An open letter to the Afropop Worldwide community
From APWW Executive Producer, Sean Barlow
About the Tsunami Disaster Relief Efforts

I urge the Afropop Worldwide community to do whatever we can as individuals, as employees of companies and NGO's, and as community leaders to aid the tsunami victims in Asia.

We're all reeling from the enormity and sadness of this catastrophe as we hear the latest reports of the mounting death toll, see images of mothers wailing over their dead children, and hope against hope that the worst predictions of the onslaught of deadly infectious diseases in the days and weeks to come do not come true. The suffering is gut-wrenching.

The immediate pressing needs, health experts say, are for clean drinking water, sanitation health care facilities, medicine, shelter and food. The longer term implications are dire too as tourist and fishing and other industries have been wiped out. That portends increased poverty and suffering. The head of US AID said on PBS' Newshour last night that it will take the hardest hit countries at least five years to fully recover.

What to do? I'm sure we are all in our own way being as generous as we can in supporting the relief organizations which are already in motion. But the incredible scale of the loss means the disaster victims will need the world's support beyond the duration of headline attention (the fall-off in support of victims of the massive quake in Iran a year ago, as reported on Morning Edition today, is case in point).

Some suggestions, which many of you are probably doing already:

1. Donate whatever you can to your choice of leading disaster relief organizations i.e. Red Cross/Crescent, Doctors Without Borders, etc. (Click for More Info)
2. Rally your friends, colleagues, business associations and primary community networks you belong to through e-Newsletters, e-mails, web sites etc. to be as generous as possible, providing them links to the top relief organizations.
3. Ask your employer to match your donation. Or tell your employees that you will match their contributions (capped at whatever individual or combined level) to relief organizations you have confidence in.
4. Rally your friends and colleagues to "express your opinion" to your government about the scale and scope of the federally funded disaster response.

(For Afropop's part, our organization witll match contributions made by our staff and give the funds to the Red Cross/Red Crescent and to Doctors Without Borders.)

 Some suggestions for your company, industry, etc:

•  In the spirit of creating the greatest multiplier effect possible, set a collective goal for funds donated by your company, organization, network of friends, industry group. Collect that information about total contribution donations made to relief organizations' disaster relief funds and then spread the news in terms such as "X company/industry group/etc. has given XX dollars to disaster relief organizations targeting the tsunami disaster". Then take that information and/or the strategy of this very process, and share with simpatico organizations and companies. Consider making a pitch to Fortune 500 corporations, vendors, or a major foundation that already supports you and ask them to match the total out of their discretionary funds.

Other ideas? Go to this topic in Community Discussion Forum to share your ideas, success stories, questions, etc. with the Afropop community.

The most valuable asset we have are personal and professional relationships. In this time of great need when we hope human compassion and generosity will outshine the divisions and hatreds raging in the world, let's inspire others with our example. With our actions and not mere words.

Below are some relief organizations' web sites we list on afropop.org: