Soul Searching

catholic and islamic relief services (two seperate groups) apparently have been great. they have been nonsectarian and have helped to rebuild mosques, houses, all kinds of facilities.

the UN has been criticized in the usual ways, too slow, too much red tape, too slow too act, they came in the beginning and set up lots of tents and barracks for people but without bathrooms or drinking water. they are not on the front lines. on the flip side, they have provided some structure and organization to the aid effort by coordinating the various ngo’s.
they also provide air transport for the ngo’s, and this has been great.

solidarité, a french organization, has done lots in terms of providing people with water by drilling wells.

unicef started an orphanage with no bathrooms or running water and then closed it down and threw the kids out after a few months. it denied closing it for months, saying it was still operational.

oxfam has done a lot but will only work for christians (in an islamic state!).

the red cross/res crescent has been really good and nonsectarian.

there’s a very low key organization out of singapore called mercy relief that has been really amazing in terms of what they do and provide.

then there are lots of small ngo’s out there going where the UN and Red Cross won’t…