Helping Tsunami Victims

[pearita]

...just read it on a german newspaper:
the movement is to forfeit the new year's eve celebration and donate the money that one would have otherwise spent on alcohol and alcohol.

I think maybe we can all do that here at newport? That would be great! I know where I will be 12/31....home!

[Sonia]

So far, we understand the tsunami/earthquake disaster has killed more than 115,000 people in South Asia. Moreover, hundreds of thousands of people are injured or still missing, and millions of families are homeless.

Many charitable organizations are accepting donations to help the victims. The following organizations are accepting tax deductible donations. (Mia also has listed other organizations on the Newport forum.) Most of their websites offer a method to make on-line contributions.

Your decision to contribute is a personal one, but we urge everyone to consider and extend a helping hand to the less fortunate victims of this horrific crisis.


Action Against Hunger
247 West 37th, Suite #1201
New York, NY 10018
(877) 777-1420
www.actionagainsthunger.org

ADRA International
12501 Old Columbia Pike
Silver Spring, MD 20904
(800) 424-2372
www.adra.org

American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, Inc.
711 3rd Avenue, Floor 10
New York, NY 10017
(212) 687-6200
www.jdc.org

American Red Cross
International Response Fund
2025 E St. NW
Washington, DC 20006
(800) HELP-NOW
www.redcross.org

AmeriCares Foundation
88 Hamilton Avenue
Stamford, CT 06902
(800) 486-HELP
www.americares.org

CARE
151 Ellis Street NE
Atlanta, GA 30303-2440
(800) 422-7385
www.careusa.org

Catholic Relief Services
209 W. Fayette Street
Baltimore, MD 21201-3443
(800) 736-3467
www.catholicrelief.org

Christian Children's Fund
2821 Emerywood Parkway
Richmond, VA 23294
(800) 776-6767
www.christianchildrensfund.org

Church World Service
28606 Phillips Street
P.O. Box 968
Elkhart, IN 46515
(800) 297-1516
www.churchworldservice.org

Direct Relief International
27 S. La Patera Lane
Santa Barbara, CA 93117
(805) 964-4767
www.directrelief.org/index.html

Doctors Without Borders
333 7th Avenue, 2nd Floor
New York, NY 10001-5004
(212) 679-6800
www.doctorswithoutborders.org

Food for the Hungry
1224 E. Washington Street
Phoenix, AZ 85034-1102
(800) 2-HUNGERS
www.fh.org

Habitat for Humanity International
121 Habitat Street
Americus, GA 31709
(229) 924-6935
www.habitat.org

International Aid
17011 W. Hickory
Spring Lake, MI 49456-9712
(800) 968-7490
www.gospelcom.net/ia

International Medical Corps
1919 Santa Monica Boulevard, Suite 300
Santa Monica, CA 90404
(310) 826-7800
www.imcworldwide.org/index.shtml

International Relief Teams
Asia Earthquake/Floods
3547 Camino Del Rio South, Suite C
San Diego, CA 92108
(619) 284-7979
www.IRTeams.org

International Rescue Committee
122 East 42nd Street
New York, NY 10168
(212) 551-3000
www.theirc.org

Lutheran World Relief
700 Light Street
Baltimore, Maryland 21230
(800) LWR-LWR-2
www.lwr.org

MAP International
P.O. Box 215000
Brunswick, GA 31521-5000
(800) 225-8550
www.map.org

Mercy Corps
Dept W
P.O. Box 2669
Portland, OR 97208-2669
(800) 292-3355
www.mercycorps.org

Network for Good
8615 Westwood Center Drive, Suite 1A
Vienna, VA 22182
(866) 650-4636
www.networkforgood.org

Operation USA
8320 Melrose Avenue, Suite 200
Los Angeles, CA 90069
(323) 658-8876
www.opusa.org

Oxfam America
26 West Street
Boston, MA 02111
(800) 77-OXFAM
www.oxfamamerica.org

Plan USA
155 Plan Way
Warwick, RI 02886
(800) 556-7918
www.planusa.org/index.php

Project Concern International
5151 Murphy Canyon Rd, Suite 320
San Diego, CA 92123
(877) PCI-HOPE
www.projectconcern.org

Save the Children USA
Donor Services
54 Wilton Road
Westport, CT 06880
(800) 728-3843
www.savethechildren.org

UNICEF
333 East 38th Street
New York, NY 10016
(800) 4UNICEF
www.unicefusa.org

U.N. World Food Programme
WFP North America Office
Two United Nations Plaza, Room DC 2-2500
New York, NY 10017
(212) 963-8364
www.wfp.org

World Concern
19303 Fremont Avenue North
Seattle, WA 98133
(800) 755-5022
www.worldconcern.org

World Emergency Relief
2270-D Camino Vida Roble
Carlsbad, CA 92009
(760) 930-8001
www.worldemergencyrelief.org

World Relief
7 E. Baltimore Street
Baltimore, MD 21202
(800) 535-5433
www.worldrelief.org

[Juli B.]

Pearita,

Make that two of us who'll be home New Year's Eve! Gave my contrib. thru AmeriCares...'cause we do!

(Sonia--Thanks for compiling the list in one place/post.)

