A lot of people have been asking about our connections in Sri Lanka. I have had numerous reports from our R&D partner, World Relief, from an FM pastor near Kandy who has taken two truckloads of supplies to the coast, from Youth for Christ director, Ajith Fernando, and from Lanka Bible College staff/student teams that have gone out in small assessment groups (my images come from these teams). 
The eight churches which joined the FMC this past summer are not in the affected coastal areas. Most are too small to make any effective response to the needs of the disaster. We already have a team that was planning to go to SL in last Feb. so there will be a number of things that can be done by that team. We are having an assessment meeting this week to determine what kind of practical response we can make to the rebuilding process. I have included an article that I think is very helpful for understanding the best ways to respond in a disaster crisis like this.
One interesting note is that in a number of the affected towns and villages where Christians have been persecuted by rabidly anti-Christian buddhist leaders and groups, these same people are now being sheltered in churches with welcome arms. As Christians once again demonstrate unconditional love, it's possible that goodness and joy may emerge from this disaster.
View from the West - Send cash
Thursday, December 30th, 2004
By JOHN LONGHURST
© 2004 Winnipeg Free Press. All Rights Reserved.
Send cash.
That's the message coming from aid organizations trying to help people affected by this week's terrible tsunami in southeast Asia. No blankets, no clothes, no food -- just cash. That, they say, is the best and most effective way to provide assistance.
At first glance, it seems counter-intuitive. People there need clothing, food and blankets, and we have a surplus of all of those things. Plus, cash is so impersonal. In most cases, it's not even real money at all that changes hands -- just a cheque or a credit-card number typed on the computer or shared over the phone.
But one thing money can do, that material aid can't, is get to the disaster zone quickly. Items like food, clothing and blankets first have to be sorted by volunteers, packed in boxes; loaded in containers, shipped to a port, and then put on a ship. It can be months before the aid arrives overseas, and even then it may sit awhile off-shore as ships await openings in plugged-up ports. And it's expensive, too -- the money used to ship the items could be better spent buying items closer to the disaster.
Cash gives relief agencies the maximum flexibility they need to respond to a disaster. They can use it to buy the things that people need -- their response isn't constrained by what they have on hand. Better yet, they can buy the items locally or in nearby countries, giving an additional economic boost to businesses that are also suffering because of the disaster.
In fact, sending money instead of material aid is a good strategy for helping the world's poor all the time, not just during a disaster. Although it seems like a good idea, sending used clothing, shoes, toys and other items to the developing world often ends up doing more harm than good. Not only does it take a lot of time and money to pack and ship the goods, it hurts businesses in the countries where the aid is sent.
How? Imagine, for a moment, that you own a shoe store in a poor country. Business is tough, but you get by, selling shoes to your neighbours. Then, one day, a group of generous Canadians shows up with a container of shoes. All your neighbours line up for free footwear. Guess what happens to your store? Likely as not, you go out of business, or else you find another line of work while you wait for people to once again need shoes.
It was situations like this that led to creation of one the most successful money-raisers in Canada -- the Mennonite Central Committee thrift stores. In the 1950s and 60s, the agency, like many aid groups, had encouraged people to donate used clothing to help people in need. The demand for used clothing dried up in the 1970s, but not the desire to give it. It caused a big headache for MCC, as warehouses filled up with used clothing that the agency couldn't use.
What was needed, former MCC Executive Director J.M. Klassen once mused, "was a machine where used clothes went in one end and money came out the other." Today, MCC's thrift stores raise millions of dollars across Canada each year for the agency's development and relief programs through the sale of used clothing and other household items.
Like MCC, many other agencies don't send used clothing overseas, and they try to be careful about how many other items they ship. Yet they know that people still like to provide material assistance. It's easy to understand why -- giving clothing, blankets or Christmas boxes is a tangible and personal way to try to help. People can actually touch the items they send overseas and, in some cases, they can even send personal notes.
Even the Canadian government is locked into giving domestic produce when it comes to providing food. It goes back to the 1950s, when food-aid programs for hungry people were seen as a way to help Canadian farmers deal with surpluses. This is still the goal today, despite surpluses that are rarely large -- food aid now takes barely one per cent of Canadian food production. The Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) still requires aid groups wanting to send food overseas to spend 90 per cent of government money on food grown in Canada. The result? Since the groups have to pay more for Canadian food, and then pay to ship it overseas, fewer hungry people get fed.
One local agency, the Canadian Foodgrains Bank, is urging the Canadian government to change this rule. They want CIDA to let them spend up to 50 per cent of government money on food that can be purchased overseas. In a letter to its supporters, the agency says that while "there are still many places where the shipment of Canadian food commodities as food aid makes sense," it wants the flexibility to purchase food in other countries when that is the best way to help.
There may be times when sending material aid overseas is the right thing to do, as when hard-to-obtain medical equipment and medicines are needed. But most of the time it is counter-productive and may actually end up harming the people you want to help.
That's why the best thing you can do to help people in southeast Asia today -- and other needy people around the world tomorrow -- is to send money. As for your used clothing, please take it to a thrift store.
John Longhurst writes on faith for the Free Press and has been involved in international development for 19 years. He lives in Winnipeg.
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