See What’s Out There

It was two years ago today that a massive earthquake in the Indian Ocean created a tidal wave, a tsunami, that killed more than 230,000 people, left millions homeless and heartbroken, instantly created thousands of orphans and destroyed whole communities. Two years later, tens of thousands of people are still living in tents, communities that relied on tourism are fighting for their survival and many people are trying to live with emotional and physical scars that will never heal.

For all the outpouring of support after the tsunami, there is still a lot of work to do. Some of the money funneled to governments and large organizations was not efficiently used and local corruption has taken its toll on getting money where it is needed. And, there is just a huge amount of continuing need.

Consider making an end-of-the-year donation to the American Jewish World Service in support of those communities impacted by the tsunami. AJWS puts their money on the ground with small organizations working directly with the people. These organizations are not on the radar of big philanthropists or NGOs. AJWS also leverages their grants with volunteers. The combination of human and financial resources is the best possible strategy for making a difference.

As one tsunami survivor said, “The waves of compassion that followed are much more powerful than the waves of destruction.” Let’s hope so.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 26th, 2006 at 2:20 pm and is filed under Nonprofits, ajws. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.