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When an emergency or disaster happens, people are driven by good intentions and the desire to assist those they perceive as being less fortunate. Managing this supply of donated goods, money and offers of voluntary support presents a challenge for recovery coordination agencies.
Experience with a range of emergencies over the past 30 years indicates these actions are usually unhelpful for those affected and distracting to the recovery management agencies.
Donating to appeals
The current good practice suggests the best way to assist people is to donate money to an appeal that will directly assist people affected by the emergency. The donation of goods brings issues around appropriateness of the goods, their storage, transport and distribution. Occasionally businesses seek to dump goods that they haven't been able to sell.
The other issue with distributing donated goods is that this actually takes money out of the local economy when it is most needed.
Offers of voluntary assistance
There is also a groundswell of offers of voluntary assistance. This may be useful in some circumstances, but generally the expectation of those that are seeking to assist are that they will assist straight away, because they have 'a bit of spare time'. |
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The best way to assist people is to donate money to an appeal that will directly assist people affected by the emergency.
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Offers of accomodation
Another area of increased activity is by people offering up their homes for billeting or rental properties and holiday homes for those made homeless by the emergency. Generally billeting is not encouraged, as it is can be seen as demeaning to those affected, and doesn't allow them the space and dignity to commence their own recovery. It can also lead to tension as households become crowded. Local recovery agencies generally have in place plans to deal with accommodating people affected by the emergency. People should be directed to those agencies if they have vacant properties available.
Listen to an interview with Andrew Coghlan the National Manager of Emergency Services for Red Cross about how people can assist those affected after an emergency. Andrew is an emergency manager with many years experience in governments and the Red Cross managing the consequences of emergencies.
Listen to an interview with Andrew Coghlan:
mp3
text
Podcast production
Interviewer: Vivian Schenker
Written by: John Richardson and Vivian Schenker
Recorded by: Emma Burt at PBS-FM, Collingwood, Victoria
Made possible by the generous support of the First National Foundation
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