesday, January 04 2005 @ 03:53 PM EST (#5854) #

OK, so we've pledged about $1750 so far. It would be a wonderful gesture for us to collectively contribute the value of a purification tank.

_Jabonoso - Tuesday, January 04 2005 @ 05:27 PM EST (#5855) #

Of course i'm not trying to convince anybody not to contribute. i was trying to answer a legitimate question with a "being in the other side" perspective. If i was going to contribute in Canada i would give my money to medecines sans frontieres, Oxfan or an Indonesian connected Muslim charity. the thing is to go to as much to grassroots as possible. Give an example of what may happen with big orgs as RC. When the Mexico city earthquake happened, there were no electricity, water, medicines and housing for as many as half a million people. Some portable power plants arrived after the energy was re-established. it took a week to get monies, a week to buy it and nobody told them to change course on time. Swiss Red cross sent thousands of tents and cooking equipment, it took like 24 hours to have all those people in foster houses and that equipment was close to useless. On the other hand about 1,500 doctors and paramedicals arrived from Cuba and worked for 20/hours a day for weeks and their results were priceless. Monies to bring them in were half from Cuban goverment and half from university students donations, that also helped to put together all the infrastructure for them to work. Also help from Chinese miners ( with experience to react rapidly to get people from tons of debris ) arrived to work together with the mexican counterpart.
Hope my point is clear...

_billyfrombelfas - Tuesday, January 04 2005 @ 10:12 PM EST (#5856) #

It's up to everyone to do their due diligence on their chosen charities. Posts on message boards probably aren't the best place to get that sort of info! There are any number of websites and publications which give the "efficiency" of various charities - Charity Navigator or Network for Good for example.

This seems to be the most widely cited site collating efficiencies of charities involved with the tsunami:

http://www.benjaminrosenbaum.com/blog/archives/2004_12.html#000151

$1,000 given to Concern and Goal Ireland from this household. And, hello everyone, I'm a new reader as well as a new resident of Toronto.

_Daryn - Wednesday, January 05 2005 @ 09:27 AM EST (#5857) #

Four Seamer said, "We sponsor a child from Sri Lanka, who as far as we know is fine"

I think that is admirable, I sponsor a girl in Ghana, but my question is what leads you to believe your child is "fine"??? I hope you are right, just wondering if you have an independent source of news...

_Four Seamer - Wednesday, January 05 2005 @ 09:48 AM EST (#5858) #

Four Seamer said, "We sponsor a child from Sri Lanka, who as far as we know is fine"

I think that is admirable, I sponsor a girl in Ghana, but my question is what leads you to believe your child is "fine"??? I hope you are right, just wondering if you have an independent source of news...

I have no direct source of news, unfortunately, but the child we sponsor lives inland far from the coast. We don't believe his family had any plans to be near the coast, but we're keeping our fingers crossed until we hear something definitive.

_doctor_payne13 - Wednesday, January 05 2005 @ 03:27 PM EST (#5859) #

$50 to the Canadian Red Cross.

_Daryn - Thursday, January 06 2005 @ 10:49 AM EST (#5860) #

the child we sponsor lives inland far from the coast. We don't believe his family had any plans to be near the coast, but we're keeping our fingers crossed until we hear something definitive.

Well, that is enough to base hope on... I hope you are right.
*fingers crossed*

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