emobilize
09-01-2005, 02:27 PM
Organizing an effort to deliver the available resources to those who need them is not easy. We all wish aid agencies such as the Red Cross could help us organize, but to be honest, they have their hands full trying to deliver to people what they already have available, and they don't have time to deal with individual circumstances for both the contributors and the receivers. We on the other hand are in the unique situation where we could react to what we have depending on what is available and what the needs are.
From what I can see, many people not in the immediate disaster area are very willing to help but are very limited in many ways. Those people can be used to help organize: sort through and categorize available aid, maintaining communication and organization between different task managers, coming up with new ideas, resources, etc. However, the most important piece of delivering help to people is to be able to reach them. As I understand, many people who are displaced by the hurricane are out of job and would be willing to volunteer their services just to have something to do. We need them to set up camp (literally) where they can meet and talk to the disaster victims, since those in need the most probably don't have internet connections. They need to be visible, and be able and willing to be a contact point their displaced neighbors.
Take the example of housing offers. It's great that many sites have listings available, and I don't know how that is working out. I would like to have a website where people can register their housing offers, and then have volunteers on the ground who can match people in need with the offers and be able to get in contact with the person providing housing. Once the match is made, it disappears from the list. Of course, there are always security concerns, and I am not sure how much anyone can guarantee anything. But I think it helps to have the personal contacts in each step of the process so that scams would be less likely to happen.
So these are the types of people we need:
1) organizers: develop a top level network of contacts and stay connected; identify what can/needs be done and manage the volunteers. We need people for both the supply side on the internet and the distribution on the ground.
2) volunteers on the ground
3) non-local volunteers to help/support the organizers, i.e. sort out the donated resources and etc.
Anybody want to help organize?
From what I can see, many people not in the immediate disaster area are very willing to help but are very limited in many ways. Those people can be used to help organize: sort through and categorize available aid, maintaining communication and organization between different task managers, coming up with new ideas, resources, etc. However, the most important piece of delivering help to people is to be able to reach them. As I understand, many people who are displaced by the hurricane are out of job and would be willing to volunteer their services just to have something to do. We need them to set up camp (literally) where they can meet and talk to the disaster victims, since those in need the most probably don't have internet connections. They need to be visible, and be able and willing to be a contact point their displaced neighbors.
Take the example of housing offers. It's great that many sites have listings available, and I don't know how that is working out. I would like to have a website where people can register their housing offers, and then have volunteers on the ground who can match people in need with the offers and be able to get in contact with the person providing housing. Once the match is made, it disappears from the list. Of course, there are always security concerns, and I am not sure how much anyone can guarantee anything. But I think it helps to have the personal contacts in each step of the process so that scams would be less likely to happen.
So these are the types of people we need:
1) organizers: develop a top level network of contacts and stay connected; identify what can/needs be done and manage the volunteers. We need people for both the supply side on the internet and the distribution on the ground.
2) volunteers on the ground
3) non-local volunteers to help/support the organizers, i.e. sort out the donated resources and etc.
Anybody want to help organize?