If donated items are addressed to an aid agency, humanitarian relief workers who are meant to be providing humanitarian help will be forced to sort through shipping containers of unnecessary donations. Do Australia and New Zealand not have ambitious high school students who need volunteer hours to beef up their college applications? I volunteered as a 17 year old with the Red Cross here (Pennsylvania, US), I and about 30 other students, overseen by a handful of office workers, washed and detailed the Disaster Response Fleet and inventoried/restocked them. I didn't actually get taken to the scenes of floods and house fires to hand out bottled water and blankets and shit.
heavy blankets and canned foodFor these items specifically, I never really understand why they don't just pass them along to other charities? You've already paid to have them inventoried and sorted, vacuum-shrink the blankets and clothing items for easier storage, pass along those + canned food to local homeless shelters or churches or even animal shelters. You
( ... )
Re: the blankets, isn't that exactly the point of this article (and many others that expose the failure of clothing/food donations) - that the logistics of sorting and transporting donations cost more than just buying the thing in the first place?
I think these articles are a woeful indictment of consumerism. People buy so much useless shit that they jump at the opportunity to get rid of it in a way that protects their ego from the knowledge that they wasted so much money on useless shit in the first place. And then they are shocked - shocked! - that shipping useless shit back and forth to needy people around the world is less efficient than just giving cash to the needy people in the first place. Ffs.
Mhm, back when charities here used to collect items more, we (I grew up in a rectory) saw a lot of that. A lady, with a grand gesture, bringing in bags of totally impractical designer clothes with the labels still attached. Or alternatively people bringing in clothing that was falling apart, yet expecting to be praised for their charitable nature. I'm glad that nowadays a lot of these collections no longer happen; it's so much more efficient for agencies to collect money and buy needed things in bulk.
The year before last, I packed a Christmas basket for a local food bank - they'd asked people to pack things for poor families to eat over the holidays. I tried to make sure to have a little bit of everything in there: Staple foods, fresh or canned fruits and vegetables, some spices, and yes, also nice things for Christmas dinner and chocolate and some children's toys. When I brought my basket in, I saw some others that were full with 100 percent chocolates and cookies. Sure, chocolate is nice, but a family that cannot afford basic
( ... )
Yeah, to be fair, I don't think Australians are uniquely stupid about this sort of thing. It's a "first world problem" in general.
I can recall times here in the US when there was a major disaster (Katrina stands out, in particular) and just about every news outlet was blasting variations of the message, "If you want to help, please do not send 'stuff.' Make a donation to the Red Cross, but do NOT send old clothes and shit." That has really stayed with me.
Comments 14
Reply
Reply
Reply
Reply
Reply
( ... )
Reply
Do Australia and New Zealand not have ambitious high school students who need volunteer hours to beef up their college applications? I volunteered as a 17 year old with the Red Cross here (Pennsylvania, US), I and about 30 other students, overseen by a handful of office workers, washed and detailed the Disaster Response Fleet and inventoried/restocked them. I didn't actually get taken to the scenes of floods and house fires to hand out bottled water and blankets and shit.
heavy blankets and canned foodFor these items specifically, I never really understand why they don't just pass them along to other charities? You've already paid to have them inventoried and sorted, vacuum-shrink the blankets and clothing items for easier storage, pass along those + canned food to local homeless shelters or churches or even animal shelters. You ( ... )
Reply
(The comment has been removed)
Reply
I think these articles are a woeful indictment of consumerism. People buy so much useless shit that they jump at the opportunity to get rid of it in a way that protects their ego from the knowledge that they wasted so much money on useless shit in the first place. And then they are shocked - shocked! - that shipping useless shit back and forth to needy people around the world is less efficient than just giving cash to the needy people in the first place. Ffs.
Reply
The year before last, I packed a Christmas basket for a local food bank - they'd asked people to pack things for poor families to eat over the holidays. I tried to make sure to have a little bit of everything in there: Staple foods, fresh or canned fruits and vegetables, some spices, and yes, also nice things for Christmas dinner and chocolate and some children's toys. When I brought my basket in, I saw some others that were full with 100 percent chocolates and cookies. Sure, chocolate is nice, but a family that cannot afford basic ( ... )
Reply
I can recall times here in the US when there was a major disaster (Katrina stands out, in particular) and just about every news outlet was blasting variations of the message, "If you want to help, please do not send 'stuff.' Make a donation to the Red Cross, but do NOT send old clothes and shit." That has really stayed with me.
Reply
Reply
Reply
Leave a comment