Creative ways to declutter your home and why helping victims of Harvey and Irma is not one of them
Second Tier Disaster
Many love the idea of living a simple, decluttered life. That is one of the reasons why “spring cleaning” gained so much interest in the last decade. However, what also gained momentum is a movement of using post disaster pleas of charitable organizations and a genuine desire to help victims as a creative way to declutter.
The Golden Rule of decluttering: Don’t send your stuff to victims of disasters.
2001 World Trade Center: “Chris Ward is snaking through a tunnel of cardboard crates, past boxes … The problem is, very little of it was needed…. Little of the cargo reached the intended recipients, as they simply had no use for it…The propensity of Americans to ship stuff to national disasters has become such an overpowering reflex that rescue workers now have to divert considerable resources to ensure the largess does not get in the way. Some even describe the torrent of sundries as a ‘second tier disaster’ ” (Newsweek, 2002).
Second Tier Disaster. This term might not be familiar to you but it is well too familiar to charitable organizations that are involved in post disaster relief and recovery efforts.
Every time a disaster strikes, thousands of articles warning public about the danger of goods donations come out. Charities are pleading to stop sending goods and donate money instead.
2011 Joplin tornado, Missouri: “We have been overwhelmed by disorganized generosity…”; “we have enough water to fill more than two swimming pools”; “about 70% of what we got was clothing” commented a volunteer from a faith-based organization active in the disaster response. When asked about clothing, the interviewees responded “We received about 9 semi-trailers with clothing…”; “How to stop the flow?”; “about 70% of the clothing we 279 receive is unusable” (Jaller and Brom, 2011c).
2005 Gulf Coast: “Donation management is the most difficult part of every disaster,” he said of the unsorted mountains of clothes. “We have a little bit of everything.” (Corpus-Christi Caller-Times, 2005). “Sometimes generosity can go awry.”….. Collection sites along the Mississippi Gulf Coast became “nothing more than dump sites” (The Times-Picayune, 2005).
These are just some quotes taken after US disasters. It is even worse for disasters that happen in the third world countries. That is where a disaster area truly becomes a dumping site.
Most of the non priority items (NP) are sent by spontaneous donors who are not aware of the needs and who do not check with local authorities or relief organizations operating at the site of the disaster. At the same time, non priority items are also sent by corporations who use this opportunity as a marketing tool to show participation, to get tax credit, and/or to dump an unwanted inventory.
Donors take a lot of blame for sending goods without fully understanding the need, they are asked to send cash instead. While unrestricted cash is the king - everyone understands that - it is paramount that relief organizations learn to do a better job communicating their immediate needs.
Avoid second tier disasters, solicit goods donations!
“Critically, a large portion of the NP flow lacks proper documentation frequently arriving without a consignee, and consisting of poorly labeled boxes with mixed contents that require considerable processing time and effort to extract whatever useful supplies they may contain. These goods are typically assembled at donation drives by volunteers with no training in shipping or logistics; then hastily packed in a truck or shipping container, and sent to the disaster area in the hope they may benefit the survivors.”
Gooddler Platform is designed to help organizations providing post disaster relief work to request specific items from their supporters in the quantity that will not overwhelm the recipient.
Here is how you can help. Gooddler partnered with Common Threads, clothing assistance program at the Lamar CISO, Richmond, TX. In the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey, they need cleaning supplies and hygiene products.
Go to the link below for a tax deductible goods donation:
*picture from David Padilla
** Gooddler: http://gooddler.com/HowItWorks
