Minority report: Donating to Haiti may not help

The earthquake in Haiti is a terrible disaster. The suffering of many tens of thousands, if not more, is clearly unquestionable. Trying to alleviate that suffering seems like a human duty, and to suggest otherwise would be perceived as immoral. So before I proceed to do just that, let me make a subtle difference clear: these wrenched souls can't be helped, at least not by you. That they should be helped is a different matter, which I am not contesting.

The tragic fact of the matter is this: your money won't help those most affected by the disaster - if they are not already dead - they will be shortly. In disaster relief, a critical 72-hour window exists in which those who are buried under rubble or otherwise seriously injured can be saved. According to the Guardian, as early as Friday, the little remaining infrastructure on the island had clogged up - the runways were full - and plane loads of vital supplies and ready volunteers were left grounded at their launch sites in the US, or worse, circling the capital's airport without hope of landing. The cranes used to unload ships, the most sensible way to deliver food aid, are too badly damaged to operate. Whatever your intentions, your financial contribution to aid agencies appealing for disaster relief will not unclog runways or open ports, or do so quickly enough to save those in greatest need.

What of tomorrow? Surely one can contribute to the longer-term recovery? Yes, in the wake of such cataclysms, there are less immediate needs such as rebuilding broken communities and their homes, but the track record of aid agencies in previous disasters leaves a lot to be desired.

The chance of your donation making a long-term difference are slim. According to the New York Times, in 2006, two years after the Indian Ocean Tsunami and despite the record breaking generosity of donors, only a quarter of the new homes needed in Indonesia had been constructed. And of those constructed, many were so poorly built that they had to be abandoned or torn down.

The torrent of money donated ($7,100 for each affected person - compared to $3 per person in the less well-publicised floods in Bangladesh, in the same year) was largely unspent, two years after it was most needed. At that time, the World Bank estimated that only $1.5 of the $8.5 billion dedicated by humaniterian agencies, foreign and local governments, to disaster relief in Indonesia, had been disbursed.

So what is one to do? If one is determine to support disaster relief in Haiti, then a thorough investigation of the options is required. Simply donating to a recognised international disaster relief "brand" is no guarantee that one's money will be spent, let alone, spent wisely: it was the Oxfams and Save-the-Childrens that attracted the most virulent criticism for their misguided response to managing the Tsunami humanitarian relief effort. If one is to make a difference in Haiti, one must be confident that one's donation will be spent quickly and sensibly, something present circumstances make virtually impossible.

The alternative is to not give to Haiti. Presently, another natural disaster is wreaking havoc in East Africa. After a prolonged drought, floods in Kenya have killed 38 people and displaced 40,000 from their homes. The UN estimates that 1.8 million people have been affected by the floods. Whilst this may sound tame in comparison to the Haitian catastrophe, there is, according to the Red Cross, a "dire need for humanitarian aid". It would not surprise me if you had not heard of the Kenyan floods, I had not and it took quite some searching on my behalf to find news of it, given how clogged the world's news sites are with the Haitian story. It's a fair bet the allocation of aid will follow a similar pattern to the news coverage.



Alternatively, there is always the option of making a charitable contributing towards anyone of the many alternatives outside of the emergency sector.

Whilst giving to other causes is counter intuitive under the pressure of all the publicity surrounding the earthquake in Haiti, it is precisely for this reason that your contribution towards another, less popular cause, will most probably make a bigger difference to the lives of those in need.

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Two recognised organisations which are channelling funding to relief efforts in Kenya are:
- The Kenya red cross
- Oxfam, through its East Africa Food crisis initiative