[dell1]

Make that 5 we just passed on our plans and sent $300.00 to;
Doctors Without Borders
333 7th Avenue, 2nd Floor
New York, NY 10001-5004
(212) 679-6800
www.doctorswithoutborders.org

[demiking]

My New Year's Eve plans were paid for well in advance but I also contributed to Americares.

[PHXguy]

A very good website to analyze the effectiveness of a charity organization you are interested in sending the donation to.

website (http://www.charitynavigator.org/)

[zipbow]

I worked on New Year's Day and donated that portion to our company's fund. :)

[bonacera]

Did you here all the TV networks said that they were not going to celebrate the new year as much as last year to remember the Tsunami victims?

And actually, they did. I did not see much of the broadcasts on TV celebrating the New Year. My sister in California also said, except the news channels, she couldn't even see the New Year party at Times' square on TV.

Also, CNN kept showing the Tsunami victims and pleaded for donations along with the candle-lit New Year's Eve in South Asia on New Year's Eve and the New Year's day...

I think everyone is remembering Tsunami victims..

[PHXguy]

A good example on how the donations will be well spent for the victims.

Jerseyan in Thailand taps pals' generosity
Wednesday, January 05, 2005
BY MAURA McDERMOTT
Star-Ledger Staff

At first, those five simple words -- "we are safe and sound" -- were all that mattered to friends of Gus Reynolds, a Morris County high school football standout who ditched a high-stress career in finance to build a resort in Thailand.

But once their fears faded away, Reynolds' friends from Mountain Lakes kept reading his grim e-mails.

The medical facilities in Krabi -- where Reynolds' resort is located -- were barely able to keep up with the crush of patients turned away from storm-ravaged hospitals at nearby Phuket and Phi Phi Island, he wrote on Dec. 27, the day after tsunamis killed thousands of people and destroyed the gems of Thailand's tourism industry.

"If anyone would like to make a donation to the hospitals in Krabi," Reynolds continued, "I can arrange it."

That was all his friends needed to hear.

Just four days after his first e-mail, two childhood friends joined one of the world's newest relief efforts: The Foundation for Krabi Relief, which funds relief work that Reynolds coordinates in daily meetings with Krabi's mayor.

It took just 48 hours to raise $2,500 from friends and colleagues, and the total climbed to almost $3,000 by late yesterday, according to Megan McWilliams and Peter Mills, the Mountain Lakes natives who are helping to lead the fund-raiser.

"We asked what we could do," McWilliams recalled. "He said, 'We need to help the hospital; it's overwhelmed.'"

The effort is so new that the organizers haven't yet arranged for not-for-profit status, which would make donations tax-deductible.

Instead, friends -- and friends of friends -- dash off checks of the most personal sort, made out to a handful of people who promise to do what's right with the funds.

"We originally intended to just e-mail friends and people who know Gus," McWilliams said. "It turns out it's a lot of people, and they're all sharing it, so it's like, 'Wow, it's really becoming something.'"

The effort has a seat-of-the-pants feel to it. But that hasn't stopped donors from writing out checks ranging from $75 to $500.

Even the smallest donations will help, Reynolds said in a telephone interview yesterday.

"If you can imagine, a person can live on a dollar a day," said Reynolds, 47, who opened his hotel, the Lai Thai Resort, nine years ago after a disabling back injury. "You can feed a family for one week with $20."

The needs are almost overwhelming, Reynolds wrote to his friends.

One of the loveliest beaches in the world -- Ao Nang -- has been piled with the remains of those who could not outrun the lethal waves. A local temple became a makeshift morgue. Surviving Thai families have lost their livelihoods.

Reynolds said that donors -- including his family back home -- have already sent $6,000, which he is helping to distribute at the direction of local officials.

Top priority goes to medical facilities, which quickly ran out of medicine and basic supplies, Reynolds said.

Next are the makeshift morgues, which need funds to pay for DNA analysis and computerized record-keeping so that families can account for lost relatives even if they are already buried.

"It's unbelievably distressing for a family not to know (whether a relative has died), especially with the children," said Reynolds, who has an 8-year-old son with his wife, Pat.

Then comes aid to the survivors.

All but six of Krabi's 400 registered "long tail" fishing boats were smashed, robbing local families of their only means of support, said Reynolds, the only foreign member of the Krabi Chamber of Commerce.

The foundation will help rebuild the boats that can be salvaged, he said.

One donor who had already given $500 to the Red Cross took out his checkbook again and donated the same amount to the foundation, said Mills, one of the local fund-raisers, who grew up with Reynolds on Laurel Hill Road in Mountain Lakes.

"When he heard about it, he said, 'Oh, Gus -- I'm going to dig deeper,'" Mills said of the donor. "We all know that Gus is going to do right with it."

For information on how to donate through the Foundation for Krabi Relief, send an e-mail to KrabiThai@purpleink.com or write to The Foundation for Krabi Relief c/o Peter Mills Graphic Design, P.O. Box 81, Mountain Lakes, N.J., 07046.

Maura McDermott is a reporter in the Morris County bureau. She can be reached at mmcdermott@starledger.com or (973) 539-7910.