Though Mr. Kenny makes valid points in his critique of giving items such as clothing in the name of international charity, his brush gets a bit too broad when he uses it to condemn the entire food aid program of the United States. Certainly that program has its flaws and can be improved, but food from the US keeps many people alive and healthy throughout the world. Today, millions in East Africa rely on food from the US to get them through a horrendous drought. This is not the same as giving people t-shirts. Nor is it "dumping stuff we don't want on people in need." It is giving much needed nutrition to people who have no way else to get it.

To use the Clinton-era mistakes with rice in Haiti -- well-documented and freely admitted by the former president -- to dismiss the entire US food aid program is also misleading at best. That was a specific program that had specific problems with very little relation to, say, the large US food-assisted emergency relief programs that we at Catholic Relief Services are helping to run in countries like Zimbabwe and Ethiopia. At CRS and other humanitarian organizations, we are constantly monitoring the state of local markets and the effect of aid on local production. We also actively support agricultural development around the world to help people escape the poverty trap and end the need for food aid. This is a complicated and long term endeavor, and the approach varies by community. But until nations and communities are capable of feeding themselves, we are glad that the US aid program helps us feed so many hungry people.
William O'Keefe
Senior Director for Advocacy
Catholic Relief Services

Most people who contact CIDI understand that cash donations are preferred by relief agencies but have never heard about the harm that unsolicited material donations can do. Fortunately, the easiest donation to give also does the most good.

Here’s an example: 100,000 liters of clean water hydrate 40,000 people for a day. That amount of water purchased in-country costs about $500. The same amount of water purchased in the US costs about $50,000. But here’s the kicker – transportation expenses, customs fees and delivery charges add between $150,000 and $700,000 to the cost of sending potable water that can be purchased near the disaster site for $500.

Unsolicited material donations – including canned food, bottled water and used clothing – are usually more expensive to transport than they are worth. They clog supply chains, take space needed to stage life-saving relief supplies, and divert relief workers’ time. Managing piles of unsolicited “stuff” adds to the cost of emergency response by forcing changes to distribution plans and requiring disposal at further cost. If released into local markets, these donations can put local merchants out of business, adding economic stress to already fragile conditions.

In stark contrast, besides being the easiest gift for donors to give, monetary contributions to established relief agencies support local merchants and local economies, ensure that commodities are fresh and familiar to survivors, that supplies arrive expeditiously and that goods are culturally, nutritionally and environmentally appropriate. No unsolicited material donation can do as much good as quickly and at such low cost, with so little hassle for donor, recipient and host country.

For more information on effective donations, check out www.cidi.org or find us on Twitter @cidioutreach.

Our surplus goods benefit the user, while sending large sums of money can quickly fall into corrupt hands. Destitute people can always use clothes and food. Even cardboard makes for home building material in some countries.
You can only wear a tee shirt or eat a pop tart..... but money can fund terrorists, the drug culture and such worse evils.
While there are no simple straightforward solutions to poverty, don't stop giving goods America.

While I generally agree with the author, I believe it over simplistic to conclude that the "Send Money, Buy Local" matra is the solution that best fits all situations. Everything depends upon how big the local market is. We have discovered that even in the small quantities we may wish to purchase locally that locals perceive our infinitesimal increase in demand as grounds for greatly increasing the price (law of supply and demand, a bit perverted). To avoid this problem that occurs almost every time, we must go to a major market such as a capital city market and even there need to avoid a perceived increase in demand unless a local mill or other source has a large and an excess supply on hand. At such large markets, the people who profit the most are frequently the rich, the very people who are not at all interested in paying the lowest wage earners a living wage.

So the "Send Money-Buy Local" matra may result in prices that exceed international prices several fold and the amount of work provided lowly nationals may not be great unless only small entrepreneurs are hired to do a very large task.

In closing I what to also mention the fact that donations of GIKs for use in developing nations that come though humanitarian organizations funded by private donations are always a problem for those organizations that are attempting to justify a budget typically funded by governmental agencies or very large foundations because the more that GIKs meet the needs of indigent populations, the more difficult it becomes to justify a given budget/grant/contract request. This then is only understood as a power issue strictly speaking.

MiWorld.com http://www.miworld.com/ is a new-model global storytelling portal that also allows users to one-click appropriate goods and services to story subjects and NGOs around the world. Its targeted user base: the small (median $50) donors responsible for $220 billion in annual charitable giving in the U.S.

MiWorld is not an aid agency, and it was not designed to end world poverty. Its goal is to create a more personal, emotionally-engaging way for people who have access to most of the world's material resources to get to know those who don't.

As this coverage in Kiplinger notes, http://miworld.com/press/Kiplinger_4-10.html, perhaps it's time to use professional-quality, state-of-the-art tech, social media, communications and--yes-- marketing expertise to allow those in the developed world to engage with people in underserved regions without objectifying, dumping unwanted product, or simply throwing money at them.

I work for a company that donates a lot of goods and our policy to do so is that we found that cash can often end up partly in corrupt hands or wasted due to inefficient buyers. Even if we donate cash, the cash is never just given out but instead they are used to buy goods to be given out.

break free

https://www.samaritanspurse.org/index.php/Giving/gift_catalog/

Making a gift that counts this Christmas!

Haiti needs more than just money and more than just throwaway tshirts. The system is obviously broken in Haiti and it needs a complete overhaul from the ground up. There is too much corruption and it trickles down even to the lowest of levels, so until the corruption is cleaned up, do not expect much to have an impact on the conditions of Haiti. It is a sad state of affairs and the earthquake did not help at all, so now that the truth is out there we can start looking at ways to improve the conditions. I would start off by getting the education system improved and teaching the children about ethics and morals, because they make a huge difference in shaping children in what they stand for. There is no need for any g13 money, because this is not a problem that money alone will solve. The problem goes much deeper than just money. That is an easy cop-out, to think that money will save it all. Get some good footage of the lay of the land and interview people with a nikon d800 and then you will have a better chance of showing the world what kind of suffering the Haitians experience on a day to day level, then hopefully this will motivate people to make a difference in Haiti.

This food was reassigned after the earthquake and was used in emergency distributions during the first three months after the January 12th quake in the Port au Prince and Leogane areas through general camp distributions. Additional food was leveraged for the south of the country where it was used in venues and seslichat distribution points designed not to compete with local production. This was mostly through feeding programs in over 200 schools. At that time the population in the south of the country rose by several thousands due to quake IDPs. The school feeding program was geared to address the increased pressure on schools to provide meals to the new influx of students/children from IDP families.