The Columbus Dispatch (OH)
Smaller charities sometimes ill-prepared for relief work
Wednesday, March 10, 2010 2:49 AM
By Elizabeth Gibson
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
A few years ago, a group of friends in the security contractor business started thinking that maybe a nonprofit security team could help out small aid groups overseas that couldn't afford profit-driven contractors.
Humanitarian Defense, based in Chillicothe, officially became a nonprofit group last year, but now it's in need of help after a series of missteps during its inaugural mission - providing security and logistics support in Haiti after the Jan. 12 earthquake.
"We did whatever we could to get there on the ground because we thought the situation was dire, and now we have these bills hanging over us and I don't know how we're going to deal with it," director Charles Clifton said yesterday.
Over 25 days, the group racked up $15,000 in bills for a rental car and phone calls from Haiti to the United States, and it's appealing to donors to cover the expenses. Last night, members were working on catching a flight from Miami to Columbus.
Some of the world's most famous aid organizations started out as groups of novices who never would have gotten anywhere if a donor hadn't taken a risk on them. But philanthropy experts warn that there are cons to helping small, independent nonprofit groups.
"People can make things worse by supporting scammers and small groups that don't know what they're doing and will waste your money," said Daniel Borochoff, president of the American Institute of Philanthropy, a watchdog group. "But I don't want to completely discourage people from giving to small groups.
"It really comes down to whether you trust the people."
Small charities can fill in the gaps left by better-known international aid groups, as seen in rural pockets after Hurricane Katrina, Borochoff said.
But they also can be really clueless, said John Schafer, director of security for InterAction, an alliance of 193 nongovernmental organizations.
Schafer is the guy whom dads call when they realize they've sent a youth group into Chad the day before a coup. That really happened, and he said the frustrating part was that any in-the-know aid group could have warned them that the coup was coming.
On Monday, he was trying to convince a 23-year-old woman headed to Haiti that her church group needed a security plan. Even before the earthquake, foreigners risked kidnappings and lootings in Haiti.
"Do you have any experience in a war zone or an area with U.N. peacekeeping troops?" he asked her.
"Oh, we've been to Mexico," she said dismissively.
Idealist.org, a Web site that links volunteers to projects, spends most of the space on its disaster relief volunteer page explaining reasons people shouldn't volunteer:
"The impulse to help when other people are suffering is commendable, showing the best qualities of humanity. But there should be no illusion about disaster volunteering, either. It is dangerous, stressful work often in extreme environments. Many people simply aren't prepared."
Borochoff said small groups rake in dollars with cute ideas such as fundraisers to give orphaned children teddy bears, but that money should be going to agencies shipping food instead.
"They wind up sending sweaters to Sri Lanka," said Stephanie Bunker, a spokeswoman for the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
The U.N. puts together in-depth needs analyses to coordinate aid groups. The most recent one for Haiti asks for $1.4 billion. Bunker said it can be frustrating when ports, planes and warehouses become clogged with supplies sent by hundreds of well-meaning but inexperienced charities.
Some missionary groups have gone to the trouble of flying into the Dominican Republic only to be turned away at the Haitian border because they didn't know that they needed to bring money for border-crossing fees.
