Is there now, perhaps, too much aid?

Seems an insensitive question to ask - but, assuming that news reports of pledged aid are to be believed, at least US$ 3 billion has been promised by various bodies, governmental and otherwise - and all of it is somehow rushing to the affected people. Is this perhaps too much - or, could it be better directed?



I've read other reports, on this blog and elsewhere, that seem to suggest a mismatch between what is needed by those affected - and what has been sent already. Clothes that don't make sense and food that's unpalatable are just a couple of examples. These are problems of wasted donations - but they will be worked out. The question, though, is who will work these out - and how will those kind souls be funded?



I was talking over this with Ingrid Srinath, CEO of Child Relief And You, also known as CRY - one of India's leading NGOs, and a lot of the agencies she was working with and directly hearing from in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh seemed to be saying that they really didn't need more cash for food or clothes to hand out - instead the entire effort needed to be better coordinated.



In effect, what I was hearing was this - while there was perhaps enough aid either already in place or on its way for those affected - there wasn't enough for those helping them. And at least in the world of fund-raising, this is a critical distinction.



When you raise funds for helping those in need, it is dishonest - not to mention illegal in many places - to use it on your own infrastructure to help you help those being aided. How many donors want to be told that their valuable dollars would be better used to to fund a volunteer from Chennai to coordinate relief efforts - instead of going to a fisherwoman from Cuddalore who may already be well-provided for - assuming, of course, that such is the case?



Ironically, funding of relief coordination - and not the relief itself seems to be one big need now. There is a need to fund local language-speaking volunteers and translators, to fund people doing the coordination - or to even fund - if that were needed - efforts such as this blog and planned databases to match resources and requirements and SMS-to-Blog-to-SMS gateways and such.



Further, much of this is a short-term view. There are longer-term needs to fund schools for the kids, orphanages for those who lost parents, and even education classes to teach people to cope with more disasters, should such ever occur. But is this 'glamorous' enough for donors to fund?



CRY plans to tackle this head on with their new online donation-attracting effort - which spells out what exactly they plan to use the funds for. It may not attract billions of dollars - but hopefully it'll send money where it is really needed - and help all of those other billions of dollars be put to better use.