WTF is up with the Red Cross anyway?

[BrewerJohn]

I was just listening to Malloy talk about the hard time he and Kathy got from RC people while trying to donate some baby items and such. And we've got something similar going on here.

Mrs. Brewer and I have been gathering stuff all weekend to send via a local business that advertised that they were collecting donated items to send. Yesterday Mrs. B called the business and found that the stuff was going to go via the RC. OK, fine. She called again today and now it seems that RC is no longer accepting "in kind" donations but only cash.

Luckily, she has found another avenue by which we can donate the items which will get to people who are being temporarily resettled in our state. But this is bugging me. Just what is their deal? This just seems like all the "FEMA roadblock" stories we've been reading. Are they corrupt too?

[bushisanidiot]

1. Maybe you can donate your items directly to laura bush.

i'm sure she'll wade through the flood waters to deliver them to the needy katrina victims herself..

when she gets the time

[snot]

2. Here's some info from a DU post that I saved:

For what it's worth. For now, I’m donating to Habitat for Humanity.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x4614839
They've GUTTED the Red Cross -- those are the words of an RC
volunteer instructor of 10 years with whom I'm in contact. Very credible person I know from another joint project. She wants this information out, and I agreed. Please consider nominating and kicking this thread -- as well as adding more info to it -- and I hope to have more info to post to it tomorrow after I have a chance to talk to her again.

I'd also like to ask DUers to consider helping with some research on the Red Cross. PLEASE post your questions and I'll try to get answers for them. Remember, tho, her perspective is quite local, not national, and I can't post anything that could conceivably identify her.

First, a little perspective I dredged up myself:
just sayin': American Red Cross chief is a BIGTIME gop hack
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=132&topic_id=2056654

LOL, talking with the RC Volunteer (RCV hereafter), at one point I interrupted her and said, "So in other words, the RC has gone fascist too." She had to agree.

In a nutshell, this is what has happened to the RC.

After 9-11, they started serious budget cutting, and her local office went from EIGHT fulltime "volunteer Coordinators" down to TWO PARTTIME volunteer coordinators. Services have suffered incredibly as a result. (Like, duh!)

The duties of the volunteer coordinators -- the duties which suffer as a result of these draconian cuts -- include: coordinating disaster relief workers, training for Standard First Aid/CPR (instructors and students), blood donation efforts, etc. FOR THREE WELL POPULATED COUNTIES.

My contact reports that these paid parttime staff are currently working 14 hour days, but things are dropping between the cracks. Of necessity. For example, when RCV asked if they should try to get more people to donate blood, there was a near panicked "Don't do that!" response BECAUSE THERE AREN'T VOLUNTEERS TO TAKE IT. There aren't enough hours to coordinate training and hours, so something has got to give.

Worse, perhaps, the "disaster" training for volunteers to be sent into the field will be taking place next week, purley because they are overworked and understaffed. They will be deployed within 48 hours after that. RCV feels the death count is "the rising death toll is 100% attributable to their inability to respond due to their ongoing budget cuts," tho we also know that in the case of NO, the RC has been kept OUT of there by FEMA ( http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05246/565143.stm and http://dailykos.com/story/2005/9/2/2125/04978 ). There could easily, however, be other areas where the RC could be of critical aid.

RCV also suggests that you call YOUR local RC office and ask them if they'd had any budget and staff cuts lately, and finished by saying, "Your home town might be in bad shape, too."

We see an awful lot of emphasis by this admin on getting contributions to them and it just seems somehow pushed -- there ARE other charities, for example. (FEMA also has Pat Robertson's Operation Blessing on its website, I understand, but I've not heard them pushed in the media).

[wellstone_democrat]

8. what is going on in my part of Texas isn't their shining moment

their "ceo" at the local level came in his pretty suit and had a vol make personal calls about travel to Houston for him. He complained that the people *right out of the water, on a plane and then here without a bath, clothes or even damn food smelled*

The regular vols are territorial and no human need can stand up to "rules" no matter how petty. The "other volunteers" meaning not RC regulars are finding ways around them and let them fight over their color-coded vests and "areas of authority" and that seems to work

Oh, and as we arrived to work o'night last night? The head of the shelter asked us for a donation of cash. That say enough about some of what they are doing in *some* places?

