ABC News is reporting on the overall NGO Haiti relief response, particularly focusing on how donations raised to-date have been spent. The online version is already up, and you can read it here:
http://abcnews.go.com/WN/things-stand-us-charity-donations-haiti/story?id=9786221
ABC reached out to 23 US-based NGOs for detailed information on funds raised, funds spent to date, and impact of those funds. Although a critical piece, World Vision is mentioned as the NGO which provided the most information about our work. Since you may have and/or receive questions about how we're working in Haiti, below are some answers that we hope are helpful - and thanks so much for all you do!
1. How much has World Vision already raised?
As of February 5, World Vision has raised about $24.7 million in cash, plus gifts-in-kind, in the U.S. World Vision’s global partnership has raised about $77 million in private donations and public grants, as well as additional in-kind donations.
2. How much have you already spent on what?:
Even before this earthquake struck, World Vision was prepared with relief supplies in-country, allowing us to respond quickly when the earthquake hit. Below are some estimated cumulative numbers reflecting what has already been spent. It is important to note that our response on the ground is dynamic and these numbers will continue to change. World Vision expects to spend $30 million within the first 90 days of the response (roughly mid-April).
a. Shelter and non-food relief supplies:
$6 million
b. Water relief and sanitation:
$1 million
c. Child protection efforts:
$300,000
d. Health:
$200,000
e. Food relief:
$500,000 + 1,766 MT of donated food commodities
d. Operations (i.e. transport, security, admin, etc)
$700,000
3. How much has not yet been committed to a specific relief project (kept on hand for future needs)?
All funds raised will be used for Haiti relief and rebuilding efforts, which will take years, not months. Some of the funding will be used to replenish relief supplies that had already been pre-positioned in Haiti for immediate disaster response. While some of the remaining funding will be used to continue to distribute emergency food and supplies, much of it will be used for longer-term recovery and rebuilding efforts.
This is common for large-scale disaster response efforts by reputable NGOs. For example, for the Asia tsunami response, World Vision spent approximately 40 percent of its response budget in the first year of its multi-year relief and recovery response. This approach had largely favorable responses and allowed World Vision to build back better in the communities where it worked.
Once communities are stabilized, our staff will work alongside the United Nations as well as government and private agencies to assess what the long-term needs are for housing, education, infrastructure, health-care and other response sectors.
We have continued to work fast and effectively to reach hundreds of thousands of people with life-saving food and emergency supplies. However in order to make sure that every dollar spent works for long-term change, we must couple immediate relief with training, networking and community-based assessments.
For example, in order to reach 400,000 people with rice over two weeks in some of the poorest areas of Port-au-Prince, we got to know community leaders in those areas, registering the most vulnerable and ensuring transparency and accountability in our distribution. We worked with radio stations to broadcast child protection messages and trained distribution staff in child protection and humanitarian principles.
By taking that time, we were able to ensure that we were reaching the most vulnerable people in the community, and that we were carrying out the distribution in a way that preserved people’s – especially children’s – safety.
Over the past week alone, assessment staff have spoken to 600 families (representing about 3,000 people) in Port-au-Prince and four areas of the country to identify the urgent needs on the ground. We are working to understand the challenges and opportunities in worst-affected areas so we can design our program in response to the reality on the ground.
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