Buy from the Need List; NOT "what you think they need"

yoga gear photo from Akuppa

I discovered this post from Xeni Jardin from Boing Boing. Xeni debunks the myth that anything's better than nothing. I agree with Xeni--it's not.   I appreciate the link to the Red Cross post as well as the yoga mat donation placard.  That's why I put a yoga mat picture with this post. 

Claire Dunham provides insight why you need to get things for the list given to us by our partnering ministries. Her post ," Help not hinder Haiti" challenges everyone who wants to help Haiti with the Red Cross as its conduit. 

So when you start thinking, "Oh! They could use this!" or "They probably could use that!" But as Claire advocates, "Relieving suffering should be guided solely by need and not what people have to donate." I believe she is right.

Claire shares from her perspective that "unwanted donations create chaos, waste and confusion for an already stricken country." So please donate the things that are on the list.

Likewise, we would do well to think about standardizing the things on our list.  We need to be just as efficient and effective as the Red Cross is.  Her tent community analogy is helpful.

"Imagine you have to help 10,000 families put up aid tents. What would you do? I would probably train a handful of volunteers how to put up said tent and get them out training others. Now what would you do if every single one of those tents was different? Replace the word tent with the following: incubator, water pump, dialysis machine.  With these items you will also have maintenance and spare parts. We standardise items and put them in our catalogue for a reason."

So I suggest we either create our own standard to pattern our purchases after the Red Cross catalogue. What does that mean? We need to buy the same tent & same tarps so there is standardization for the future when spare parts will be needed.

We may not be able to do so. But we are going to do our best to help Haiti; not hinder or hurt Haiti. I wonder what you think about standardizing our list for CVM.  We may need to contact them with this information.