(ABP) — If you want to help tsunami victims, money is better than supplies, disaster-relief leaders say.
It is costlier to ship items overseas when the same supplies can be bought drastically cheaper in the country where relief workers are serving, experts say.
It costs $10,000 to ship 800 pounds — say, 800 bottles of water — to Mozambique, noted Leo Smith, executive director of Texas Baptist Men.
Monetary contributions can get to the field faster than supplies and stimulate devastated economies when purchased in the affected countries, said David Harding, the international coordinator for emergency response for the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. “Cash is something we can use in country that we do not have to transport over borders, so we avoid shipping delays. It makes it a lot easier.”
In addition to stimulating the region's economy, local purchases ensure cultural appropriateness, particularly in regards to food. “We're buying food the people are used to eating. It's more palatable to them,” Harding said. Relying too heavily on global shipments of food can be dangerous in the long run if survivors become dependent on outside aid. “These emergency supplies are just temporary. We want to get them back into their own production systems as soon as we can,” Harding said.
Food being purchased in the tsunami-stricken areas are helping to restart area farming businesses, Harding said. Monetary contributions also give missionaries “flexibility to determine what the greatest needs are,” said Barbara Baldridge, CBF Global Missions acting coordinator. “We can assure donors that 100 percent of funds will go to relief.”
Texas Baptist Men will buy all the food it serves in Sri Lanka, as well as some cooking supplies.
Among the items most frequently being bought for tsunami relief are basic hygiene kits, food and utensils, water purifying tablets, supplies for shelters housing survivors, generators, cooking burners, pumps and transformers.
One exception to the buy-local rule is water purification systems, most of which are being purchased and shipped from outside. Each costs about $7,500 plus $3,000 to ship.
Approximately $28,531 had been donated online to the CBF's Asian response fund as of Jan. 6. More than $300,000 had been contributed online through the International Mission Board.