Disaster Relief

After responding to 30 mid-size disasters in the past 2 months, the national Red Cross disaster fund is depleted, and the organization is taking out loans to pay for Midwest flood relief.

The Web is making it vastly easier to coordinate large-scale disaster relief and pandemic response efforts. USAID's interactive map shows many of the NGOs working to prevent the next bird flu or SARS crisis.

I have been getting updates from my parents, and they are doing well. My mom traveled to and from ChengDu safely, and she is now back in Shanghai.

Stephen DeAngelis writes about the recent rise of individual giving in China. He argues that this is a promising sign for Chinese society because it indicates rising quality of life and participation in civil society.

As many of you have already heard, there was a 7.9 earthquake in China Monday morning (their afternoon). It was a big enough earthquake that people in Shanghai (a city 1000 miles away) felt it. Imagine an earthquake happening in Denver, CO and people in Los Angeles feeling it. Currently, Yahoo!

Over 100,000 may have died from Cyclone Nargis, which struck Myanmar on May 2. Donations to World Vision will provide the estimated 2 million displaced victims with necessities of life.

In 1994, Heidi and Rolland Baker arrive in Mozambique amidst the hard times following the Mozambique Civil War. Even the Red Cross trucks were not safe and were bombed. Before coming to Mozambique, Heidi and Rolland worked as missionaries in Indonesia and China. After hearing about the conditions in Mozambique, they decided to go there and work with the poorest of the poor. They make a difference by adopting a dilapidated orphanage. The children had all kinds of diseases and sometimes even ate rats to survive. Heidi and Rolland began caring for the children, educating and feeding them.

asin: B0002JAP54 binding: DVD list price: $19.99 USD amazon price: $19.99 USD