(I won't be here to answer complaints---I'm off to o'night duty. But, I know what I saw, heard and experienced. I don't know what these people are up to anymore. 10 years ago when I vol'd it was a different organization!)

Mr. W_D

[Psephos]

3. RC is not corrupt, but they are a bureaucracy

There are hundreds of other choices if you don't like their style. Generally, the smaller operations are the ones taking in-kind donations.

Peace.

[marbuc]

4. I don't know where you are

but I've heard RC doesn't want to take in-kind donations and have to ship them, when they can buy these items closer to the recipients.

[magellan]

5. Appears to be policy

Financial donations to the Red Cross are the best way to assist victims of disaster. Monetary contributions enable the Red Cross to purchase the most urgently needed items as close to the disaster site as possible. Purchasing near the disaster site ensures supplies get to victims as quickly as possible, without delays and hefty transportation costs. Because communities hit by disasters generally experience significant economic loss, buying goods locally also helps to stimulate the weakened economy by pumping money back into area businesses.

More here: Red Cross: Donate Goods

[Justyce]

6. Our local shelters and churches

taking in evacuees are glad to get any items they can. The RC wants only cash... my theory was that it's easier for the RC to skim money than old clothes, etc... but whatever the reason, you might have more luck donating to churches and shelters.

[mitchtv]

7. since they skim 40%

"in Kind" won't help. They will graciously accept cash , an pass some of it on.

[BrewerJohn]

9. That was my thought

We already gave them cash, and now wonder if it shouldn't have gone somewhere else instead.

All media roads seem to lead to them though. Is my :tinfoilhat: on too tight?

[mitchtv]

10. We have Privatized disaster relief

wouldn't it be easier to go to the Post Office and buy a "disaster"stamp for $10, and have all the money go to a fund? (Stamps for display only)

[bassman79]

11. The Red Cross is a criminal organization

The Red Cross is a criminal organization. They've been caught stealing money from every major fundraising event they've undertaken. DO NOT send them your money. Send it to a real and small charity.

The Red Cross, under the Liberty Fund, collected $564 million in donations after 9/11. Months after the event, the Red Cross had distributed only $154 million. The Red Cross' explanation for keeping the majority of the money was that it would be used to help 'fight the war on terror'. To the victims, this meant that the money was going towards bombing broken backed third world countries like Afghanistan and setting up surveillance cameras and expanding the police state in US cities, and not towards helping them rebuild their lives.

Then Red Cross President Dr. Bernadine Healy arrogantly responded when questioned about the withholding of funds by stating, "The Liberty Fund is a war fund. It has evolved into a war fund."

Despite the family members of victims of 9/11 complaining bitterly to a House Energy and Commerce Committee's oversight panel, the issue seemed to be brushed under the carpet and the mud didn't stick.

The Red Cross' scandalous activities reach back far before 9/11.

After the devastating San Francisco earthquake in 1989, the Red Cross passed on only $10 million of the $50 million that had been raised, and banked the rest.

Similar donations after the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995 and the Red River flooding in 1997 were also greedily withheld.

Insight Magazine reported,

“The first days after the bombing,” says one family member, “people from all over the country were sending checks in lieu of flowers and we were getting a lot of checks and cash every day — hundreds, even thousands, of dollars. Then the Red Cross went down to the post office and made arrangements to collect the mail and they would deliver it to us in bulk. All the mail had been opened, and from that point on there never was a dime, even in letters that said money was enclosed.”

The Red Cross has been caught engaging in rampant corruption on an all too regular basis.

3,000 people died after thousands of Canadians were infected with HIV and hepatitis C from tainted blood supplies.The Canadian Red Cross pleaded guilty to the charges earlier this year after they had been directly caught knowlingly shipping out the infected blood.

Smaller charities that were involved with the 2004 Tsunami relief project went public to say that large charities like Red Cross and United Way were engaged in secret backroom negotiations with each other that meant a large portion of the donation money was purposefully restricted from reaching the most needy areas affected by the disaster.

The history is clear, the Red Cross and other large so-called charities are in actual fact front group collection agencies for the military industrial complex.